book review on the diary of anne frank

Read TIME’s Original Book Review for Anne Frank’s Diary

W hen the diary of Anne Frank was first published in English, as Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl , a full decade had passed since a young Anne received the fateful journal for her 13th birthday. Five years had passed since the diary had been published in the Netherlands—on this day, June 25, in 1947, as Het Achterhuis —and more than dozen had passed since its author stopped writing down her days.

And yet, despite the passage of time, her story was something new, a different way of understanding the horrors of the Holocaust. “The resulting diary is one of the most moving stories that anyone, anywhere, has managed to tell about World War II,” as TIME’s book reviewer put it, describing the diarist’s experiences:

As the war dragged on and news trickled in of mass deportations of Jews, Anne became desperate. She had terrifying fantasies about the death of Jewish friends. Often she saw “rows of good, innocent people accompanied by crying children [walk] on and on . . . bullied and knocked about until they almost drop.” With appalling prescience she wrote that “there is nothing we can do but wait as calmly as we can till the misery comes to an end. Jews and Christians wait, the whole earth waits; and there are many who wait for death.” When her pen fell into the fire, she wrote that it “has been cremated.” Though not much interested in politics, Anne tried to understand what was happening to the world. “I don’t believe that the big men, the politicians and the capitalists alone, are guilty of the war,” she wrote. “Oh no, the little man is just as guilty, otherwise the peoples of the world would have risen in revolt long ago! There’s in people simply an urge to destroy, an urge to kill, to murder and rage, and until all mankind, without exception, undergoes a great change, wars will be waged …” But sometimes she cried out from the heart, as if for all the Jews of Europe: “Who has inflicted this upon us? Who has made us Jews different from all other people? Who has allowed us to suffer so terribly up to now? It is God that has made us as we are, but it will be God, too, who will raise us up again.”

Many more decades have passed by now—this year marks the 70th anniversary of Anne Frank’s death at Bergen-Belsen—and her father’s decision to execute her wish to have her diary published continues to prove significant. According to the Anne Frank House , it has since been published in 70 languages.

Read the full review, here in the TIME Vault: Lost Child

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Anne frank: the diary of a young girl, common sense media reviewers.

Inspiring wartime journal reveals teen's inner life.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

Anne Frank's beautifully written diary is a te

Despite their fear, hunger, and harsh living condi

Anne Frank dreamed of becoming a great writer, and

Anne and her family can hear air raids and shootin

Anne writes about her growing sexual feelings; she

Mr. Van Daan smokes cigarettes, and the Franks'

Parents need to know that Anne Frank's diary is a singular, moving look at World War II from a young girl's perspective. The Franks, along with another family, the Van Daans, hide in order to avoid capture during the German occupation of Holland. Aided by friends on the outside, Anne and the others spend two…

Educational Value

Anne Frank's beautifully written diary is a teaching tool on multiple levels. First, it offers a kid's eye view of World War II, written innocently and meaningfully by a Jewish teen whose family is forced into hiding during the Nazi occupation of Holland. Anne follows the events of the war via radio news broadcasts and information shared by visiting friends, as she and her family anxiously await the allies' invasion of continental Europe. Second, the book is enormously telling about the inner life of girls in their early teens. Anne articulately describes her own emotional and physical feelings as she matures, including her struggles to get along with her parents, the beginnings of her sexuality and desire for love, and her wish to make a difference in a troubled world. On another level, Anne also devotes her time to studying history, literature, mathematics, and languages (though she admits she doesn't care for algebra). Her family places a high value on education, and her father becomes her teacher as well while they are in hiding. Anne writes to relieve her stress, share with a "friend," and unburden her feelings, repeatedly referring to a quote: "Paper is more patient than man."

Positive Messages

Despite their fear, hunger, and harsh living conditions, the Franks and their fellow inmates of the "secret annex" show amazing courage and commitment to family. Anne writes movingly about the unjust treatment of Jews, and her goal of helping make the world a better place after the war. Equally inspiring is the relationship between the families in the secret annex and the friends outside who protect and feed them. The Franks also continue to observe their faith and other family rituals while in hiding. Most remarkable is just how normal Anne is, in spite of everything, which in itself offers a reassuring message of resilience for teens and parents of teens.

Positive Role Models

Anne Frank dreamed of becoming a great writer, and she achieved that goal, though she didn't live to see her words published. In the book, she shines through as a very normal teen with talent, spirit, and a hunger for learning. Adults in Anne's diary argue and struggle with each other -- we can only imagine their stress and anxiety -- and Anne is often at odds with the grownups, but all of these people, and their friends on the outside, inspire great admiration for keeping two families alive under extreme duress for two years. The adult Anne most appreciates is her father, who seems quiet, kind, and intelligent.

