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The Diary of a Young Girl

Anne Frank

4.15 · Rating details · 2,771,672 ratings · 29,011 reviews

A timeless story rediscovered by each new generation, 'The Diary of a Young Girl' stands without peer. For both young readers and adults it continues to bring to life this young woman, who for a time survived the worst horror the modern world had seen.

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Paperback, 351 pages

Published December 1st 2007 by Penguin Books, Limited (UK) (first published June 25th 1947)

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Oct 22, 2011 Nilesh Kashyap rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: translated, non-fiction

Why do we write reviews?
You have a lot of reasons I guess.

But for this review there is only one. I am writing this for my conscience.
Ever since I have rated this book, I always end up asking myself that, have I rated it with something it deserved or was it just out of sympathy (some call it pity vote)?

Reading other reviews (although most people just rate it and proceed) posed me with many other questions and also gave me idea of what people generally think about her and her diary.

So Im going to ...more

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Apr 27, 2010 Varsha rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-loved-but-cant-read-again, sent-a-chill-down-my-spine

My intention of writing a review for this book is to tell all the negative reviewers to SHUT UP! I am all for everyone's right to express their opinion but I read a few of the '1 star' reviews and I was shocked to read what a few people had to say about this book. Before making an opinion I suggest people to keep a few things in mind:

1. This is someone's DIARY not a book meant to entertain people. If you think it was boring then answer me, how many interesting things can you possibly do locked My intention of writing a review for this book is to tell all the negative reviewers to SHUT UP! I am all for everyone's right to express their opinion but I read a few of the '1 star' reviews and I was shocked to read what a few people had to say about this book. Before making an opinion I suggest people to keep a few things in mind:

1. This is someone's DIARY not a book meant to entertain people. If you think it was boring then answer me, how many interesting things can you possibly do locked up in a place for 3 years??

2. For those who comment on the writing-
This is a 14year old's diary!! She didn't write it with the intention of winning the pulitzer.

3.For those who commented on her ideologies or how nazism is portrayed.
Hello!! She was 14!!! And maybe..just maybe its justified to think the way she does considering she LIVED it unlike so many of us who get to sit back on our comfortable sofas and critically analyze every XYZ thing in the world.

I believe no one has the right to 'review' much less criticize a written document of a 14 year old's life who made it through the worst of circumstances and through difficulties we cannot even imagine to live through.
Its a pity some people think the way they do.

EDIT 27th Sep, 2013:

I never imagined I would garner so many likes for this review. This only means that a lot of people are emotional about this book and take negative reviews as a personal insult. I wrote this review in a very emotionally charged mind frame. A year later, now that I am older, wiser and more mature, I realise I could have used fewer exclamation marks. :P

EDIT 24th Sep, 2020:

It's been 8 years since I wrote this! I am definitely, older, wiser and more mature. And so, I would like to point out, that I do regret the explosive "SHUT UP" in my review, no scratch that, in my "rant". I guess such is life when you are young- angry & angsty. It's amazing though that despite the angry tonality, there is so much love pouring in the comments section! Thanks y'all. I shall continue my attempt to grow wiser as I grow older.
PS: Time for a re-read? ...more

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Jan 19, 2008 Brenda rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: everyone

I confess to feeling slightly voyeuristic while reading this. It was constantly in the back of my mind that this was no ordinary novel, or even a true-to-life account. This was someones diary. Every page written in confidence, each word revealing the thoughts closest to the heart of this young girl. As a journal-keeper myself, I sometimes find myself wondering, What if someone else were to read this? which causes me to wonder how much to filter my words. But then, isnt the purpose of a diary or I confess to feeling slightly voyeuristic while reading this. It was constantly in the back of my mind that this was no ordinary novel, or even a true-to-life account. This was someone’s diary. Every page written in confidence, each word revealing the thoughts closest to the heart of this young girl. As a journal-keeper myself, I sometimes find myself wondering, “What if someone else were to read this?” which causes me to wonder how much to filter my words. But then, isn’t the purpose of a diary or journal just the opposite? To record one’s honest and unfiltered thoughts? While reading Anne Frank – The Diary of a Young Girl I do not get the sense that there is any such ‘filtering’ going on. From the ages of 12-15 Anne lived an extraordinary life, and quickly grew far beyond her years in her understanding and handling of a horrendous situation.

