I confess to feeling slightly voyeuristic while reading this. It was constantly in the back of my mind that this was no ordinary novel, or even a true-to-life account. This was someone’s diary. Every page written in confidence, each word revealing the thoughts closest to the heart of this young girl. As a journal-keeper myself, I sometimes find myself wondering, “What if someone else were to read this?” which causes me to wonder how much to filter my words. But then, isn’t the purpose of a diary or journal just the opposite? To record one’s honest and unfiltered thoughts? While reading Anne Frank – The Diary of a Young Girl I do not get the sense that there is any such ‘filtering’ going on. From the ages of 12-15 Anne lived an extraordinary life, and quickly grew far beyond her years in her understanding and handling of a horrendous situation.
There are surprises in this book. No matter how broad or limited your understanding of the world events that threw Anne and her family into a life in hiding, I had – before reading this – held the general assumption that, “Well, it was wartime. They were in hiding for their lives. They must have been miserable all the time. Who could possibly find anything good or redeeming in the confines of such a life?” In hindsight, of course, I have had to reconsider. I found bits of beauty, kindness, and even humour popping up in the most unexpected places. And why shouldn’t I? Aren’t our lives much the same? Oh – we’re not dodging bombs and trying to sleep to the sound of gunfire (at least not in Canada). But we, each of us, are often faced with some sort of tragedy or travesty. Sometimes we may have an entire ‘bad year’, or longer. And yet, doesn’t the buoyancy of the human spirit always shine through? It is really tough work to be miserable 24 hours a day. No matter how difficult or challenged our day-to-day life, we all have those little pockets of joy that arise, and sometimes it is those tiny occurrences that make the rest of it bearable.
On a personal level, I found myself comparing Anne’s childhood to that of my parents. After all, she was only a year younger than my Mom and Dad. I think back to stories they’ve told from their teen years, and it boggles the mind to think that at the exact moment my Dad and his brothers were tipping a cow, Anne was in hiding on the other side of the world. At a time when my mother was discovering make-up, Anne was realizing that life would never again be so youthful, so joyous and carefree as before the war. A generation was losing its innocence, but in very different ways.
I would recommend Anne Frank – The Diary of a Young Girl to absolutely everyone, for I believe that it holds some truth or enlightenment for everyone. I do not own this copy – it was borrowed from my daughter’s school library. She will be reading it next. She is 10. And you can bet that before long I will purchase my own copy, for I will be reading it again someday soon.
Anne Frank Why do we write reviews?
You have a lot of reasons I guess.
But for this review there is only one. I am writing this for my conscience.
Ever since I have rated this book, I always end up asking myself that, have I rated it with something it deserved or was it just out of sympathy (some call it pity vote)?
Reading other reviews (although most people just rate it and proceed) posed me with many other questions and also gave me idea of what people generally think about her and her diary.
So I’m going to start with-
DO WE DESERVE to review or even rate this book diary?
Yes it is a diary not a book. And aren’t diary meant to be something personal? Yes they are, but it was Anne's wish to get her diary published and she even went on to fictionalize the diary by changing names.
When I started this book I knew how it would end and who doesn’t! I had the least of the expectation, knowing that she was 13 years old but she just surprised me by the outlook she carried of life. She thought and wrote over few such things that didn’t occur to my mind until I read it but have applied throughout my life.
She at times made me laugh, at times made me feel sad. If she felt something, her writing definitely made me experience it and thus she overcame my expectation by large margin.
I have read in lot of review that her thoughts were way ahead of her age.
Of course they were, difficult conditions make you mature and responsible, but there were also other people living under the same roof and in same condition, the suffering had even effect on them. I remember the letter exchange between two sisters, at that point after reading Margot’s letter, for the first time I realised Anne was still child among them.
Some say she could visualize herself and her thoughts and actions from different perspective and thus realise her fault.
The thing with diary is that it is a lopsided view of the events. She would write her thoughts and what she wrote of others were her interpretation of them.....I have it in my mind but can’t put it in words and why should I! Does it matter what kind of girl was she? 'NO’ from me.
Last thing that occur to me is that many people found it uninteresting and tiresome.
I liked it, it couldn’t get any better. I mean they were in hiding for their life in a same house for two years without even opening the window; they were not solving murder mystery. I remember that when I was halfway through the book, I would every now and then turn to the last diary entry and count the days that remained. I felt very sad and depressed and it would have been the last thing to occur to me that it was uninteresting; I was just taken by her wish to see the outside world again, feel the fresh wind and to go to school, but...