Violence & Scariness

Anne and her family can hear air raids and shooting. They also regularly receive news of the war, and of friends and acquaintances being taken away to concentration camps, though it is not clear how much they know about what happens in the camps. The threat of violence is always present; the warehouse that contains the secret annex is invaded by burglars several times, bringing not only immediate danger, but the fear that the families will be seen and reported to the German police.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Anne writes about her growing sexual feelings; she says that sometimes she wants nothing but time alone to feel her breasts and listen to the beating of her own heart. She also mentions having once kissed a girlfriend and having asked that friend if they should feel each other's breasts, but the friend refused. Anne also writes a lot about her feelings of "longing" for Peter Van Daan, a teen boy whose family shares the secret annex with the Franks. She and Peter embrace and share their first kisses.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Mr. Van Daan smokes cigarettes, and the Franks' friends on the outside talk about drinking wine at parties.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Anne Frank's diary is a singular, moving look at World War II from a young girl's perspective. The Franks, along with another family, the Van Daans, hide in order to avoid capture during the German occupation of Holland. Aided by friends on the outside, Anne and the others spend two years in the "secret annex": several rooms enclosed in the warehouse of Anne's father's business. While war rages outside, Anne is a normal teen, thinking at least as much about friends, and boyfriends, and how her parents annoy her, as she does about issues of the day. She is a remarkably clever, thoughtful narrator, and her diary is as entertaining as it is a significant historical document. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl is required reading for many middle-schoolers, and it will be rightfully upsetting to many of those readers. Though the events within the diary offer only a glimpse of the horrors inflicted on Jewish people by the Nazis, there is a disturbing element of fear throughout. What we as readers know about what happened to Jews outside the world of the book, and what happened to Anne after the book ends, is inescapable in the experience of reading Anne's diary. Many editions of Anne Frank's diary include an Afterword, explaining the events of World War II and the fate of Anne and the other inmates of the secret annex.

Where to Read

Community reviews.

• Parents say (9)
• Kids say (91)

Based on 9 parent reviews

Follow the Golden Rule. Do unto others what you would have them do unto you.

What's the story.

In 1942, during the Nazi occupation of Holland, a Jewish girl named Anne Frank receives a blank diary for her 13th birthday. Treating the empty book like an imaginary friend named "Kitty," Anne writes faithfully, describing her fondest wishes and feelings. When her family is forced into hiding to avoid capture by the German police, the book becomes like a lifeline for Anne, who describes the fear, hunger, longing, and boredom she experiences during two years living in the place she calls the "secret annex." Trapped in cramped quarters with her parents and sister, three members of the Van Daan family, and an elderly neighbor, Mr. Dussel, Anne begins to mature, even experiencing her first love in the annex, and finds her greatest solace in the written word.

Is It Any Good?

If a novelist were to attempt to invent an authentic young narrator, situation, and story arc, that writer could do no better than the teen Anne Frank did with her diary. ANNE FRANK: THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL is at once instructive, inspiring, and immensely engaging. Readers of any age will feel moved by Anne's great fears and everyday problems. Teens and preteens will identify strongly with her struggles to be understood -- or to be left alone -- and will thrill with her as young love unfolds. This is essential reading for young people learning about World War II, and it's a meaningful book about the inner life of teens.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about what makes Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl such an important book about World War II. What does Anne's diary teach readers about her world, about war? What makes Anne's story so meaningful? How did knowing what happened to Anne and so many other girls like her affect your experience of reading the book?

There's also plenty to address along the lines of Anne's thoughts and feelings as a teenager. She calls her diary "Kitty," and writes as though she were corresponding with another girl. Why does she need a friend so much that she invents one?

Book Details

• Author : Anne Frank
• Genre : Autobiography
• Book type : Non-Fiction
• Publisher : Pocket Books
• Publication date : June 25, 1947
• Number of pages : 258
• Last updated : November 2, 2016

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Revisiting Anne Frank’s Diary — ‘A Warm and Stirring Confession’

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This week, Ruth Franklin reviews a new graphic adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary , which was originally published in 1947 in Dutch. In 1952, Meyer Levin, the author of “Compulsion,” reviewed “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl” for the Book Review . Below is an excerpt.

Anne Frank’s diary is too tenderly intimate a book to be frozen with the label “classic,” and yet no lesser designation serves. For little Anne Frank, spirited, moody, witty, self-doubting, succeeded in communicating in virtually perfect, or classic, form the drama of puberty. But her book is not a classic to be left on the library shelf. It is a warm and stirring confession, to be read over and over for insight and enjoyment.