There are surprises in this book. No matter how broad or limited your understanding of the world events that threw Anne and her family into a life in hiding, I had – before reading this – held the general assumption that, “Well, it was wartime. They were in hiding for their lives. They must have been miserable all the time. Who could possibly find anything good or redeeming in the confines of such a life?” In hindsight, of course, I have had to reconsider. I found bits of beauty, kindness, and even humour popping up in the most unexpected places. And why shouldn’t I? Aren’t our lives much the same? Oh – we’re not dodging bombs and trying to sleep to the sound of gunfire (at least not in Canada). But we, each of us, are often faced with some sort of tragedy or travesty. Sometimes we may have an entire ‘bad year’, or longer. And yet, doesn’t the buoyancy of the human spirit always shine through? It is really tough work to be miserable 24 hours a day. No matter how difficult or challenged our day-to-day life, we all have those little pockets of joy that arise, and sometimes it is those tiny occurrences that make the rest of it bearable.

On a personal level, I found myself comparing Anne’s childhood to that of my parents. After all, she was only a year younger than my Mom and Dad. I think back to stories they’ve told from their teen years, and it boggles the mind to think that at the exact moment my Dad and his brothers were tipping a cow, Anne was in hiding on the other side of the world. At a time when my mother was discovering make-up, Anne was realizing that life would never again be so youthful, so joyous and carefree as before the war. A generation was losing its innocence, but in very different ways.

I would recommend Anne Frank – The Diary of a Young Girl to absolutely everyone, for I believe that it holds some truth or enlightenment for everyone. I do not own this copy – it was borrowed from my daughter’s school library. She will be reading it next. She is 10. And you can bet that before long I will purchase my own copy, for I will be reading it again someday soon.
...more

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Oct 10, 2017 Maureen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

If only Anne Frank's diary was the figment of someone's imagination. If it meant that this spirited, intelligent and articulate girl hadn't died along with so many others in Belsen concentration camp, and that the holocaust had never happened, that would be a wonderful thing, but it did happen, and that makes the reading of this diary even more heartbreaking.

For a 13 year old girl, Anne was so articulate - the way she expresses her thoughts and feelings about herself and others is remarkable. If only Anne Frank's diary was the figment of someone's imagination. If it meant that this spirited, intelligent and articulate girl hadn't died along with so many others in Belsen concentration camp, and that the holocaust had never happened, that would be a wonderful thing, but it did happen, and that makes the reading of this diary even more heartbreaking.

For a 13 year old girl, Anne was so articulate - the way she expresses her thoughts and feelings about herself and others is remarkable. She's able to analyse herself in a particularly honest way, her abilities, failures, weaknesses.

As Jews in Nazi occupied Holland, Anne and her parents and sister Margot, had to flee their home in Amsterdam to escape capture. From 1942 - 1944 they occupy rooms in an old office building, which they call 'The Secret Annexe'. Anne's diary details daily life within the confines of their safe house. They share the rooms with another couple and their teenage son and also with a former dentist. As can be expected, there were many disagreements, living in such close proximity to others, and even within their own families. Just a few of the office staff knew about The Secret Annexe, and these are the people who kept them supplied with food, but given the fact that everything was rationed due to the war, things became a bit fraught at times. The alternative however, didn't bear thinking about.

In August 1944, Anne's diary suddenly becomes silent. No more words will be written in its pages. Someone had betrayed them to the Nazis and they were arrested and transported to various concentration camps. The diary was left behind and was found by the office cleaner. After being interned in two concentration camps, Anne and her sister Margot were finally sent to Bergen-Belsen where they both died - Anne was just 15 years old. Only Otto Frank (the girls' father) survived, and the diary was returned to him.

This is one of those books where a silence descends on finishing it. How do you write a review? How do you do it justice? I honestly don't know. All I can think is, what a great contribution Anne would have made to an ugly world if she'd lived, her ambition was to be a writer, and yet, even in death, she HAS made a contribution by allowing us to share those two years in hiding with her, and giving us a chance to see what a beautiful soul she was. Feel so sad right now. ...more

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Jan 14, 2010 ★ Jess rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2-stars-average, books-i-own, read-in-2010

Honestly, I just can't do it. I can't bring myself to finish the book. Ive tried three times already, and each time I have been forced to put it aside. Books and film about the Holocaust are fascinating, but not this one. Unfortunately, I was not engaged and found I couldn't care less.
I'll have to try it again in a few years.

On the up side, I firmly believe that Anne Frank, had she survived the war, would have grown up to be a marvelous, best selling writer. At the age of 13 her words are ...more

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Jun 16, 2013 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: war, non-fiction, memoir, biography, classics, historical, 20th-century

Het Achterhuis: Dagboekbrieven 12 juni 1942 - 1 augustus 1944 = The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank

The Diary of a Young Girl, also known as The Diary of Anne Frank, is a book of the writings from the Dutch language diary kept by Anne Frank while she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The family was apprehended in 1944, and Anne Frank died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945.

