Book Review: The diary of a young girl

                  Reading the diary of a young girl by Anne Frank is a pleasing experience. Second World War has always fascinated me, for its inhuman wars to some examples of blooming humanity, from its number of deaths to the stories of survival and from ‘thousand year Reich’ rant to ‘we will fight on beaches’ rhetoric. It was perhaps the most difficult period for a man to walk on earth in the history of human existence. Anne Frank’s diary is another great story of war era, despite its ending in tragedy as we know today; it reminds us of Anne’s presence here around us today.   Because what I know now about the diary is its not a great piece of art because it has an account of life in second world war, but also for the literary excellence shown by a thirteen year old girl, who tells us her story of life in hiding, a life of a Jew, and makes it so interesting as you almost reach to those streets of Amsterdam and feel it.

Anne Frank

One question strikes you as you finish the book, What Anne Frank would have been had she survived the Second World War? Harper Lee comes to my mind as this question strikes me every time.

                 Anne Frank is a thirteen year old Jewish girl from Amsterdam, who has got a diary from her father on her 13^th Birthday which happens to be on 12^th June 1942. She starts writing a diary the very day she gets it. She has named her dairy as ‘Kitty’. As she finds herself little lonely she talks with ‘Kitty’, tells her everything that happens around. on 12^th June 1942 her life is quite difficult as Jews are ‘Not Allowed’ for almost everything, from public transport, trams, cafes, restaurants to public places or offices. The children have separate schools for them as they are not allowed in other schools. They are no more citizens of Netherlands so they have no rights of their own.

                 For first few days the feeling was, it could be worse but it is not, we still can walk on roads or can travel by a bicycle. Anne is positive, she thinks and talks with Kitty about girl friends of hers and some boys who she thinks are in love with her. Whether she looks good and attractive or not, whether the boys really like her or not, are the questions of utmost importance in her life as they are of any teenager. as situation worsens Otto Frank decides to go into hiding with his entire family which includes his wife and two daughters, Anne and Margot. Margot is Anne’s elder sister who is now 16 years old. They all go into hiding in his old office building, for which his office staff and friends, Mr. Koophuis, Mr. Kraler, Miss Elli and Mrs. Miep Gies Who are non-Jewish Netherlanders help, him and one more Jewish family of Van Daan's which also goes into hiding with Franks. It happens sometime around in July 1942.

                   In this period that Anne Frank stays in this 'Secret Annexe' as she calls it, her loneliness takes her over even more and her diary also known as Kitty gets to know everything that happens. She talks  a lot about Van Daans who's family includes Mr Van Daan his wife and son Peter. Apart from that one more guest joins them in secret annexe in December 1942 is Mr. Dussel, who was the dentist by profession. She talks about everyday quarrels and how Mrs Van Daan thanks that Anne’s upbringing hasn't been good enough and she lacks manners. For which Annie thinks that she is more educated so she deserves better treatment. All the men in ‘Secret Annexe’ are always glued to the radio except Peter as he always finds for himself something interesting in the attic and keeps himself busy there. 

Secret Annexe:Anne's hiding place

                  Anne doesn't write every day but she does depending upon the intensity of things that happen.  She never takes sides and has her opinion about every member of the house. Though she calls Mrs. Van Daan most irritating, she doesn’t even spare her own mother.  She doesn't hesitate to change her opinions like she changes her opinion of Mr Dussel as a good old man to not so good one. She has given details about how everyday life went in secret annexe and how they come to know of what’s happening around in Amsterdam from friends. She writes about the fake ration cards obtained for the inhabitants of secret annexe. She describes how Elli, Miep,  Mr. Koophuis who are their friends who regularly look after the Franks and Van Daans, and keep them updated about the everyday happenings in Amsterdam.

                  Men in the secret annexe are desperately waiting for the war to get over and for that to happen,  invasion of Northern Europe was necessary. Due to radio they get details from BBC about everything that happens in all war theatres. Anne Frank despite being a young girl knows and understands what happens every day about the war. She is happy as Russians halt Germans in Stalingrad and ecstatic when Italy is invaded by allies from Sicily. She knows the horrors of Hitlar's 'Final Solution' and fears that it might have consumed all her friends, relatives and fellow Jews. She prays for them every morning with her father. When Mr Dussel joined them in the Secret Annexe, she was concerned that she has to share her room with him, at first she thought it might be an encroachment upon her privacy but later on she thought of sharing a room with another person as it will save one more life so she must do it  On the D-Day she and the members of entire Annexe are very jubilant seeing the end in sight and hearing the heroics of American and British soldiers in Normnady, her capability and understanding of events can be seen as she has even noted that  demonetisation of 500 and 1,000 Florin currency notes in 1943 to control black marketeers and Jews’ purchasing power. She even notes that Mahatma Gandhi is on a fast unto death against British in India. 

                 Writing is a her hobby, later after the war she has decided to be a journalist which she thinks is not so difficult for her considering her flair for writing and she knows she writes better. She had even planned to publish her diary after the war. History is her favourite subject and keeping details of the lineages of monarchies in the world is also her hobby. She knows all lineages of British, Netherlands and Belgian monarchies. She even knows Russian Czars lineages. She reads a lot to keep herself updated and she has vowed that she will never remain a housewife in her life, She will be a professional of any sort but not a housewife.

                  After an year or so in the ‘Annexe’ when and she was 14 years old she found herself attracted towards Peter, who is quite a boring and not so lovable boy by her standards initially; but as she spends more time with him she falls in love with Peter.  Peter being a only boy around she makes her relationship with her sister Margot one of competitive and distrustful, because of her possessiveness, but after exchange of few letters with Margot she feels safe and Peter is all hers.  She already has a bitter relationship with her mother. She decides to stay with Peter all her life after the war and writes a letter to her father disclosing her relationship with Peter. Whenever she doesn’t gather enough strength to talk to a person directly, she writes a letter. Though her father is her best friend, he finds it quite difficult  to gulp down his daughters relationship at such age and being a father tells her that he has some reservations.

                 Anne Frank's last letter is dated 1^st August 1944. The end of war is clearly in sight. The last letter she  writes in quite philosophical. In her last she writes about love, life and how she shouldn’t have hurt her father,  and abruptly the book ends.  Having a particular format in mind while reading or watching films we wait for ‘The good end’ which is unfortunately not a part of this book because before Anne writes her next letter to Kitty, on 4^th August 1944, Gestapo found out the ‘secret annexe’ and sent its all eight inhabitants to concentration camps. Being habitual to know everything that happens in secret annexe, one wonders what happened on  that fateful night. Leaving a diary or one can say a friend like ‘Kitty’ behind while leaving for concentration camps must have beeen very difficult for Anne.

                 Anne died on 10th of March 1945 in Auschwitz, all inhabitants but one died in the concentration camps. The one who survived was her father Otto Frank. Miep Gies recovered Anne’s diary from secret annexe, the day after they were taken into custody by Gestapo and handed it over to Otto Frank, when he returned after the war. Otto Frank published the diary in 1947 in Dutch language which later got translated in English in 1952 and now in almost 60 languages all over the world. Anne’s diary is the best written biography as well as a war account, of how a 13 year old Jewish girl saw her life being run down by the most fateful event in history of mankind!

The Diary of Anne Frank

 -Ranjit Yadav

  23-04-2018