The diary is a classic on another level, too. It happened that during the two years that mark the most extraordinary changes in a girl’s life, Anne Frank lived in astonishing circumstances: she was hidden with seven other people in a secret nest of rooms behind her father’s place of business, in Amsterdam. Thus, the diary tells the life of a group of Jews waiting in fear of being taken by the Nazis.

Anne’s diary is a great affirmative answer to the life-question of today, for she shows how ordinary people, within this ordeal, consistently hold to the greater human values.

It is this unfolding psychological drama of a girl’s growth, mingled with the physical danger of the group, that frees Anne’s book from the horizontal effect of most diaries. Hers rises continuously, with the tension of a well-constructed novel. On the plane of physical suspense, a series of burglaries in the office-warehouse dreadfully endangers the hidden group.

Psychologically, the diary contains the completely rounded story of the development of a social nature; one lives in suspense, watching it unfold: will she understand her mother; will she surmount her perplexities; will she comprehend her body-changes, so frankly described?

There is anguish in the thought of how much creative power, how much sheer beauty of living, was cut off through genocide. But through her diary Anne goes on living. From Holland to France, to Italy, Spain. The Germans too have published her book. And now she comes to America. Surely she will be widely loved, for this wise and wonderful young girl brings back a poignant delight in the infinite human spirit.

Read the entire review here .

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The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank - review

I was overwhelmed after finishing this book. Anne's writing had so much depth and feeling that it almost felt as if I had travelled to the Secret Annexe and spent time with her. After I had finished reading the book, I considered myself genuinely lucky because I didn't have to live in a cramped little house with eight people; I didn't have to listen to the marching army boots,; I didn't have to hear the army planes soaring high above; and I did not have to listen to the pounding of my heart in terror.

"I don't think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains."

Her courage, bravery and determination stunned me. Had I been in her shoes, who knows how long I would have survived… In fact, I always say that if I ever see a snake, I would die on the spot; seeing a snake would have been just a fraction of the tension she had been under.

I cried as I read the book, especially the section where the family expects a visit from the police and goes through a sleepless night.

"The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As longs as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles."

We all know her story, but here it is anyway…

Anne was a Jewish girl who had to go into hiding during World War Two to avoid the Nazis. Together with seven others, she hid in the Secret Annex on the Prinsengracht 263 in Amsterdam. After almost two years in hiding they were discovered and deported to concentration camps. Anne's father, Otto Frank, was the only one of the eight people to survive. After her death, Anne became world famous because of the diary she wrote while in hiding, which Otto finally published after returning to Amsterdam. Various other biographies, movies and plays followed the diary.

I have been to Amsterdam, but I didn't visit the Anne Frank House. (I went to the Van Gogh museum. I had not read the book then.) But I can still look through the house with the help of the 360 degree tour on Anne Frank's official website.

I hope you are moved by this book. I certainly was. I would request you to read this sad and at the same time heart-warming book and it would mean so much to me and to Anne (I am sure). Please do read it and I would recommend to people of all ages.

"I don't want to have lived in vain like most people. I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I've never met. I want to go on living even after my death!"

Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop .

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The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition Anne Frank EFE Books Published May 15, 2022

Amazon | bookshop | goodreads, about the diary of a young girl: the definitive edition.

The Diary of a Young Girl, often known as the Anne Frank Diary, is a collection of entries from Anne Frank’s Dutch-language diary, which she recorded while a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family evacuated their house in Amsterdam and went into hiding in 1942 when Nazis occupied Holland. Anne Frank died of typhus at the Bergen-Belsen detention camp in 1945 after the family was captured in 1944.

Anne Frank kept a diary throughout this time, recording vivid recollections of her events. Her tale is a fascinating commentary on human tenacity and weakness, as well as a riveting self-portrait of a sensitive and energetic young lady whose promise was sadly cut short. Miep Gies was able to retrieve the diary.

I’d been thinking that I’d read Anne Frank’s diary in school, but I don’t think that’s actually true. I know we read the play based on her diary and then went to see it performed by a local community theatre. I don’t think we read her actual diary, though.

This year, one of the books banned near me is the graphic novel adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary. I would like to read that book, but wanted to read the original first, since the objection to the graphic novel seems to be that something included in it isn’t accurate to the original diary.

Some Facts I Learned from the Foreward of Diary of a Young Girl

Anne initially kept her diary for herself, but when a member of the exiled Dutch government expressed interest in personal witness accounts written during the war, Anne began editing her diary entries with the intent on publishing her writing someday.