The diary was retrieved by Miep Gies, who ...more

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Aug 04, 2013 Alejandro rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: biography, holocaust

Maybe the first thing that most people would get shocked is that I rate with only 3 stars one of the best selling books of the 20th century (and now 21st century too) and even more, a book about the Holocaust.

First thing that I learned about this book is honesty.

Anne Frank teaches us all about honesty, about telling what you really think, and so I am doing the same.

For starters, I wonder how many people really, I mean REALLY read the book, because to rate with 5 stars a famous book that ...more

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Dec 15, 2016 Charlotte May rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, biography-memoir, ya, classics, war

There really isnt anything I can add that many other reviews havent already done. Its a five star read because it is important, because it is real and because the holocaust is something we should never forget. ...more

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Sep 29, 2017 Hannah Greendale rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, middle-grade

Click here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.

One cannot fathom what other marvelous books the world might have known had this talented, perceptive girl been permitted the life she was due.

"We don't want our belongings to be seized by the Germans, but we certainly don't want to fall into their clutches ourselves. So we shall disappear of our own accord and not wait until they come and fetch us."
"But, Daddy, when would it be?" He spoke so seriously ...more

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Oct 27, 2016 Duane rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: rated-books, non-fiction, 2016-book-challenge, reviewed-books, german, memoir

It happened. That thing, the reason I have put off reading this, happened. My heart broke. And I knew it would. Sure, I had heard of Anne Frank, I knew who she was, what she did, what happened. She is a historic figure, and a tragic one certainly. But I didn't make the really personal connection until I read her words, this diary. Her words bring her to life again. What a precocious young girl, so smart, so full of life; a life with so much promise, so much hope. She thinks, even writes, very ...more

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Apr 05, 2009 Whitney rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorite, young-adult, own

For her 13th birthday Anne Frank received a diary she dubbed Kitty. Shortly after her birthday with the fear that her older sister, Margo may be taken by the Nazis the Franks disappear into the night and go into hiding. It is through Kitty that Anne records her thoughts and daily life living behind a bookcase in the secret annex.

When I was younger I went through a "holocaust" phase before moving on to Harriet Tubman and slavery. The funny thing is that Anne Frank's Diary was not the first ...more

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Jun 08, 2020 Matthew rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, library, non-fiction, biography, history, 2020

This is a powerful must read. It makes me wonder how many other diaries like this were written during the war that were lost during the holocaust, destruction of cities, purging of Jewish living spaces, etc. It is amazing that this narrative on life in hiding made it through and can represent all those who were in hiding and whose voices were never heard.

I knew the story of Anne Frank before reading this book. In fact, I may have read some or all of it back in high school, but I cannot remember This is a powerful must read. It makes me wonder how many other diaries like this were written during the war that were lost during the holocaust, destruction of cities, purging of Jewish living spaces, etc. It is amazing that this narrative on life in hiding made it through and can represent all those who were in hiding and whose voices were never heard.

I knew the story of Anne Frank before reading this book. In fact, I may have read some or all of it back in high school, but I cannot remember for sure. Back around 2006 or 2007 I took a trip to Europe and had a chance to visit the Anne Frank House. Unless you get a chance to visit in person, it is hard to understand exactly what the conditions were like and the size of the space. Anne Frank did a good job describing, but seeing is believing!

Another interesting thing about reading this now is that we are in the middle of the Coronavirus quarantine. While many of us get a bit of cabin fever being asked to stay home, reading Anne Frank’s words about being trapped in a small space for two years because of fear of death if found really puts it into perspective. But, at the same time, this might be a good time to revisit or read it for the first time because her frustrations with her family and situation may be a bit more understandable for those who have barely left the house in months.

When the book first started, I wondered how accurate Anne’s descriptions were. She was an angsty and outspoken teenager which made me wonder what was true and what was just her perspective. For example, the first few chapters are mainly her complaining about her parents, other adults, and people she did not like from school. However, I think this part of the diary is important because it shows her growth throughout the story as the situation becomes more dire and she is forced to mature before her time.

I cannot say that this book will be enjoyed by everyone – especially if biographies are not your thing. Also, the subject matter and the situation the Frank’s are in may be difficult for some to handle. But, it is an important document from World War II history and is worth reading no matter who you are. ...more

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Feb 12, 2018 KamRun rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Dear Mom and Dad, Dear Friends,
Thats my end. They have come to take me to be shot. To hell. Dying at the utmost of victory is a little unfortunate, but what cares? The importance of an event is just in humans mind. Pierre Benoit/ February 08, 1943/ Free interpretation from Letters of Those Who Were Being Shot.

