Now into Virginia Woolf’s Jacob’s Room…
Anne Frank’s Diary – Reflections
I have finally found some time to write about Anne Frank’s Diary which I finished some time ago. Paradoxically the most distressing part of this book is the epilogue, not even written by the author, when we find out in almost journalistic sentences that majority of the characters, including Anne, die. This short fragment is so contrasting to Anne’s narrative that almost unbelievable. Ann, despite living in really difficult circumstances, does not write a story of a refugee but rather a story of a teenage girl. She focuses on her loneliness, relationship with her parents, Peter or other occupants. She obviously mentions the trouble of living in the hiding but it seems to be only the background to her spiritual struggles. That is why the book advertised as “a heartbreaking testimony of Holocaust” might be little disappointing as it was for me. I am not trying to say it is not worth reading because it definitely is. Nevertheless, I guess after reading Nalkowska’s Medallions every testimony of Holocaust is not heartbreaking enough.
Resources Box
As you have probably noticed in the bottom right corner of the page there is The Resources Box where I will add some longer essays and notes.
Some time ago I uploaded two of my essays “The Origins of a Diary” and “Dreams in The Meaning of The Night by Michael Cox”.
From today I will be adding some notes on the history of literature.
I hope you will find it usefull.
The History of Anne Frank’s Diary
Historical Background
In 1940 Holland became one of the countries invaded by Hitler. Nazi occupation led to gradual isolation of Jewish people and in 1942 first call-ups for “work” camps started to be sent. On the 5th July 1942 one of the call-ups was received by Margot- Anne’s sister. This was the moment when Frank family decided to go into hiding.
The Diary
It was a present. Anne Frank got the diary for her thirteenth birthday (12th June 1942) shortly before going into hiding. She kept it till the 1st August 1944. Three days later the Secret Annex was raided by SS sergeant Karl Josef Silberbauer along with the members of the Dutch security Police. All the occupants and two helpers (Victor Kugler, Johannes Kleiman) were arrested. The dairy was found and kept by Miep Gies and Bep Voskulij. After the war Miep gave the unread diary to Otto Frank who, not without doubts, finally decided to publish the it in 1947. The first edition (version C) was a compilation of the original version of the diary (version A) and the one corrected by Anne (version B). While editing the diary, Otto omitted several fragments concerning sexual matters and unpleasant opinions about other members of the family. In 1986 the Critical Edition of the dairy was published by the Dutch Institute of War Documentation which compares all three versions.
- Anne Frank’s Diary
In 1999 Cornelis Sujik- a former director of the Anne Frank Foundation and president of the U.S. Center for Holocaust Education Foundation- claimed to be in the possession of few additional pages of the dairy which have been included in the new editions since 2001.
More about Anne Frank’s Diary:
In the meantime…
Still into “Anne Frank’s Diary”. I am finally starting to feel the style and atmosphere of this book.
In the meantime, I encourage you to check this fantastic BBC documentary on books The Written World.
Anne Frank’s Diary
Anne Frank
Reading Anne Frank’s Diary. I’m not sure if I like it – if there is antything “to like” in a book about war and holocaust. Anyway, I’m reading the Polish translation and the language seems so … artificial and unnanatural as if sentences were created out of elements that come from the same language but they are completely alien to each other….Well, let’s wait till the end.
