Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl Mass Market Paperback – June 1, 1993

I first read this book (the edited down version) when I was nine years old, I received the book as a gift, and again when I was twelve for school. I recently re-read the book (the new un-edited version) and coming from an entirely different perspective now that I am a thirty year old mother.

First, I want to say that I absolutely believe that this book should still be included in school curriculum. The only thing 'new' about it is that pages and passages were added. Nothing was taken out and the translation was not changed. Reports that the book is so different that it's nothing like the original are false. Reports that the story is different are false.

There is no reason for the edited version to still be used because children read Anne Frank's diary around ages 11-14 years old which was around age when Anne herself was writing the diary. Anything that could be seen as supposedly "inappropriate" can be seen on daytime television with a PG or maybe PG-13 rating. Especially these days, there's definitely nothing in there that is beyond the norm for the average tween-teen. I think that continuing to use an edited version is insulting to Anne Frank's memory. Not only that, but it provides valuable information about the time period and gives more relateability to the diary.

The passages which are included in the new version are not anything that the average 8-12 year old girl does not already know about her own body and the "birds and the bees", and are so few and short that they comprise a tiny percentage of the work itself. The romance between herself and Peter is very chaste and nothing untoward happens in the story. (Spoiler: they hold hands and a kiss a few times. that's it.) The passages that some see as inappropriate are not at all titillating, a medical textbook is more erotic. Coming from a mom's point of view, I would definitely allow my daughter to read the unedited book.

I think this should stay on school book lists because some kids these days see the Holocaust as something that happened a long time ago that is meaningless now, without realizing that genocides and racial motivated violence still happens every day. I think it seems to them like just another thing they have to learn about along with The Hundred Years War and the Crusades.

Anne Frank's diary gives kids perspective and helps makes the tragic loss of life during WWII a tangible thing they can understand. The diary is so relate-able and reflects so many feelings that all teens have had, that she becomes three dimensional to them and no longer a just some person that died a long time ago. This sensitivity towards the loss of a life is what we need now in the times we live in.

As we read the diary we see how much potential was lost not only in Anne but in her entire family. Anne Frank was an intelligent and well-read young woman who studied multiple languages and had an analytical mind. I believe we lost a shining beacon of women's intelligence when she died. She was an emerging feminist, activist, and writer! I think she would have been an amazing woman who would have gone on to do great things. All that potential was lost millions of times over during WWII, and this is what we feel deep in our hearts upon closing the book.

Most of the book is about the privations and hardship of living hidden away in the "annex". There is very little coverage of the violence of the times or much that is going on in the outside world because they had little knowledge of it since they were hidden. I think this is partly why some schoolchildren report the diary is boring. It does get repetitive at times, which reflects the feelings of those living in hiding. They had to wait and wait in fear, not knowing what the next day would bring.

There are many self-reflective passages where Anne laments being picked on by the adults in the annex, wondering if she will live up to the expectations they have for her, hoping she can reach her goals. There is a thread of hope apparent even in her most depressing writings. I think these are the parts I think teens find most relate-able because all teens want to achieve things, please their parents, and find hope in their moments of despair.

Toward the end of the diary we see just how difficult things have become for the family which is not always accurately represented in the movie versions of the diary. They were starving, never full at meals, and having to exist off moldy and tasteless food. There was one bathroom for eight people and at times the toilet could not be flushed. They had threadbare, holey clothing which was too small. The cat used the bathroom wherever it wanted towards the end, and their helpers came less and less frequently as circumstances got worse and worse. Their conditions deteriorated in ways that children living in the comfort of the 21st century could never imagine. It's so important for kids to read about these conditions and contrast them with their own in order to not only feel grateful but to feel sympathy for those who lived in these terrible times.

The Kindle version had fairly large print and worked just fine on my phone and tablet with no issues. The new version has a new introduction and I believe the epilogue has changed a bit as well. I enjoyed the footnotes feature which allows you to touch the number which takes you to the footnotes page, then when you touch the number again it takes you back to the page you were originally on. I had no problems purchasing or downloading.

If you want to know more about what happened to Anne Frank after the diary, there is a book called "The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank" by Willy Lindwer which includes stories from people who met her in the camps.

Another recommendation is the author Eva Schloss who was Anne Frank's stepsister, who wrote about surviving Auschwitz.

I first read this when I was 10 and felt so connected to Anne. I was obsessed for a while with learning more about her life. I'm 36 now and reading it again for the first time. I think it effects me even deeper now. Watching her grow and mature far beyond her young years. It's eerie and tragic reading her talk about her dreams to be a famous writer someday that she thinks will never happen. It's heartbreaking knowing she never knew that her journal did indeed bring her that fame as she once spoke of. I relate to so many of her thoughts and feelings. I feel like I'm there in the secret annex with her and as though she's speaking to me, as I'm sure millions before me have felt. This is a truthful view into the human soul and life of us all that I think is relatable to everyone that nobody should skip. It's a mandatory read as far as I'm concerned.

I delayed about 45 years in reading Anne Frank's diary. Too painful, knowing that they would all be captured, sent to the camps, and only Papa Frank would survive. That was a silly reason.

This is extraordinary. Every entry, from Anne's first through the later entries -- after she had become a teenager.

Still, I had to stop now and again to weep.

One incident: on March 27, 1943, members of the resistance group led by Willem Arondeus blew up a birth records office in Amsterdam. Anne could see the light from the fire, and learned that the Amsterdam fire department had poured so much water on the building that any records that survived the explosions were washed to a pulp. Anne recorded her happiness.

It happens that my mother and father-in-law were members of the Arondeus Group, although they did not participate in the bombing. They were hiding-in-plain-sight two children and my mother-in-law was pregnant. I learned the story almost 40 years ago, and then met the one survivor: Anns Roos ("Anje Roos Jeerling" in some accounts). Anns was sent to a factory in Germany because, at least in 1943, the Nazis would not execute an "aryan" woman. The rest of the resistance group were shot, after a show trial that July -- including her brother Cornelius.

At the trial Willem Arondeus, who was gay, said, "Let it be known that homosexuals are not cowards". (See Wikipedia)

I am delighted to know that Anne Frank could see the light from the fire, and felt hope, and even had a laugh.

An amazing read and an amazing glimpse of what life is like in hiding. This book tells this bit of history way better than any historian's documentary. Very well written. It's hard to believe that a child actually wrote these diary entries. This child wrote in detail for 2 years about life in hiding. I got goose bumps each time I read when she wrote something like "I'm sure no one will even read this diary" or "no one will even see this". It's 70 years later and Anne's diary is still being read. I'm so glad that I read this as an adult. "Dear Kitty", I will never forget.