A letter to Anne Frank

My Dear Little Girl,
Until today, it has never occurred to me that going through a page of a book into the last page was so annoying and distressing. I have read too

Dear Mom and Dad, Dear Friends,
That’s my end. They have come to take me to be shot. To hell. Dying at the utmost of victory is a little unfortunate, but what cares? The importance of an event is just in human’s mind. Pierre Benoit/ February 08, 1943/ Free interpretation from Letters of Those Who Were Being Shot.

A letter to Anne Frank

My Dear Little Girl,
Until today, it has never occurred to me that going through a page of a book into the last page was so annoying and distressing. I have read too many books that its author has left it in the middle but any open ending and unfinished one hasn’t been so painful for me. If I read the book disregarding your story, it is nothing more than the personal notes of a freshly mature girl: description of unimportant stories, the passionate feelings of adolescence and nags about food and living conditions during the Second World War. But now that I know what happened to you, will I can leave easily your wishes, the future you imagined for yourself, your dreams and hopes without grief and tear? You wished to be devoted to something, you wanted to be useful and make joy for all those who you might never saw. You wanted to live even after your death. Although your memories didn’t end the way you wanted, Although the story of your grey but hopeful days remained unfinished, I followed your unwritten story up to the top of Auschwitz chimneys, until the Bergen-Belsen mass graves. Your wish came true. You are a symbol of innocence, hope and depredated childhood for me and thousands of others. Though you lost your life, your love to the life, to the tree, to the sky has become a power in our heart to fight that part of human nature which took the living chance from you to not portray your fate in other children; To you and Peter be the last children of human being who were drawn to the cross of injustice and discrimination. Yes, we swore and we will stand up to the day that human being is the helper of the other one.
Tehran, February 12, 2018

پدر و مادر عزیزم، دوستان عزیز! این پایان کار من است. آمده‌اند که من را برای تیرباران شدن ببرند، به جهنم. مردن در منتهای پیروزی کمی تاسف‌آور است، اما چه اهمیتی دارد؟ اهمیت یک واقعه تنها در خیال آدمی‌ست - پییر بنوآ 8 فوریه 1943 / برداشت آزاد از نامه‌های تیرباران شده‌ها

نامه‌ای به آن فرانک

دخترک عزیزم

تا امروز هرگز پیش نیامده بود که گذر از یک صفحه‌ی کتاب به صفحه‌ی آخر برایم چنین عذاب‌آور و ناراحت کننده باشد. کتاب‌های زیادی خوانده‌ام که نویسنده آن را نیمه‌کاره رها کرده، اما هیچ پایان باز و به سرانجام نرسیده‌ای این اندازه برایم دردآور نبود. کتاب را اگر فارغ از سرگذشتت بخوانم، چیزی نیست جز دلنوشته‌های یک دختر تازه بالغ: شرح ماجراهای بی‌اهمیت، احساسات پرشور دوران نوجوانی و غرولند‌هایی درباره‌ی خوراک و وضعیت زندگی در دوران جنگ جهانی دوم. اما حالا که می‌دانم چه بر سرت آمده، مگر می‌توانم از آرزوهایت، از آینده‌ای که برای خود متصور بودی، از رویاها و امیدهایت، به سادگی بدون اندوه و اشک بگذرم؟ تو آرزو داشتی وقف چیزی شوی، می‌خواستی مفید شوی و برای همه‌ی آن‌ها، حتی کسانی که هرگز ندیدی لذت بیافرینی. می‌خواستی بعد از مرگت هم به زندگی ادامه دهی. اگر چه خاطراتت آن‌طور که می‌خواستی به پایان نرسید، اگر چه داستان روزهای خاکستری ولی پر امیدت ناتمام ماند، اما من داستان نانوشته‌ی تو را تا بلندای دودکش‌های آشویتس دنبال کردم، تا گورهای دسته‌جمعی برگن. تو به آرزویت رسیدی. تو برای من و هزاران تنِ دیگر نمادی هستی از معصومیت، امید و کودکی‌ای که به یغما رفته است. اگرچه زندگی تو از دست رفت، اما عشقِ تو به زندگی، به درخت، به آسمان در قلب ما نیرویی شد برای مبارزه با آن بخش از سرشت انسان که فرصت زیستن را از تو گرفت، تا سرنوشت تو در کودکان دیگر تجسم نیابد، تا تو و پتر آخرین فرزندان انسان باشید که به صلیب بی‌عدالتی و تبعیض کشیده می‌شوید. آری، ما قسم خوردیم و تا آن روز که انسان یارِ انسان باشد مقاومت خواهیم کرد

تهران - 12 فوریه 2018 ...more

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Nov 22, 2008 Jason Koivu rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history

Ya gotta hand it to this teen girl who was writing about her life with such clarity and eloquence when her life was hanging by a thread.

