Book Review: Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

 

The Diary of a Young Girl is a reprint of a diary kept by Holocaust victim Anne Frank. It was first published by her father, Otto, in 1952 and has been reprinted several times since. It chronicles much of the approximately two-year period between June of 1942 and August of 1944, when Anne was 13-15 years old and was in hiding in the attic of the building in Amsterdam (which is often referred to as the Secret Annex) with seven other people during the German occupation of the Netherlands. 

There are several versions of the book. The version that I have includes a foreword by Eleanor Roosevelt and is just over 240 pages long. My version also includes a 64-page supplement in the middle that provides background information and elaborates on details Frank wrote about in the diary. The book is very chilling to read because it can go from the kinds of things you would expect to read in the diary of a teenage girl, such as teenage angst about disagreements and arguments with her parents and sister, her crush on the boy who was a couple of years older than her, whose family was also hiding in the attic, etc., to her detailing the dread and panic the occupants felt about being discovered, particularly when they would hear noises from the other parts of the building, especially during the hours when it was supposed to be empty. She details a couple of instances in which the building was burglarized, and police investigated, which could have revealed the entrance to the annex where they were hiding. 

She also provides updates on the war and the anticipation that Amsterdam would soon be liberated by the Allies, and wrote about her hopes and plans for her future. Of course, those plans ultimately would never materialize as the group was discovered in August of 1944 and was among the last group of victims sent to the concentration camps from Amsterdam. Of the eight people hiding in the annex, only Anne's father would survive.

Ultimately, this is a book that everyone should read. For many reasons, it is as relevant in 2026 (as of this writing) as it was when it was originally published. It serves not only as a history lesson but as a warning if history is not learned from.