Anne’s father put together the entries that formed the first publication of the book. He opted not to include journal entries referencing Anne’s sexuality (something not discussed at the time in young adult literature) and negative thoughts about her mom and other people she lived with in the Secret Annex.

When Anne’s father, Otto Frank, died, the diary became the property of the Netherlands State Institute for War Documentation, which investigated and proved the diary authentic. After that, the diary was published in its entirety.

After that, the sole heir of Otto Frank, who owned the copyrights of Anne’s diary, sought to publish a new, expanded edition of the work. This contains about thirty percent new material compared to the original publication.

She Was Thirteen

As I read the entries to Anne Frank’s diary, it struck me again and again how young she was when she wrote them. Though she intended to publish something based on her diary, we don’t have a way of knowing what she would or would not have wanted publicly known. How would she have felt about the things she wrote about her mom and sister– and even her dad– if she’d been the family member to survive the war? We will never have the chance to know.

She wrote so many insightful things, too. She wrote about the anxiety and depression of being in hiding. Her family would hear rumors of arrests, torture, and death in concentration camps. They endured nighttime bombings, knowing if any of them were injured, they couldn’t safely get medical help. And if the building in which they were hiding was destroyed, they’d have nowhere to go.

She wrote about falling in love, about growing up, and about the changes in her relationships with her family members as she grew.

Anne Frank Wanted to Be a Writer

Every life lost in the war and Holocaust is tragic, but there is something especially tragic about the loss of this young writer. Even as a teenager, she had such a gift with words. What would our world have been like if she’d been able to pursue that gift and share it with us for decades more? What would she have written about her life in hiding and about the aftermath of the war if she’d lived to tell us?

I feel like her story would be important anyway as a record of her experiences, but I’m sure what’s made it so enduring is Anne’s ability to articulate her thoughts and experiences in a way that transcends her age. Some passages in the diary are so powerfully written. And yet, in others, she reminds us that she’s an early teenager with hopes and dreams and frustrations about her family, her studies, and her relationships.

I’m so glad I read this book. I think Anne Frank’s story more than deserves its place of honor. This book is so much more than a teenage girl’s diary. It’s an account of a young girl forced into hiding with her family, coming of age during World War II. It’s the story of a bright young mind who finds humor in the everyday goings on around her. This is the story of a girl whose life was brutally ended far too soon.

I highly recommend reading THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL by Anne Frank if you haven’t already. I also think it would be worth rereading as an adult because I know that impacted my perspective.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages  10 up.

Representation Anne, her family, and the others living in the Secret Annex are Jewish.

Profanity/Crude Language Content Anne uses an offensive racial term for biracial people. (She doesn’t appear to be using the term to be purposely offensive, but in the context of the language commonly used at the time.)

Romance/Sexual Content Anne reports she once asked a female friend if she could see her breasts and wanted to kiss her. She says she feels “ecstasy” when seeing female bodies. Anne laments that her parents never spoke openly with her about sex. She mentions speaking openly with Peter about the bodies of men and women. Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content Anne’s family celebrates Hanukkah and St. Nicholas Day together.

Violent Content Anne hears rumors of citizens being executed. She hears rumors about people taken to concentration camps. Her family hears they get very little food or water, that thousands must share a single bathroom, that their heads are shaved, and that many are murdered. Anne worries about friends from school and others her family knew. She sometimes has dreams of them asking her for help.

Anne very briefly mentions that someone in her family once tried to end their life.

Drug Content An adult drinks wine and then does not sleep well. Another adult smokes, and others tell him he should quit. Other scenes reference people drinking alcohol. Anne takes Valerian drops to combat feelings of anxiety and panic during her time in hiding.

Note:  This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL: THE DEFINITIVE EDITION in exchange for my honest review.

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Book Review

Anne frank: the diary of a young girl.

• Autobiography , Drama , Historical

Readability Age Range

• Doubleday, a division of Random House

Year Published

This book has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine .

Plot Summary

From June 1942 to August 1944, a Jewish girl named Anne Frank kept a diary of her experiences in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, after the Netherlands fell to Nazi control during World War II.

Anne begins her diary entries by talking about her 13th birthday party, the day when she received the diary. Anne says she is keeping a diary because she doesn’t have any true friends and feels alone, despite having a loving family. She does not feel that she can confide in her parents or her 16-year-old sister, Margot, although she cares for them. Anne decides to give her diary a name, Kitty, and to write to Kitty as if the diary is the close friend she has always wanted.

Anne provides information about the social situation in Amsterdam. The Nazi party of Germany has extended its influence to Amsterdam, and Anne’s family is subject to a series of laws restricting the behavior of Jews. Anne is disheartened by the restrictions, but she still finds enjoyment by spending time with her friends.