I've read reviews of The Diary of a Young Girl that complained about how Frank ignored the bigger picture of the war and that her subject matter was trite, whiny and insular. What else could it be, this diary of a teen secreted away in the compact environs of an attic with the same people for years learning little-to-no outside information?

From the standpoint of ...more

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Nov 24, 2020 Tharindu Dissanayake rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites-autobiography, favorites

"Riches, prestige, everything can be lost. But the happiness in your own heart can only be dimmed; it will always be there, as long as you live, to make you happy again."

I'm not sure if I can review this book properly. I started a few times before, but, it is just too difficult...I really wish I had skipped the Afterward section and read it sometime after. I don't recall being this sad after reading a book...

"Memories mean more to me than dresses."
"I once asked Margot if she thought I was ugly. ...more

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Feb 17, 2008 Monica Edinger rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classic

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 13, 2016 Inge rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, epistolary, historical

I thought I knew the story of Anne Frank.

I knew the story of how she went into hiding with her family for a few years and wrote everything down in a journal. I knew of the fact that she was captured right at the end of the war, when hope was high and peace was nigh, only to die of typhus a mere few weeks before her concentration camp would be liberated. All of this, I knew, Id been told many a time in history class.

As it turns out, Annes story goes so much deeper than that; Id only grazed the I thought I knew the story of Anne Frank.

I knew the story of how she went into hiding with her family for a few years and wrote everything down in a journal. I knew of the fact that she was captured right at the end of the war, when hope was high and peace was nigh, only to die of typhus a mere few weeks before her concentration camp would be liberated. All of this, I knew, I’d been told many a time in history class.

As it turns out, Anne’s story goes so much deeper than that; I’d only grazed the bare surface. Anne’s story is a revelation, and I was surprised by how much I could relate to her. Anne was and sounded very young at the beginning of her diary, but over time she grows so intelligent and self-evaluating and she was so very wise way beyond her years at the mere age of fifteen. I marvelled at how snarky she was; I loved that she wanted to be a writer as well; I related far too strongly with her at times.

"This week I've been reading a lot and doing little work. That's the way things ought to be."

I have agoraphobia, and when I was at my worst, I could barely leave the house for two minutes. On top of that, I was living in this tiny dorm in Antwerp, and oftentimes I thought I would go mad; felt like I could run up the walls. So I recognised a lot of myself in Anne’s anxiety and depression at being cooped up like a bird in a cage. I could feel her fear seeping through the pages, could feel the monotony addling her brain, found my own thoughts echoed in her words. I definitely needed to take breaks while reading, because sometimes it became far too real.

"Ordinary people don't know how much books can mean to someone who's cooped up."

At one point in the book, Anne wishes to live on, even beyond her death. How she would laugh if only she knew that her diary had been read by so many people, that the Achterhuis/Secret Annexe in Amsterdam gets a million visits a year, that she’s practically the most famous child of the twentieth century.

I am so incredibly moved that words can hardly express what I’m feeling. It’s a deep and powerful feeling, an emotional one, and I think that Anne will remain with me for a long time to come. ...more

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Jun 30, 2008 David rated it did not like it · review of another edition

While her story is sad, the naked Emperor cult around this book is unmerited.

The key quotation about people being basically good at heart is absurd in the light of the story, and from a theological perspective, just plain wrong.

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Sep 05, 2016 James rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2-fic-young-adult, 1-fiction

Book Review
4 out of 5 stars to The Diary of a Young Girl, written during the 1940s by Anne Frank. Many are first exposed to this modern-day classic during their middle or high school years, as a way to read a different type of literature from that of an ordinary novel. In this diary, young Anne express her thoughts (both positive and negative) over a two-year period during which her family and friends are in hiding during World War II and the Holocaust. For most of us, this is one of the few Book Review
4 out of 5 stars to The Diary of a Young Girl, written during the 1940s by Anne Frank. Many are first exposed to this modern-day classic during their middle or high school years, as a way to read a different type of literature from that of an ordinary novel. In this diary, young Anne express her thoughts (both positive and negative) over a two-year period during which her family and friends are in hiding during World War II and the Holocaust. For most of us, this is one of the few ways we can actually read or hear the words from someone who was actually there and went through this, especially if you don't know anyone who was alive during this time period in the 1930s and 1940s in Germany and the surrounding areas. I read this in my 9th grade English course, and I remember disliking it a lot. Not because of the way it was written or published, but due to the topic. I dislike anything about that time in history. But I later re-read it and had a different level of appreciation for the value a book of this type can bring. Unlike The Book Thief, it's raw and natural in its words. But where I love The Book Thief because of its story, I found this one a bit harder to digest. It's not this extraordinary novel by any means, at least to me, but given how it came about, what happened to her and the way she expresses everything, it is definitely a great book. Everyone should read some passages from it at some point in their life.

