The Diary of Anne Frank

[Almas]

That's one of my favorite books of all time. I really cannot resist reading The Diary of Anne Frank at least twice each year! Anne Frank, the most famous of all Holocaust victims has really touched the world.

Her diary is wonderfully written. She has expressed all her thoughts and I read the book - I just think that they are pouring out of her heart. It really is a masterpiece. I love it.

I first came in contact with Anne Frank, when I spotted a new, 2001 edition of the diary. I couldn't resisit purchasing it. Although, it was quite long (380+ pages) I managed to read it whole in less than a week. It also included a short biography and I couldn't help releasing a tear when I heard about her terrible fate.

Till now, my "Anne Frank" collection has really grew over the years. I own a large hardback edition from the late 60's, the new 2001 edition and a 1950 edition, written entirely in Dutch which I really treasure.

My mother was able to buy me the old motion picture The Diary of Anne Frank (released in 1959) on a rather cheap prize from eBay.

What really surprises that nowadays the cost for this movie has suddenly moved to £300 or more on internet auction websites!

Any fellow Anne Frank fans here?

Almas

[Anita Bensoussane]

I've read The Diary of Anne Frank (an English translation) five or six times. A sad but courageous account of life in hiding. In 1990 I visited Anne Frank's house in Amsterdam and it was a very moving experience. There were still magazine pictures stuck on the walls of Anne's bedroom, which she had cut out and put there herself. It was also possible to see the chestnut tree which Anne loved so much, though I heard recently that the tree is now diseased and will have to be cut down.

Anita

[RDMorrell]

I'm an Anne Frank fan. I first studied The Diary of Anne Frank in 5th form English (that's O-level English for those in the UK). Nowadays, the 5th form is called Year 11 in New Zealand. I got 100% in the assignment I did on the book, which I was very proud of. My own book collection includes two English Anne Frank paperbacks. One is just called The Diary of Anne Frank, while the other is a more recent version called Anne Frank - The Diary of a Young Girl, which includes some bits that had previously been omitted. In addition to these, I have the rather fascinating "sequel", The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank, by Willy Lindwer. If you haven't got that, I highly recommend it. It contains interviews with six women who knew Anne Frank during her last days in German concentration camps, and provides some fascinating (and at times, horrific) insights into what her life must have been like in those awful places.

The original diary is fascinating both as a compelling real-life story and as what historians call a "primary document". In short, it's highly absorbing on a number of levels. I also like it for another reason - I keep a diary myself and have done since 1990. (I fear that the contents of my diaries are a good deal less interesting than Anne Frank's, but perhaps if I become a famous literary translator - well, I can dream! - literary historians will find bits of interest if they read through them in 50 years' time or whatever.)

Anyway, I would definitely recommend Anne Frank's diary to anyone who hasn't read it - a pretty exciting, if somewhat sad, real-life story!

[Ming]

I gotta read it sometime. I haven't got a copy of the book (and they're hard to find here), but my friend has one - and she said it was so interesting that we have all lined up to borrow the book!! As yet, my turn hasn't come.

[Almas]

Hope you get it soon, Ming!

[Almas]

I've read The Diary of Anne Frank (an English translation) five or six times. A sad but courageous account of life in hiding. In 1990 I visited Anne Frank's house in Amsterdam and it was a very moving experience. There were still magazine pictures stuck on the walls of Anne's bedroom, which she had cut out and put there herself. It was also possible to see the chestnut tree which Anne loved so much, though I heard recently that the tree is now diseased and will have to be cut down.

Anita

Ooooooh! Wow Anita. I envy you! I would love to visit her house. Could you tell me more? Please Antia. I badly want to more. Please!

Alams

[Mollybob]

I've read it many times too. It's something I think everyone should read as it really brings the horrors of war home to us.

[Susie]

I read it and watched the video, when I was very young we had to do a project on her. I think I was 9 years old, (class 4-5)
We had a good teacher who explained to us everything, we all felt so sorry for her, and angry at the man who told on them. That is all Iremember, I must read it again, the last I read it was when I was a kid.

[Anita Bensoussane]

[Almas:]I would love to visit her house. Could you tell me more?

You've probably seen pictures of the secret annexe, at the back of a tall house in Amsterdam. The rooms were plainly-furnished and Anne Frank's diary was on display as well as letters and other writings, and photos. There was a sad, claustrophobic feeling to the place but at the same time I kept thinking of how spirited and determined Anne was, despite everything.

Anita

[Almas]

Thanks Anita! I agree with you

[Moose]

I have read the diary several times, both as a child and an adult. As a child I didn't really understand the context - I knew that this family was in hiding and that eventually all but one of them died but I had no understanding of Nazism and the holocaust. Reading it as a teenager, with more of an understanding of context, was especially poignant.

I don't want to get off topic but it's quite extraordinary to me the things that some human beings will do to others - in the name of a pathetic, evil ideology which is a mere front for their depraved natures.

[Silky-Elf]

i dont want to read the diary because my parents say that jews are not good.

[Moose]

Then your parents are perpetuating the horrendous mentality that led to Anne and her family - and several million other people - being massacred.

I can tell that you're young Silky but I would urge you to develop your own opinions and not rely on those of other people. Jews are human beings, the same as Muslims, Christians, Hindus, atheists ... all of us are human. Please, don't grow up with the sort of prejudices that ended Anne Frank's life.

[Julie2owlsdene]

Reading Silky's post sent shivers of horror down my back.
I know she's only 9 years old, and Moose's reply post was good advise. I too read the Diary of Anne Frank when I was young, we had to read it for the course we were doing, at secondary school in the early sixties, against the horrors of war etc.

I think the horrors of war should be taught in all schools. Anne Frank was a very brave young lady, and must have suffered terribly in the camp, away from her parents. A very moving book indeed.

[Moose]

Anti-semitism is a terrible thing, and something that has existed for hundred or even thousands of years. Hitler was not creating a 'new' prejudice; Hitler was enforcing a prejudice that had been there for all of recorded history. Silky, unknowingly and I am quite sure without having really thought about it thoroughly (which, if she is the age she says she is is fair enough.. though I wonder) is enforcing that centuries old prejudice. It's because of mentalities like that that these things happen, that otherwise decent people sit by and twiddle their thumbs and roll their eyes and do nothing whilst they do.