In July of 1942, Anne’s family receives a call-up notice for Margot, which means that Margot will either be imprisoned or taken to a concentration camp. Rather than send Margot away with the SS (the German defense corps), the entire family decides to go into hiding.

Miep and Jan Gies are non-Jewish friends of the Frank family, and they help hide the Franks in secret rooms in Otto’s office building. Only four workers remain in Otto Frank’s office, and all of them are aware of the Franks moving in. Anne calls the hidden rooms the “Secret Annex.” The Franks share the space with another Jewish family, the van Daans, who have a 15-year-old son named Peter.

Many small domestic disagreements characterize the Franks’ and van Daans’ life in hiding. Mrs. van Daan does not want to share her linen sheets with the Frank family, and Mrs. Frank does not want to share her china dishes with the van Daan family. Mrs. van Daan avoids doing her share of the housework, and Anne annoys Mrs. van Daan with her constant chatter.

September of 1942 marks the start of Anne’s first school year in hiding. In October, she hears news that all of her Jewish friends and their families have been sent to concentration camps and now live under horrible conditions. An eighth resident of the Secret Annex, Albert Dussel, arrives in November. Anne does not get along with Mr. Dussel, with whom she must share a room, but she treats him with respect to keep the peace in their cramped home.

In the following months, the residents of the Secret Annex try to live as normally as possible, although they constantly fear their hiding place will be discovered. Anne begins to enjoy her studies, particularly Greek and Roman mythology, but interpersonal tensions in the Secret Annex are still increasing. Meals are growing sparser; Mr. Dussel hoards his private stash of food and refuses to share.

June of 1943 brings Anne’s 14th birthday. Her father writes her an encouraging poem, and the rest of the people in the Secret Annex give her small presents. Mr. Voskuijl, a friend of the family, is diagnosed with cancer and can no longer bring news of the outside world to the Secret Annex. In July, the warehouse below the Secret Annex is burgled and many of the Franks’ and van Daans’ food supplies are stolen. Air raids on Amsterdam continue throughout the summer. In September, Anne hears news of Italy surrendering to Allied forces.

In October of 1943, the van Daans run out of money, which further strains the relationships in the Secret Annex and causes the van Daans to fight even more frequently. In January of 1944, Anne begins to have romantic dreams about a boy named Peter whom she used to know, and at the same time she begins pursuing a friendship with Peter van Daan. Gradually, Anne becomes fonder of Peter van Daan, whom she disliked when they first went into hiding. Anne becomes more sympathetic to Mr. and Mrs. van Daan because she realizes her mother is the reason for many of the harsh inter-family squabbles.

In February 1944, Anne learns that Britain may invade the Netherlands. The residents of the Secret Annex discuss what they will do if the Germans evacuate Holland. Anne begins to visit Peter regularly, and the two of them often talk in his room.

In March, Anne reflects on her time spent in the Secret Annex and concludes she has grown into a wiser and kinder person as a result of her circumstances. Anne believes that she was a silly child before she came to the Secret Annex, and she is glad she has grown less superficial. Also in March, one of the men who brings food to the Secret Annex is arrested, depriving them of important supplies.

Peter and Anne’s friendship gradually becomes romantic. Anne worries that her sister, Margot, might also be in love with Peter, but Margot tells Anne that she is not jealous of their relationship. The adults in the Secret Annex tease Peter and Anne about their frequent visits, but they allow them to keep meeting.

Anne begins to make longer entries in her diary, and in late March of 1944, she hears a Dutch radio broadcast which says that after the war is over, diaries and journals kept during the war will be collected as valuable writings. Anne writes with renewed dedication because she dreams of becoming a journalist and knows she must hone her composition skills. In April, there is another break-in at the warehouse below the Secret Annex, and Anne fears they have been discovered. In May, the men of the household expect that England will invade the Netherlands, but the anticipated invasion doesn’t happen.

On D-Day, June 6, 1944, Anne hears a broadcast about the Allied forces landing in Normandy, France. Later in June, Anne celebrates her 15th birthday. She determines that Peter van Daan likes her more as a friend than as a girlfriend, but they remain close and enjoy each other’s company. Mrs. van Daan and Mr. Dussel grow more and more agitated with Anne and argue with her about the flaws they perceive in her character. In August, Anne again grows hopeful the war will end because an attempt has been made to assassinate Hitler. Anne’s diary ends in August 1944, just before the Secret Annex is discovered and its residents are sent to concentration camps.

Christian Beliefs

Anne mentions that the anti-Jewish laws in Amsterdam prohibit Jews from visiting Christian homes. Anne’s father has given her mother’s bicycle to Christian friends for safekeeping since Jews are not allowed to use bicycles.

