During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, Anne received a diary as
one of her presents on her 13th birthday. She began to write in it on June 14,
1942, a month before going into hiding with her father Otto, her mother Edith,
her older sister Margot, and another family, Hermann van Pels, his wife
Auguste, and their teenage son Peter. The group went into hiding in the
sealed-off upper rooms of the annex of her father's office building in
Amsterdam. The rooms were concealed behind a hidden door. With the assistance
of a group of Otto Frank's trusted colleagues, they remained hidden for two
years and one month.
This is the climate the book was written in. Anne knew that if her
family was captured by the Nazis, they too would be sent away to a camp for
death. However, she managed to keep her eyes on the business of growing up and
looking for the good in human beings. They were betrayed in August 1944, which
resulted in their deportation to Nazi concentration camps. Of the group of
eight, only Otto Frank survived the war. Anne died in Bergen-Belsen from typhus
in early March, about two weeks before the prisoners were liberated by British
troops in April 1945.
During the story, we can see the way Anne describes all the aspects of
her life as her relationship with her family: she was very close to her father
and so distanced from her mother; she
felt she had nothing in common with her, and
a very detailed description of her sister's intelligence and easy going
personality. As a patron of her character (she was very demanding and absolutely
sure about what she wanted and how she wanted), she didn’t like the others initially,
particularly Auguste van Pels and Fritz Pfeffer. However, she and Peter became
very close, though she remained uncertain in what direction their relationship
would develop.
The
book is a short summary of all the sufferings and fears faced by Jewish during
the Nazi's Holocaust, but specially from a very young girl's point of view.
Changing her life, her way to face and enjoy it, getting an extraordinary
adaptation due to conditions. It gives a wide perception of how this kind of
situations can build a vibrant and brilliant artist and also, how love can help
to forget all the horror outside.
The
author, Anne, shows herself able to write about all the experiences and
emotions she goes through during her time in this small space. She keeps the
reader interested in the possible stories she is close to live and trying to be
in her place... It means, trying to image how would be the reader's reaction if
he had to left everything, the school, his friend, his freedoom, to live in a
cold, unknown and little place just with the company of his family and some
people coming and going?
.
My first experience to the book, was a successful moment in my reading process in high school. It is the only one from the author: the Anne Frank's Diary is an autobiographical book by Anne Frank, written during the years were the toughest times of World War II in Europe. After the war ended, Otto Frank (Anne's father) returned to Amsterdam, he finds the diary through the papers left by the Gestapo in the secret annex. At first, Otto Frank circulated her diary among his friends and relatives as a memorial, but a Dutch university professor urged him to publish the book. It was first published in Holland in 1947. Since then it has been translated into thirty-one languages.
My first experience to the book, was a successful moment in my reading process in high school. It is the only one from the author: the Anne Frank's Diary is an autobiographical book by Anne Frank, written during the years were the toughest times of World War II in Europe. After the war ended, Otto Frank (Anne's father) returned to Amsterdam, he finds the diary through the papers left by the Gestapo in the secret annex. At first, Otto Frank circulated her diary among his friends and relatives as a memorial, but a Dutch university professor urged him to publish the book. It was first published in Holland in 1947. Since then it has been translated into thirty-one languages.
I
totally recommend this book as a second level reader tool, useful in many
subjects: it could improve his knowledge in language but also, it is a very
good way to learn about the humanity, taking into account a sad period of
history becoming it into an accessible and real situation
