“Diary of a Young Girl”- Anne Frank

I personally love reading autobiographies. I chose, “Diary of a Young Girl”- Diary of Anne Frank. She went through, what you could say the worst time period ever, the Holocaust. However, through all chaos and hard living conditions, Anne’s spirt remained the same. She wrote in her diary day after day describing what she did and the experiences she encountered.

Just take a moment and think about your life during school. Busy right? But enjoyable. You go to school, do work, extra activities after school, homework, maybe have a slight crush on that one boy/girl, and hang out with friends. No one infringes on your rights to do so. Now imagine being discriminated because you are a Jew. You have to go to a different school because “your different” then everyone else. Jews were restricted by anti-Jewish decrees: “Jews were required to wear yellow star, turn in bikes, forbidden to use streetcars, shop between 3 and 5 pm, only visit Jewish owned barbershops and beauty parlors, forbidden to be on the streets between 8pm and 6am, forbidden to go to movie theaters, swimming pools, tennis courts, hockey fields, go rowing, any athletics in public and forbidden to visit Christians in their homes.” Seriously, what was there to do!? This was only the beginning.

The book begins on Anne’s 13^th birthday. She describes all the gifts she got one including a diary. She mentions she doesn’t have any true friends, so she decided her diary would be her best friend. She named it “Kitty”. Soon after, the Germans (Nazis) were capitulating a lot more people than usual. On July 8th, 1942, Ann’s father received a “call-up notice” for Margret (Anne’s older sister.) Apparently when girls turn 16, they are sent away to live on their own. Therefore Ann’s parents decided to go into hiding a lot sooner then they originally thought. On July 9^th the family moved into the hiding place which was in her father’s office building behind a series of doors. The employees from Anne’s father’s firm helped hide the Franks and kept them supplied with food, medicine, and information about the outside world.  Anne mentioned that Moortje, her cat, was “the only living thing (she) got to say goodbye too.” Shortly, on July 13^th, the Van Daans moved in. A while later, a friend moved in as well, Mr. Dussel. The Van Daans had a 16 yr old son named Peter. Anne and Peter eventually have a little romance going on by the end of the book. Anne mentions that it wasn’t bad, they “cook themselves, listen to the radio (paying close attention to every development of the war), reading, games and writing.” She also included that they couldn’t look out the windows or go outside. Throughout the 2 years of isolation, Anne often wrote about the depression and loneness she was feeling. She also write about every small thing that happened since nothing really exciting did happen. I cannot image growing up in such conditions as this.  August 1, 1944 was Anne’s last journal entry. It seemed perfectly normal. On August 4^th, everyone that was in hiding was betrayed to the Nazis and arrested. They were all sent to different concentration camps. Anne’s father was the only survivor and found Anne’s diary.

What suppressed me is that Anne was ok with the way she lived for 2 long years of her life. Even with her family and friends got on her nerves, a lot, with the feeling of despair and being Claustrophobic. She wrote in her diary when everything started to go downhill: “It’s as if my whole world has suddenly turned upside down.” I’m still alive, and that’s the main thing.” She had so much spirt and a good attitude towards everything (most days). I admire her for that and her bravery thought all of the hard times.