Mr. Dussel lived with a Christian woman out of wedlock.

Anne says Christians in the Netherlands are also living in fear because many of their sons are sent to fight for Germany.

Mrs. van Daan is prone to exaggeration, and she says she will be baptized as a Christian when the war is over. Shortly thereafter, she says that she wants to go to Jerusalem because she’s only comfortable around other Jews.

Anne’s father decides to buy Anne a children’s Bible so she can learn something about the New Testament. He determines he will need to give it to her on St. Nicholas’ Day instead of Chanukah because stories about Jesus do not seem like an appropriate Chanukah present.

Peter says that life would be easier for him if he were a Christian. He does not plan to convert to Christianity after the war because he would never feel like a true Christian, but he plans to hide his Jewish identity in the future.

Anne quotes a phrase that one Christian’s actions reflect only on that Christian, while one Jew’s actions reflect on all Jewish people.

Other Belief Systems

Anne and her family are Jewish. Anne attends school at the Jewish Lyceum. She describes one of her schoolmates as very Orthodox. Anne says that her family’s life has been full of tension because they’ve been worried about their relatives in Germany, who have been oppressed by the anti-Jewish laws instituted by the Nazi party. Anne says that two Jewish uncles fled to North America after the 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom in Germany.

Anne lists many anti-Jewish laws in Amsterdam. Since 1940, Jews were required to wear yellow stars on their clothing to identify themselves as Jews. They were not allowed to ride bicycles or streetcars or to drive their own vehicles. They were only permitted to shop between 3 and 5 p.m. and were not allowed outside in public between the hours of 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. They were not allowed in movie theaters or other places of entertainment, and they were prohibited from playing sports of any kind. Jewish children were segregated into Jewish-only schools.

Anne’s mother makes Anne read from Jewish prayer books written in German, but Anne is not interested in the prayers and wonders why she must be so devout.

The residents of the Secret Annex have a small Chanukah celebration where they exchange gifts and briefly light a menorah.

Anne says nightly prayers. She once refers to herself as the Benjamin of the Secret Annex, referring to the biblical character that was the youngest of Jacob’s sons.

Anne writes that she sometimes feels God is testing her to make her stronger and turn her into a better person through many trials. Anne prays to God to help her captured Jewish friend Hanneli. Anne wonders whether Hanneli ever truly believed in God.

Anne begins to worry that despite all the hardship she has endured, she still does not have enough faith in God. Anne believes that God is sending her dreams of her old friend Peter to relieve her troubles. Anne says that all frightened, lonely or unhappy people should go outside somewhere and be alone with God and nature for a while. She says that if a person enjoys nature’s simplicity, the person will understand that God wants people to be happy. Anne asserts that God has not forsaken her and never will. She says she is grateful to God for giving her the ability to write and express herself.

Anne longs for the day when she and her family will be seen as human beings and not only as Jews. Anne says that God has allowed the Jews to endure affliction but that He will also lift them up again. God has never deserted the Jews, Anne says.

Anne believes any type of religious belief will keep a person morally accountable for their actions.

Peter mentions that the Jews are God’s chosen people.

The residents of the Secret Annex hold a non-religious celebration of St. Nicholas’ Day.

Authority Roles

Anne says her parents love her. Anne describes her father as the most adorable father she’s ever seen. She says her parents are more interested in her general health and happiness than her academic success.

Anne’s father, Otto Frank, takes special care to provide his family with as many comforts as he can. He transports many of Anne’s favorite belongings to the Secret Annex before they go into hiding. Anne later says that her father understands her completely. Anne adores her father and often feels jealous of his approval of her sister, Margot, who never seems to cause any trouble for the family. Anne says that she tries to model her behavior after her father’s, because he is the person she loves most in the world. When Anne’s father tells her to stop seeing Peter in private, she writes him a spirited letter telling him to leave her alone and allow her to make her own decisions. Her father tells her that he does not deserve to be spoken to so harshly, and Anne grows ashamed of her own angry attitude.

While in hiding, Anne feels that she is growing more distant from her mother, who seems to find fault with Anne while treating Margot with extra gentleness and understanding. Anne is embarrassed by the fact that she often bursts into tears when having disagreements with her mother. Anne feels like she is a stranger to her mother, who does not know Anne’s thoughts and feelings on even the most basic subjects. Anne frequently remarks about her mother’s criticism of her, though she rarely mentions what aspect of her behavior has upset her mother. Anne gets so angry with her mother that she writes about wanting to slap her and yell at her.