This is not a book to enjoy much; we read it to gain the insight of hardships that people had to go through during this holocaust. Through this book she give us best view of the worst of the world. No one has ever benefitted from war; all it gives is pain and misery.
All this being said there is nothing to review the book, but accept it as written account of the vices of the war.
The worst question that seemed to have been slapped across my face was: Would this book have meant the same if Anne had survived the holocaust and lived to become old? Would it have been famous as it is now?
Well she didn’t survived and with her ended answer to this question and no one can bring her back.
Anne Frank My intention of writing a review for this book is to tell all the negative reviewers to SHUT UP! I am all for everyone's right to express their opinion but I read a few of the '1 star' reviews and I was shocked to read what a few people had to say about this book. Before making an opinion I suggest people to keep a few things in mind:
1. This is someone's DIARY not a book meant to entertain people. If you think it was boring then answer me, how many interesting things can you possibly do locked up in a place for 3 years??
2. For those who comment on the writing-
This is a 14year old's diary!! She didn't write it with the intention of winning the pulitzer.
3.For those who commented on her ideologies or how nazism is portrayed.
Hello!! She was 14!!! And maybe..just maybe its justified to think the way she does considering she LIVED it unlike so many of us who get to sit back on our comfortable sofas and critically analyze every XYZ thing in the world.
I believe no one has the right to 'review' much less criticize a written document of a 14 year old's life who made it through the worst of circumstances and through difficulties we cannot even imagine to live through.
Its a pity some people think the way they do.
EDIT 27th Sep, 2013:
I never imagined I would garner so many likes for this review. This only means that a lot of people are emotional about this book and take negative reviews as a personal insult. I wrote this review in a very emotionally charged mind frame. A year later, now that I am older, wiser and more mature, I realise I could have used fewer exclamation marks. :P
EDIT 24th Sep, 2020:
It's been 8 years since I wrote this! I am definitely, older, wiser and more mature. And so, I would like to point out, that I do regret the explosive SHUT UP in my review, no scratch that, in my rant. I guess such is life when you are young- angry & angsty. It's amazing though that despite the angry tonality, there is so much love pouring in the comments section! Thanks y'all. I shall continue my attempt to grow wiser as I grow older.
PS: Time for a re-read? Anne Frank If only Anne Frank's diary was the figment of someone's imagination. If it meant that this spirited, intelligent and articulate girl hadn't died along with so many others in Belsen concentration camp, and that the holocaust had never happened, that would be a wonderful thing, but it did happen, and that makes the reading of this diary even more heartbreaking.
For a 13 year old girl, Anne was so articulate - the way she expresses her thoughts and feelings about herself and others is remarkable. She's able to analyse herself in a particularly honest way, her abilities, failures, weaknesses.
As Jews in Nazi occupied Holland, Anne and her parents and sister Margot, had to flee their home in Amsterdam to escape capture. From 1942 - 1944 they occupy rooms in an old office building, which they call 'The Secret Annexe'. Anne's diary details daily life within the confines of their safe house. They share the rooms with another couple and their teenage son and also with a former dentist. As can be expected, there were many disagreements, living in such close proximity to others, and even within their own families. Just a few of the office staff knew about The Secret Annexe, and these are the people who kept them supplied with food, but given the fact that everything was rationed due to the war, things became a bit fraught at times. The alternative however, didn't bear thinking about.
In August 1944, Anne's diary suddenly becomes silent. No more words will be written in its pages. Someone had betrayed them to the Nazis and they were arrested and transported to various concentration camps. The diary was left behind and was found by the office cleaner. After being interned in two concentration camps, Anne and her sister Margot were finally sent to Bergen-Belsen where they both died - Anne was just 15 years old. Only Otto Frank (the girls' father) survived, and the diary was returned to him.
This is one of those books where a silence descends on finishing it. How do you write a review? How do you do it justice? I honestly don't know. All I can think is, what a great contribution Anne would have made to an ugly world if she'd lived, her ambition was to be a writer, and yet, even in death, she HAS made a contribution by allowing us to share those two years in hiding with her, and giving us a chance to see what a beautiful soul she was. Feel so sad right now. Anne Frank
Riches, prestige, everything can be lost. But the happiness in your own heart can only be dimmed; it will always be there, as long as you live, to make you happy again.
I'm not sure if I can review this book properly. I started a few times before, but, it is just too difficult...I really wish I had skipped the Afterward section and read it sometime after. I don't recall being this sad after reading a book...
Memories mean more to me than dresses.
I once asked Margot if she thought I was ugly. She said that I was cute and had nice eyes. A little vague, don't you thing?
