The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Anne’s Frank’s diary is arguably the best-known memoir of all time. It’s been read by millions worldwide, and the Amsterdam house where Anne wrote it as a teenager caught up in the turmoil of the Second World War is among Europe’s top visitor attractions. Moreover, the book is taught in schools right around the world and held up as an example of one young girl’s courage in the face of brutality and as a key eyewitness account of the evils of the Nazi regime.
Annelies Marie Frank was born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1929. Since her family was Jewish, they fled to the Netherlands in 1933 to escape persecution at home. For several years, they were safe. However, when Amsterdam came under Nazi control, they were forced into hiding. The whole Frank family lived in hidden rooms, concealed behind a bookcase in the canal-side building where Anne’s father, Otto, worked.
Just before the family went into hiding, Anne was gifted a diary for her birthday. In the words of the Anne Frank Museum, this became her “best friend”. In it, she would record the everyday challenges of being confined in a small, hidden space. However, Anne also used the pages of her diary to note down her deepest thoughts, ranging from her schoolgirl crushes through to her fears for herself, her family and even for the rest of humanity. The diary is at once a journal, a historical record and a work of moral philosophy.
The Frank family successful hid from 1942 right through to the summer of 1944. During this time, the entries in Anne’s diary show that she is maturing as a person. She also increasingly includes short stories and, prompted by something she hears on BBC radio, starts to transform her writings into a novel. However, the family were betrayed before she could complete the book. Along with her sister Margot, Anne was taken to a concentration camp and then moved to Auschwitz, where both of them died.
Incredibly, Otto survived the war and returned to Amsterdam. There, he was handed Anne’s journals by one of the friends who tried to hide them. He worked tirelessly to get the diaries published and, in 1947, he saw his wish come true. Just two years later, it was translated into English as The Diary of a Young Girl and became a global phenomenon. As well as its historical significance, the diary has also won widespread praise for Anne’s writing skills, leading to speculation that she might have gone on to be a major literary talent had she not been murdered at such a young age.
Where did we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
“The story of Anne Frank.” The Anne Frank Museum.
“Marie Curie, in Her Own Words.” American Institute of Physics.
“Captain Scott’s Diary, Volume 3.” The British Library.
“The Travels of Ibn Fadlan.” Salah Zaimeche, Muslim Heritage.
“Let Me Be Myself – The Life Story of Anne Frank”. Museum of Texas Tech University.