I don't think I really need to go into any background about who Anne Frank was so I'll skip right to my review.
Anne's diary reads like the diary of just about any 13-15 year old girl, full of self-discovery, interest in movies and boys, and angst at her parents not understanding her.
Excpet Anne wasn't just any young teen girl. She was Jewish at a time when being Jewish was criminal and deadly. She was in hiding with her sister, parents, the Van Daan family and a dentist named Dussel.
For 25 months the 8 Jews lived in secret rooms behind and above Mr. Frank's business, taken from him during the Nazi invasion of Holland.
Anne's diary is at it's most heartbreaking not when she is talking about the food shortages, the fighting among the 8, the fear of discovery, or the desire to go outside. While those are truly heartbreaking, her words are at their most devastating when the thoughts, hopes and dreams of typical of average young girls are expressed. For example when she writes about her future children and the kind of mother she hopes to be.
NOTE: You will see quite a few Holocaust book reviews in the coming months as I work on two projects for school, for children's literature I am doing a study on how the Holocaust is presented in children's books (picture book through YA) and for my graduation capstone I am doing a project on what our government knew and when, why we didn't act sooner and arguing the point that many, many lives could have been saved had we acted sooner and so we should have.
(finished February 6, 2013)
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