From the very start, I found the style of writing to be very captivating, which could be hugely attributed to the fact that everything is completely genuine. As this was never intended to be shared with others, Anne does not hold back when it comes to confiding all her feelings, experiences and expectations in her ever trustworthy journal - Kitty.
I've been taking valerian every day to fight the anxiety and depression, but it doesn't stop me from being even more miserable the next day. A good hearty laugh would help better than ten valerian drops, but we've almost forgotten how to laugh.
Despite all my theories and efforts, I miss - every day and every hour of the day - having a mother who understands me.
In my opinion, one of the key ways this book can help all readers is by enhancing everyone's ability to empathize, not just with a teenager. Anne's experiences shine a special light on how much children suffer, due to them not being able to freely communicate or confide in others. One might say that it's just how it is with teenagers, and they'll grow out of it, but Anne's own statements contradict that - at least to an extent. When she revisits some of her earlier entries, though she regrets the fact that she feels much anger toward her mother, she never recovers completely, or finds it possible to completely forgive her. She still holds some contempt for not been able to make herself herd by her mother.
I do my best to please everyone, more than they'd ever suspect in a million years.
I soothe my conscience with the thought that it's better for unkind words to be down on paper than for Mother to have to carry them around in her heart.
I continued to sit with the open book in my hand and wonder why I was filled with so much anger and hate that I had to confide it all to you.
It's heartbreaking to see how she suffered, when she dreamt of her friends and grandmother, and the way she kept it all together in the midst of all other difficulties. Even an adult would have had a hard time under similar circumstances. But for a child... and thousands of others who went through similar devastations...
I was very sad again last night. Grandma and Hanneli came to me once more. Grandma, oh my sweet Grandma. How lonely Grandma must have been, in spite of us. You can be lonely even when you're loved by many people,
And Hanneli? Is she still alive? What's she doing? Dear God, watch over her and bring her back to us. Hanneli, you're a reminder of what my fate might have been. I keep seeing myself in your place.
If I didn't say something of some of the happy memories, it will be unfair to the book. Because, even when you take away the fact that everything in this book is genuine, the style of writing - especially for an 13 year old girl - is beyond amazing. The first half of the books is going to keep you laughing, for Anne relates the day-to-day events in such an amusing way. Most readers will find the series of events to be an emotional rollercoaster. It's amazing how well she manages to record everything, relating them to people, time of day, her own feelings and many more.
Upstairs it sounds like thunder, but it's only Mrs. van D's bed being shoved against the window so that Her Majesty, arrayed in her pink bed jacket, can sniff the air through her delicate little nostrils.
A few nights ago I was the topic of discussion, and we all decided I was an ignoramus.
Dearest Kitty, Pim is expecting the invasion any day now. Churchill has had pneumonia, but is gradually getting better. Gandhi, the champion of Indian freedom, is on one of his umpteenth hunger strikes.
Gandhi is eating again.
You've known for a long time that my greatest wish is to be a journalist, and later on, a famous writer.
Yes, she would've been an amazing writer. In fact, she already has become one. How cruel it is that the hopes and dreams of millions get destroyed because of the thoughtless actions of a few.
We still love life, we haven't yet forgotten the voice of nature, and we keep hoping, hoping for...everything.
All I can hope is that she kept the hope kindled till the end and never gave up. Anne Frank
Todos conhecem a história profundamente dramática da jovem Anne Frank. Publicado pela primeira vez em 1947, por iniciativa de seu pai, o diário veio revelar ao mundo o que fora, durante dois longos anos, o dia-a-dia de uma adolescente condenada a uma voluntária auto-reclusão, para tentar escapar à sorte dos judeus que os alemães haviam começado a deportar para supostos campos de trabalho. Tentativa sem final feliz. Em Agosto de 1944, todos aqueles que estavam escondidos no pequeno anexo secreto onde a jovem habitava foram presos. Após uma breve passagem por Westerbork e Auschwitz, Anne Frank acaba então por ir parar a Bergen-Belsen, onde vem a morrer em Março de 1945, a escassos dois meses do final da guerra na Europa.
Traduzido em 67 línguas, este documento excepcional, de que a Livros do Brasil se orgulha de lançar agora a edição definitiva, vendeu já mais de 31 milhões de exemplares e é, seguramente, um dos livros mais lidos, discutidos e amados de toda a história do mundo. Importa acrescentar que esta edição definitiva contém toda uma série de passos que haviam sido omitidos por decisão do pai, que não tinha querido que alguns comentários de Anne Frank relativos à mãe fossem divulgados. O resultado final é um retrato extraordinário de uma adolescente em busca da sua identidade, durante um dos mais trágicos períodos jamais vividos pela humanidade. O Diário de Anne Frank
Het Achterhuis: Dagboekbrieven 12 juni 1942 - 1 augustus 1944 = The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank
The Diary of a Young Girl, also known as The Diary of Anne Frank, is a book of the writings from the Dutch language diary kept by Anne Frank while she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.