About Me
For those new to me or my reviews... here's the scoop: I read A LOT. I write A LOT. And now I blog A LOT. First the book review goes on Goodreads, and then I send it on over to my WordPress blog at https://thisismytruthnow.com, where you'll also find TV & Film reviews, the revealing and introspective 365 Daily Challenge and lots of blogging about places I've visited all over the world. And you can find all my social media profiles to get the details on the who/what/when/where and my pictures. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Vote in the poll and ratings. Thanks for stopping by. ...more

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Dec 03, 2012 Alex rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: rth-lifetime, 2012, reading-through-history

The problem with Diary of a Young Girl is that it's the diary of a young girl, and young girls, as you may remember from when you were one, or spent all your time trying to make out with one, are awful. It's like 300 pages straight of "No one understands me!"

I guess the reason this made it on to so many high school curricula is that young people might relate to it, and clearly some of them do, because they wrote pissed-off comments below this review - but this doesn't depict the horrors of the ...more

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Nov 25, 2009 Pollopicu rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I'm really surprised by the number of people who thought this book was boring.
I could understand how an adult man might find the musings of a young girl rather dull, but how can people in general not find this journal utterly fascinating? Here is a teenage girl who up until the end wrote with the same emotional consistency as when she began. Whoever thinks this books is boring is because they simply fail to realize, or even imagine the conditions in which this diary was written under. To think I'm really surprised by the number of people who thought this book was boring.
I could understand how an adult man might find the musings of a young girl rather dull, but how can people in general not find this journal utterly fascinating? Here is a teenage girl who up until the end wrote with the same emotional consistency as when she began. Whoever thinks this books is boring is because they simply fail to realize, or even imagine the conditions in which this diary was written under. To think how this young girls personal life continued beyond the details of the war is rather remarkable.
What would anyone else have written about in their diary as young boy or girl in the same predicament as the Franks?
Anne is surprisingly strong and mature for her age, impressively intelligent, and although there was a World War going on, her own particular world never abated. Her personal life was just as important, if not necessary in order for her to survive the day to day living conditions at the Annex.
Yes, there were brief moments of panic, but she had to live life, even if her living space was limited. She carried on as if being in hiding was a mere temporary inconvenience. She wasn't going to let that rob of her of her right to claim her passage into womanhood..her God given right to experience puberty, moodiness, emotions, and even love.

Here I thought I was about to read the semi-interesting scribbles of a blooming young lady, with ambiguous references to the war. But there is nothing cryptic about her diary. She shoots straight from the hip in this incredibly and shockingly honest account of what life was like for her and her family living in hiding during the WW. It's not what I expected at all. I expected something rather tame, but it's far from it. This young girl was very interesting and quite special.

You can't read this journal and think it's just an ordinary diary of a young girl, because it's not. Anne's diary is a representation of how other Jewish families lived and coped during the Nazi war. That's a pretty powerful thing. Many people don't realize how fortunate we are (thanks to Anne Frank, her Father Otto Frank and Miep Gies) to have some insight on how it must have been for the Jews to coexist this way. Because of Anne, we have an idea of how it was like to live under floorboards, in between walls, and behind bookshelves. This diary humanizes and brings back to life the Jewish people who mysteriously disappeared but who had not yet died.
I love this diary and I'm so grateful to have read it.

It must have been extremely difficult for her father Otto Frank to read his daughters diary after her death.
...more

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May 13, 2013 Whitney Atkinson rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir, audiobook, read-in-2015, need-to-reread, made-me-cry

I really wish I had a different translation of this book because this one lacks a lot of the personality and ease compared to the audiobook version I partially listened to. But this book should definitely be one of the books you read before you die because it is so tragic and enlightening. Nothing makes me angrier and sadder than seeing someone with so much potential and excitement rave about their passion for life, and in the end, never made it to accomplish their dreams, or see their work ...more

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Feb 13, 2018 Melania 🍒 rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

4.25|5 || The Read Harder Challenge 2018 - A book published posthumously ||

One of the most important and moving books Ive ever read.
I adored charming and witty Anne. She managed to do what so many others never accomplish in their writings: she brought me into her world without any effort. Her voice resonated in my head and heart every day since Ive started this book. She feels like a close friend, like part of the family. Moreover, I was impressed of how emotionally intelligent she is, how much ...more

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Apr 18, 2013 Michelle rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

When i was reading this book it didnt actually feel like a true story until i got to the end and i felt like i was missing the last 20 pages - then it sunk in what had happened. I sobbed while reading the Afterword. A must read.

