Anne Frank was a brave Jewish-German girl who had to go into hiding during the Holocaust. Inspite of not surviving the holocaust, her diary became a symbol of the truimph of the human spirit. Through her remarkable writings, we are privy to the world of a young girl whose promising life was cut short because of the period of terror.
As the persecutions began, her father was forced to hide his family in in an annex of rooms above his office in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. In some time they were joined by another family, the Van Daans and Mr Dussel, a dentist.
It is during their 25 month long stay there that Anne discovered the joys of confiding in her diary. The diary became Anne?s best friend and emotional anchor through the turbulent period. Every night Anne Frank pours out her heart to the diary about the daily life in the annexe. It is only the diary that she trusts because in the cloistered environment, she did not feel comfortable sharing her thoughts with her other family members.
Anne?s writing tells us about the difficult time in which the children had to live. Her writings tell us about the nature of her family members and the Van Daans with whom they share the cramped accomodation. Instead of just concentrating on the habits and behaviour of these people, Anne focusses on the real people behind the external facade.
Although she gets to see the persecutions and death at close quarters, Anne tries her best to avoid getting depressed and writes, as if the tragedies around her were a part of a horrible dream that would get over soon.
In her diary she explains more about her liking towards Peter, the son of the Van Daans. Outwardly Peter appears to be a shy, introverted soul in whom Anne discovers a kindred spirit. She starts to spend a lot of time with him and begins to understand how both of them are very much alike in their thinking and behaviour.
The diary reveals her growing frustration on being frequently misunderstood by her parents. There is also a good amount of anger that Anne feels towards her mother because of her mother?s indifferent nature. A lot of her writing essentially relates to isolation, teenage angst, her fears of being discovered and her hopes and dreams for the future in a free world.
She also had an imaginative bent of mind which is evident from the fact that she daydreamed a lot. One of her fondest dreams was that, one day someone would find her diary and she would become world famous. Ironically this wish of hers became true but she was no longer alive to see it when it happened. After being in hiding for nearly two years, their wherabouts were betrayed by someone and Anne?s family was deported to a concentration camp. Anne died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at the age of 15.
Although she was quite young, when she started writing the diary, her writings have a lot of depth and understanding, unusual at such a young age. 13-year-old Anne Frank made the last entry in her diary on August 1, 1944. In 1947, the first Dutch edition appeared. Since then the diary has been published in more then 55 languages.
To survive for 25 months in a cramped hiding, with the constant fear of being discovered, is a harrowing way to live. Today even half a century later, her writings continue to inspire and astonish people and serve as a poignant reminder of the horrors of war and violence.