The family was apprehended in 1944, and Anne Frank died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945.
The diary was retrieved by Miep Gies, who gave it to Anne's father, Otto Frank, the family's only known survivor, just after the war was over. The diary has since been published in more than 60 languages. ...
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز دوازدهم ماه اکتبر سال 2001میلادی
عنوان: خاطرات یک دختر جوان؛ نویسنده آن فرانک؛ مترجم شیوا رویگریان؛ تهران، میلادی، 1370؛ چاپ دوم 1372؛ در 318ص؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان آلمان - سده 20م
عنوان: آن فرانک - خاطرات یک دختر جوان؛ نویسنده: آن فرانک؛ مترجم: رویا طلوع؛ در 327ص؛ ای.بوک
خاطرات یک دختر جوان؛ نویسنده: آنه فرانک؛ ترجمه از هلندی بی.ام مویارت - دابلدی؛ مقدمه از النر روزولت؛ مترجم سمانه پرهیزکاری؛ تهران، انتشارات میلکان، 1396؛ در 340ص؛ شابک 9786008812548؛
عنوان: خاطرات یک دختر جوان؛ نویسنده: آنه فرانک؛ مترجم ناصر عظیمی؛ با مقدمه النور روزولت؛ ویرایش احمد علیپور؛ تهران، تمدن علمی، سال1399؛ در 336ص؛ شابک 9786226310840؛
عنوان: خونهی پشتی؛ نویسنده: آنه فرانک؛ برگردان الهام دلاور؛ برگردان از متن انگلیسی ریچاردو کلاراونیستون؛ ویراستار محمدرضا مدنیبجنوردی؛ تهران، نشر جغد، 1397؛ در 375ص؛ شابک 9786009554912؛
عنوان: دفترچه خاطرات آنافرانک؛ نویسنده آنا فرنک؛ برگردان سعید گودرزی؛ تهران، بدرقه جاویدان؛ 1395؛ در 256ص؛ شابک9786005381122؛
یادمانهای «آن فرانک»، یادداشتهای روزانه ی یک دختر نوجوان «یهودی» است، که در تابستان سال 1942میلادی، در بحبوحه ی جنگ جهانگیر دوم، در وحشت از نازیها، مجبور شد همراه با اعضای خانواده اش، در شهر «آمستردام»، به زندگی پنهانی روی آورند؛ به مدت دو سال «آن»، و پدر و خواهرش، با چهار «یهودی» دیگر، در آن پنهانگاه به سر بردند؛ «آن»، یادمانهای خویش را در دفترچه ای، یادداشت میکرد؛ سرانجام نازیها، همه ی آنها را دستگیر، و روانه ی اردوگاههای مرگ کردند؛ از آن هشت نفر، تنها پدر «آن فرانک»، جان سالم به در برد، و در پایان جنگ، یادمانهای دخترش را منتشر کرد؛
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 29/05/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 07/05/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی Anne Frank Honestly, I just can't do it. I can't bring myself to finish the book. Ive tried three times already, and each time I have been forced to put it aside. Books and film about the Holocaust are fascinating, but not this one. Unfortunately, I was not engaged and found I couldn't care less.
I'll have to try it again in a few years.
On the up side, I firmly believe that Anne Frank, had she survived the war, would have grown up to be a marvelous, best selling writer. At the age of 13 her words are better than that of many modern day, famous authors.
Anne Frank Maybe the first thing that most people would get shocked is that I rate with only 3 stars one of the best selling books of the 20th century (and now 21st century too) and even more, a book about the Holocaust.
First thing that I learned about this book is honesty.
Anne Frank teaches us all about honesty, about telling what you really think, and so I am doing the same.
For starters, I wonder how many people really, I mean REALLY read the book, because to rate with 5 stars a famous book that everybody tells you that it's a book that all people should read, and then they got in this commnunity for readers and maybe they feel the compromise to make the rest to think that you really read the book.
If not the case, hey, I don't see why anyone can be offended by this comment, and it's true, I don't see either anyone who will complain, since to me it would be only a defense mechanism behind their own guilt of really not reading the book but making the rest that they did.
I didn't think about this scenario but commenting about other thing with a reader friend, that thought stuck in my mind.