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Oct 05, 2011 Nandakishore Varma rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: memoirs

Actually I wasn't going to review this book at all, since I read it way back in the seventies, and if I remember correctly, did not finish it.

But yesterday, just for the heck of it, I went through some one-star reviews. Two things I noticed immediately - most people disliked the book because it was boring, and Anne had a sanctimonious attitude. They were of the opinion that the book became a classic only because of historical reasons. Looking at it dispassionately, I have to agree.

I was even ...more

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Aug 25, 2017 Gary rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Anne Frank went into hiding , in 1942, with her parents and sister and four other people , in the sealed off back rooms of an Amsterdam office building , when the Nazi invaders of the Netherlands , intensified their persecution of Jews.

They were all discovered in 1944 , by the Nazis, and of the group , only Anne's father Otto Frank survived the war. Anne died in the hideous death camp at Belsen.

In this remarkably intimate and beautifully written classic , Anne documents the two years in hiding - Anne Frank went into hiding , in 1942, with her parents and sister and four other people , in the sealed off back rooms of an Amsterdam office building , when the Nazi invaders of the Netherlands , intensified their persecution of Jews.

They were all discovered in 1944 , by the Nazis, and of the group , only Anne's father Otto Frank survived the war. Anne died in the hideous death camp at Belsen.

In this remarkably intimate and beautifully written classic , Anne documents the two years in hiding - how they survived , amusing observances about the different residents of the house , as well as her own remarkable development , such topics as her sexuality and the development of her relationship with Peter Van Daam , as well as her sparkling brilliant intellect.

She reveals the peculiarities and personalities of the people who live with her in the annexe , in a series of accounts and amusing anecdotes.

One could ask why the Nazis brought about the death of this good , intelligent and charming child. One should ask what moves man to commit such horrors. What moved the Nazis to kill over a million Jewish children. What moves people to justify the murder of Jewish children in Israel today by Arab terrorists , or to justify the monstrous tyrannies in North Korea, Red China, Zimbabwe or Iran?

The book can equip young people to answer the questions that will be thrown at them today: Why did the Nazis do what they did? Why did the people of Europe allow it to happen? Why do we need the State of Israel?

We are living in time when values are distorted , moral relativity and the inversion of the truth are the order of the day. Anti-semitism is on the march again , in the shape of genocidal hatred of Israel. It is today that it becomes so relevant , Anne Frank's word in her diary: " It's twice as hard for us young ones to hold our ground and maintain our opinions , at a time when all all ideals are being shattered and destroyed , when people are showing their worst side , and do not know whether to believe in truth and right and God'. ...more

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Jan 27, 2016 Mia rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: cant-beat-the-classics, memoirs-biographies, translated

I am basically a terrible person.

This isn't a review- I'm not going to go into my reasons for giving this book 2 stars. That would not do anybody any good. I will simply say that I feel extremely guilty rating the book this low, but I hope people understand that it doesn't reflect my view of the Holocaust as a whole, or my views of Anne Frank as a person. I have the utmost respect for both.

The girlfriend of my great-grandfather* lost her mother and her daughter in the Holocaust. Her daughter had I am basically a terrible person.

This isn't a review- I'm not going to go into my reasons for giving this book 2 stars. That would not do anybody any good. I will simply say that I feel extremely guilty rating the book this low, but I hope people understand that it doesn't reflect my view of the Holocaust as a whole, or my views of Anne Frank as a person. I have the utmost respect for both.

The girlfriend of my great-grandfather* lost her mother and her daughter in the Holocaust. Her daughter had a hairpin, a beautiful golden thing with topaz and pearls, and it was passed down to me. I never got to meet my great-grandfather nor Fanny (his girlfriend), but she put the pin in a box and gave it to my mother with these words written on it. (I was still a baby, and neither of them would live past my second birthday.)

That pin is a lot like this book. Whenever I look at it, nestled in my jewellery box, I feel the weight of generations of guilt pressing down on me. Its owner is long gone, and yet I feel the strangest thing- simultaneously connected and disconnected. I am in possession of something that unnamed girl loved, just as reading Anne's diary, and there's an eerie sense of abandonment in the object being left behind but their owners having perished long before their time.

Granted, I'm Jewish, but I can't help but feel that simply by being alive and knowing of the Holocaust and of genocides in general, I am doing them a disservice. In the wake of tragedies like this, there is nothing to say, there are no words, so I'm not going to waste this review talking about the merits and downfalls of this book. It is not mine to critique- this is the diary of a real girl who really did live, and so pointing out its flaws is a vain pursuit, in that it is so inextricable from its owner, just like that topaz hairpin.

