The Diary of a Young Girl
Katie Pitts
Biography of Anne Frank
Anne Frank's full name was Annelies Marie Frank, and she was born June 12, 1929- March 1945, and was born in Frankfurt, Germany, and died in Lower Saxony, Germany. Anne Frank was just 15 years old at the time of her death, one of more than 1 million Jewish children who died in the Holocaust. She received a diary for her 13th birthday, and has loved writing in it since and she became a journalist as she documented her life. She went to the Sixth Montessori School. On September 3, 1944, Anne, along with her mother, Edith, her sister, Margot, and her father, Otto, boarded the last transport from Westerbork to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Her diary was published after the war in many languages and is used in thousands of middle school and high school curricula in Europe and the Americas. Anne Frank has become a symbol for the lost promise of the children who died in the Holocaust.
Overview of World War Two
For Americans they were fighting to defeat tyranny. Most of Europe had been conquered by Nazi Germany, which was under dictator Adolf Hitler. The war in Europe began with Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939. Wherever the Nazis went, they waged a campaign of terror, mainly against Jews, but also against other minorities.
In Asia and the Pacific, Japanese armies invaded countries and islands. On December 7, 1941, Japanese planes bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The next day, the U.S. Congress declared war, taking the U.S. into World War II.Summary of Memoir
Anne Frank is a Jewish girl who had to go into hiding during World War Two to escape the Nazis. She kept a diary while in hiding at Prinsengracht in Amsterdam, documenting her life, and her feelings toward humanity, but also her feelings like worries, fears, and joys. But Anne and the others in hiding were discovered and deported to the concentration camps. Of the eight people in hiding only Anne’s father, Otto Frank, survives.
Quotes
Writers Purpose
She wrote her secrets in her diary and shared her experiences, worries, fears and insecurities with it. She talked about things she enjoyed, people she liked, what she hated about her life and described their whole situation. She received it on her thirteenth birthday and she started calling it 'Kitty'. She received it not long before they were discovered in hiding and taken away. This was the year 1942.
She did not mean to get it published. Even when Otto got it published, he did not allow for all of it to get published. Many parts from it were censored out which Otto considered inappropriate. These parts have been released now though after about fifty years.
Themes
Identity
Coming of Age
Coming of Age
An important point about Anne Frank's diary is that it was written during the years of her adolescence. She struggled with many typical teenage problems in an enclosed space with little privacy. Anne always questions herself and spends most of the diary trying to figure out what kind of person she is. Towards the end of the diary, she comes to a big conclusion that though she may not be the way others would like her to be, she is her own person and she respects herself.Symbols
Anne's Grandma
Hanneli
Hanneli is one of Anne’s best friends who shows up in Anne’s dreams several times as a symbol of guilt. Hanneli appears sad and dressed in rags, and wants Anne to stop her suffering. Because she is Jewish, she got sent to a concentration camp. For Anne, Hanneli represents the fate of her friends and companions and the millions of Jews—many of whom were children like herself—who were tortured and murdered by the Nazis. Anne questions why her friend has to suffer while she survives in hiding. Hanneli makes Anne turn to God for answers and comfort, since there is no one else who can explain why she lives and her friend can’t.
Personal Reaction
Anne Frank is quite an interesting character. I think it’s sad that she lived for only 15 years, 2 of which were spent in fear and hiding in the Annex. Anne Frank was just normal teen-ager placed in an abnormal situation. The way she reacted to the suppressing situation showed her confused, unsure and stubborn teenage personality. Anne Frank pretty much covered everything about her life in that diary.
In her book, she is pictured as talkative, cheerful, clever and stubborn. But it’s sad to read about her dreams and know that she didn't live long enough to know that she fulfilled one... to write and be published. She left a legacy she didn’t even picture, and she shared a lot of lessons to the world. She did all that while hiding in the Annex and trying to figure her life out.