I invested so much time in that because, one has to be honest, the book is tedious since it's not really a novel, it's a collection of diary writings without a coherent line of constructing a story, even you need editors' further notes to know what happened to the people in the Secret Annex since obviously, Anne was unable to tell the final events.
So, since it's so tedious, I wouldn't be surprised that some reader tried to read it but at the end they just rated with 5 stars to denote that they are cultured readers that they appreciate the book as one of the most important books of the 20th century.
Between the passages, you learn a lot of things. The first thing that surprised me it's how this diary collection that it was written in the 40's, in Holland, by a teenage girl, almost anybody can relate to the comments and you don't feel them as outdated.
Sometimes if you read an old book, you sensed the outdated of the prose, selection of words, etc... but here I didn't feel it. This diary could be easily being written in present time and I don't think that it would change at all. I think that it was one of its strengths since I am sure that it will be as relevant for many more time.
Other thing that surprised me a lot was how much Anne Frank (and by association, the rest of the group in the Secret Annex) were informed about the events in the war, I know, they had a radio, but from stuff that I had read about WWII, there were certain elements of the information that people weren't aware.
I mean, at many moments, they denote a certainty that Jewish people were murdered in the extermination camps, of course if you call them extermination camps, of course you know that people got killed there, but that's a term used by me, now, they called them labor camps, and so far I read, Jewish people really thought that they will receive baths when they were really gassed or burned to death, and it's kinda logical thing since if they were so certained about their deaths, there would be riots on the ghettos to flee in mass and they wouldn't march without protest to the gas chambers and the ovens. Even, Allied forces used espionage methods to know from Nazi prisoners what was happening to the Jewish people on the camps.
Anyway, also, there are elements like the assasination attempt to Hitler that they were aware that it was made by their own generals. I don't think that kind of stuff would be informed so easily since it was a clear fact of how divided was the opinions of the high ranking staff of the Third Reich.
I am not saying that the diary is not authentic as some dumb people commented that the Holocaust didn't happen.
The Holocaust happened.
It was real and we never forget that to avoid that it would happen again. I am just commenting that surprised me how well they were informed about key sensitive info of war events taking in account that they were a bunch of people living hidden for like 3 years in an isolated annex of a building.
I know, they got visits by the people that helped them but even so. I am not questioning its authenticity, just expressing my surprise when I read it. There were other things here and there that I was surprised by the use of terms like diet: low fat, geez! I didn't know that in the 1940's they used terms like that in the 1980's were like the rush of healthy food, but again, I supposed it's the effect that stuff that we think are new, they are just recycled and labeled as new.
I am amazed that this book is banned in some schools, okay, there are comments relating to sex and sexual preferences, but so what? If a teenage girl from the 1940's can think about stuff like that while she was isolated with a war outside, don't you think that teenagers of today can think just the same?
I think that books like this one can help them to know that they are not alone, that they are not weird for thinking things like that, that was normal in the 1940s and it's normal now too.
I was amazed that the group tried to live normal, I mean, kids making school work and so. I think that in such extraordinary circumstances, they needed to do extraordinary things like to make circles and to talk in group and hearing all about topics. I mean, they were like trapped and living together, really too close in the sense of physical space and yet, nobody cares about what Anne thinks or what she has to offer? Geez! Sure, they need to be really still and in silence, usually at day, but they should like making a tribe, I don't know, I am babbling, but to try to live like regular families was evidently wrong for the sanity of their interrelationships.
What didn't surprised me were behaviors like trying to hide food or keeping money from the group. In times where the group work were essential to survive, the human selfishness risen as a second nature.
Resumming, I just want to explain that my rating is based on my entertaining experience while reading the book and the format of the book itself.
And this didn't have to do with my respect for the subject of the Holocaust and its terrible events.
Anne Frank There really isn’t anything I can add that many other reviews haven’t already done. It’s a five star read because it is important, because it is real and because the holocaust is something we should never forget. Anne Frank It happened. That thing, the reason I have put off reading this, happened. My heart broke. And I knew it would. Sure, I had heard of Anne Frank, I knew who she was, what she did, what happened. She is a historic figure, and a tragic one certainly. But I didn't make the really personal connection until I read her words, this diary. Her words bring her to life again. What a precocious young girl, so smart, so full of life; a life with so much promise, so much hope. She thinks, even writes, very much like a young girl would today. I think that's why so many young people feel a connection with her still. It's not a great work of literature. It can be tedious at times, even repetitive. But it's an important contribution to history. It tells a story that needs to be told again and again, not forgotten. Yes, Anne's words do give her life, and they will break your heart. But more importantly they resonate across time and around the world, and I expect they always will. Anne Frank
Free download O Diário de Anne Frank
