At some point in time, we all have read the intriguing yet spine-chilling ‘Diary of a Young Girl’. Anne Frank’s memorandum of her every day customaries whilst hiding from the gruesome clutches of the Nazis has left a mark on the pages of history.
75 years after its publication, in 2022, the question of the Frank family’s betrayal has come to surface again. Who indeed alerted the search team in 1944 and who betrayed the Frank family and why? Several questions as such remain unanswered to date. Although there have been some prior investigations in 2016, the case remains as pale as ever. However, the book was first published in 1947—two years after Anne’s death in a concentration camp—and later became a classic of war literature.
The Jewish teenager who chronicled her family’s two years hiding during the Nazi supremacy in the Netherlands is one of the most vivid accounts of the horrors of World War II.
A swinging pendulum between hope and despair, Anne Frank’s memoranda is more than just a teenage girl’s regular journal scribbling. It is the vivid experience of the horrific holocaust demonstrated through the eyes of a 15-year-old girl. It begins with Anne’s address to her newly found confidant (‘Dear Kitty’) and ends with Anne and her family being taken away to the infamous concentration camps. Although it is one of the most widely read books worldwide, ‘Dairy of a Young Girl’ gave voice and a face to millions of victims of the Nazi genocide.
Profound Leaps of Faith
Despite being a mere teenager, Anne profoundly wrote in her diaries regarding the then ongoing cruelties of the Nazis. Containing bits of humor and pieces of intelligence, the book is a typical teenager’s diary entry. The book perfectly chronicles the series of events (in an organized manner)—the gradually rising dominance of Hitler’s reign over the Jews to deportation of the Jews to several concentration camps.
With time, however, it became a classic of war literature—personalizing the infamous Holocaust as well as a touching coming-of-the-age story. ‘Diary of a Young Girl’ serves as a source of inspiration and hope for many. What really shatters our heart is that, despite everything, Anne never lost hope. She poignantly wrote, “I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are really good at heart.”
Coming-of-age
The only survivor of the Frank family and the holocaust was Otto Frank, Anne’s father, who went on to publish her diary scribblings and bring forth to the world the horrifying rise of Hitler as well as his atrocity towards the Jews and the entire world. ‘Diary of a Young Girl’ is more than just a coming-of-age novel, but one of the most poignant and tear-jerking accounts of authoritarian rule and dictatorship.