Mr. Frank suggests that Anne should help her mother more with the household chores, but Anne decides not to help because she despises her mother. Anne says she can easily envision her mother’s death, but she cannot bear to think about her father ever dying. Anne eventually reads her earlier journal entries and is ashamed of talking about hating her mother.

After more than a year in hiding, Anne and her mother go through a brief phase with no major disagreements. Anne attributes their more peaceful relationship to her own maturity and to her mother’s steady nature.

Anne is disappointed in her mother’s assertion that her mother sees her daughters more as her friends than offspring. Anne wishes her mother would not try to be her friend but would instead fulfill a true motherly role and show her a good parental example of how to behave.

Anne mentions that she loves and misses her grandmother, who passed away a few months before Anne received her diary. Mr. and Mrs. van Daan have frequent arguments and sometimes shout at each other. Their son, Peter, seems embarrassed by them. Mr. van Daan yells at Peter when he disobeys.

Mrs. van Daan hits Peter’s arm when he makes a sarcastic remark. Peter hits her arm in return before receiving another punch from his mother. Peter roughly pulls his mother around the room by her wrists to keep her from hitting him again. Mrs. van Daan says that in their old home, she would have hit him with a belt for being so insolent.

Profanity & Violence

Anne says that Peter scoffs at Jesus Christ and takes God’s name in vain.

A rat bites Peter’s arm, and the wound bleeds heavily.

Anne hears that Jews in concentration camps are put to death by poisonous gas. In Amsterdam, the German Gestapo is known for shooting innocent people whenever they cannot find the particular person they are seeking.

Sexual Content

Anne mentions that she has many male admirers at school. Anne has heard rumors that a boy in her neighborhood, Sallie, has already had sex with someone. Anne says that several of the boys in her class have filthy minds, but she does not give examples of their behavior.

The adults are angry when they learn that Peter has read a book intended for adults only. Anne never says if the book has any sexual content, but she refers to the book as forbidden fruit.

Mrs. van Daan wears tight dresses and pats and touches Mr. Frank to flirt with him. Mr. Frank does not respond.

Everyone in the Secret Annex teases Anne for lying down on the same bed as Mr. van Daan, but Anne is quick to say in her diary that she would never want to sleep with Mr. van Daan in the way they were suggesting.

Anne reads a book called Eva’s Youth by Nico van Suchtelen, which contains mentions of prostitutes. The book also mentions menstruation, which causes Anne to long for her own menstrual cycle to start so that she can be a “true” adult. Anne discovers white smears in her underwear. Her mother says this indicates that her period will start soon. Anne wishes she could use sanitary napkins, but they are no longer available for purchase, and she says that her mother’s tampons are not intended for women to use until after they have had a baby. Later, when Anne reads her own early writings, she is embarrassed by her open discussion of such indelicate subjects.

Mr. Dussel is said to have lived with a Christian woman, and their sexual relationship is implied.

Anne is supposed to write new words she learns, and she makes note of brothel and coquette but does not define them.

When Anne enters puberty, she is somewhat self-conscious about the changes in her body, but she is also proud of becoming a woman and says that her monthly period is like a sweet secret. Anne says she has the urge to touch her own breasts. Anne has had discussions about sex with her father, who has told her that she is too young to understand physical desire, but when Anne has romantic dreams about a boy named Peter Schiff, she believes that she understands adult desires well.

Anne writes about spending the night with her female friend Jacque and being curious about her friend’s body, which she had never seen. Jacque refuses Anne’s request that they seal their friendship by touching each other’s breasts, but she allows Anne to kiss her. Anne says that she feels ecstatic when she sees nude female drawings in art books.

Anne says that sex has only been a topic she has heard discussed in hushed and horrified tones. Anne’s mother once told her never to discuss sex with boys, and Anne wishes her mother would give her a more thorough explanation of the facts of life.

In January of 1944, Anne and Peter van Daan begin a friendship tinged with romantic desires. Anne dreams of kissing Peter. By April, Peter and Anne sit with their arms around each other, and Peter kisses Anne’s cheek. They kiss each other’s cheeks several more times before kissing on the lips in May 1944. They spend time alone every evening and always kiss goodnight.

Mrs. van Daan says she has never explained sex or reproduction to Peter, and she assumes that her husband has not. Neither parent knows where Peter has obtained any knowledge of sex. Anne has learned a few details about human reproduction from a sex education book.

Peter shows Anne that his cat Boche is a male by pointing out the cat’s sexual organ. Anne knows the Dutch word for vagina, but neither she nor Peter is sure of the word for penis. Peter says he plans to ask his parents to tell him the word for the male sexual organ.