There is a time and a place for criticising memoirs without criticising their authors, but now is not the time nor the place. Suffice it to say that I feel like an awful person for rating this so low, but I will not budge on it. One of my core principles is that I judge books in and of themselves, and how they stand on their own- it is impossible to do so here, with the text so linked to the history.

I don't know what to do with The Diary of Anne Frank or that hairpin. They remind me to never forget the tragedy, but how could I anyway? I don't own them, and I never can- they're relics, relics that do not and cannot ever belong to anybody but their original owners, and so I suppose I'll always feel like I'm keeping watch over the prized possessions of two girls who are never coming back to retrieve them.

*He was a baker who became an army dentist when the bakers' union went on strike in the Great Depression. Quite an interesting fellow. ...more

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Jan 19, 2009 Reader rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction-war, a-classroom-library, holocaust, biography-autobiography-memoirs

If only every teenager would read and embrace this story, I wonder if it would change the instant-gratification, me-me-me society that has evolved over the last 50 years? Of course, this novel is a staple in any Holocaust lesson planning. In a world in which so few teenagers (or adults, for that matter) seem to stop and give thanks for what they have (instead chirping about what they want or complaining about what they don't have), Anne Frank faced the most unfair of cruelties with a certain ...more

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Jul 26, 2016 Chris Horsefield rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: ww2-ya-holocaust-ya-novels-wwii

This book was fascinating. I was a little surprised that there wasn't more about the atrocities that were happening around them instead of all the turmoil in the household. However, I realize that she was just a very young girl. And, I was surprised about how sexually aware she was. Until she and her family went into hiding, she hadn't had a lot of worldly awareness so she wrote about what was happening around her, and that was everything that went on in that household with those people. It This book was fascinating. I was a little surprised that there wasn't more about the atrocities that were happening around them instead of all the turmoil in the household. However, I realize that she was just a very young girl. And, I was surprised about how sexually aware she was. Until she and her family went into hiding, she hadn't had a lot of worldly awareness so she wrote about what was happening around her, and that was everything that went on in that household with those people. It would be hard to imagine how I or any other person would react under the same circumstances. I tried to imagine what it would be like to have to be totally quiet...not to be able to even move around at all for several hours or not be able to use the bathroom when you needed to. I thought what would happen if you had a cold, and were coughing. How could you control it? After she would write about her feelings when certain things were going on inside, she would put a small notation about what was happening in the world outside. They would get news from the outside from those who were hiding them. Another thing that surprised me was the gifts they would give each other on their birthdays. I would have thought that those things would have been rationed and not be available. I guess if you had the money, and apparently they had quite a lot, the regular Germans could still buy "things". Everything I have previously read about that time period indicated that even the "non-Jewish" German people had very little. She talks about being able to make jam from strawberries that were delivered to the warehouse. That would take lots of sugar. Apparently, the factory that they lived above was the factory that her father was a partner in, and they made pectin there. So maybe, the delivery of sugar wasn't suspicious. Or maybe that was what made them vulnerable. However, someone had to have turned them in or they would never have found them behind the bookcase in the annex.

I felt sad that her relationship with her mother was so bad. I think, had she live, that relationship might have been repaired with time as it appeared to be mostly misunderstandings combined with her adolescence. Also, her relationship with her sister wasn't good either. Her relationship with the other family was understandable considering the close quarters they shared. It has occurred to me that the Jewish people are a very gentle kind of people therefore enabling them to live under those circumstances for two years. I think it would be almost impossible for most people to live like that. I can't understand why anyone would turn them in to the Gestapo knowing they would be going to their death. Most of their German Christian and Catholic friends were wonderful people who actually put their lives on the line to protect these two families. I have never heard who turned them in.

They almost made it. Anne lives on just as she wished. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in reliving the past with Anne, her family, and friends. ...more

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Feb 15, 2019 Lucy Langford rated it really liked it · review of another edition

4.5****

Beauty remains, even in misfortune.

The Diary of a Young Girl as told by Anne Frank is haunting, poignant and beautiful, with a keen sense of hope throughout. Anne documented her family's plight of having to go into hiding in 1942 due to the German invasion in the Netherlands as part of WW2. The Franks were hidden in a secret annexe, behind a bookcase covering a hidden entrance. Not only were the Franks living there, but also another four people. During this time all members of the hidden ...more

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About Anne Frank

Anne Frank

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Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank was a Jewish girl born in the city of Frankfurt, Germany. Her father moved to the Netherlands in 1933 and the rest of the family followed later. Anne was the last of the family to come to the Netherlands, in February 1934. She wrote a diary ...more

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“It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.” — 9182 likes

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