Anne says that loving someone in the romantic sense will eventually include physical love. She says that if two people are really in love, they do not have to be married so long as they are committed to each other for life. Anne believes that purity before marriage is a silly concept and says that it wouldn’t be a problem for a man to enter a marriage with some previous sexual experience.

Peter is more knowledgeable about sex than Anne is, and she asks him many questions about sex, although she doesn’t discuss his answers in detail. Anne wonders if Peter actually knows how female genitals look because the way he talks makes it seem like he still lacks some key knowledge of the female form. Anne writes about how she used to think that urine flowed from a woman’s clitoris and how her mother feigned ignorance when Anne asked her about what her clitoris was. Anne writes a detailed description of female genitals in her diary, describing how their outward appearance changes while standing and while sitting. Later, Anne describes female genitals to Peter who is surprised to learn the details.

Discussion Topics

Get free discussion questions for this book and others, at FocusOnTheFamily.com/discuss-books .

Additional Comments

Alcohol: Anne receives a bottle of grape juice for her 13th birthday. She comments that it tastes like wine. Anne says that in the Secret Annex, alcohol is only used for medicinal purposes. Mr. Dussel receives a bottle of wine for his birthday.

Smoking: Peter receives a lighter for his 16th birthday, although he does not smoke. Mr. van Daan smokes frequently.

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Book reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. The inclusion of a book’s review does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.

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

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“When the world was torn by grief and war. When the Jews were killed in German halls. A group of eight went into secret hiding. To save themselves from atrocities and chiding. A girl of 13 lived it, wrote it all. To tell the world – A forlorn story of her early and unfortunate fall”[/perfectpullquote] [perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] “….announcements of their deaths appear in the papers frequently. These outrages are described as “fatal accidents”. Nice people, the Germans! To think that I was once one of them too! No, Hitler took away our nationality long ago. In fact, Germans and Jews are the greatest enemies in the world” – Anne Frank , Friday 9 th October, 1942 [/perfectpullquote] [perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] “Who has inflicted this upon us? Who has made us Jews different from all other people? Who has allowed us to suffer so terribly up till now?” – Anne Frank, Tuesday, 11 th April, 1944 [/perfectpullquote]

I am sure many of us would have heard of Anne Frank and her diary which became famous by the name of The Diary of a Young Girl .

If you have heard about her, then I must say that you should read the book if you haven’t done it already.

For those of us who haven’t heard about her, Anne Frank was a girl who lived during World War 2 in Nazi Germany occupied Holland (Now Netherland).

Because of the atrocities of Nazis against the Jews, the family of Anne Frank, along with another Jew family and a Jewish doctor, went into hiding together.

They lived in hiding for 25 months before they were discovered by the Gestapo and sent to the concentration camps to die, where only Otto Frank, Anne’s father, survived.

After the war, he discovered Anne’s diary and got it published by the name The Diary of a Young Girl . This is a 13-year-old’s personal diary in which she has written about her daily experiences in the hiding from 14 th June, 1942 till 1 st August, 1944 a few days before she was discovered by the Gestapo.

This book, as many critics say, is dull and boring because in a majority of the entries she speaks of her trifles with her family – Mom, Dad and sister Margot and with the other family – the Van Daans (name changed).

Critics have said a lot and will say a lot and some of the points they mention cannot be denied.

But I am here to tell you why one should read this book.

The Diary of a Young Girl has great historical value and I believe that this diary is Anne’s gift to the human race and the world, the very world which tore her life apart and couldn’t give her a fair chance at her own life.

In those dark days, she wrote of hope; of how she wanted to be a writer; of how she would never be just another housewife; of how she will treat and bring up her children.

She mentions of love and the time she will be able to see the sun and moon and enjoy the beauty of nature again as it is something which nobody can deny her.

In one of her last entries, she writes about the hope that the war may soon end and she might be able to go to school. It was so sad to read all that because I know how the story ends.

That she had to go is so sad, for she would have been a great writer. When I read about her, the Coldplay’s song “Paradise” comes to my mind.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“When she was just a girl, she expected the world, but it flew away from her reach, so she ran away in her sleep”.[/perfectpullquote]

I want to write much more, but space is a major constraint here and in the end, I would just like to quote these words by John F. Kennedy –

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About the Author

Sankalpita singh.

Meet Sankalpita, the bookworm extraordinaire! 📚 With an insatiable appetite for reading (over 100 books annually!), she embarked on her book blogging journey in 2013 to share her boundless love for books. What started as a quirky hobby has blossomed into India's top-tier book blog, bookGeeks – the reigning champion for five consecutive years! 🏆 With a whopping 7,00,000 loyal readers monthly, Sankalpita's blog is like a literary wonderland. 📖✨ But that's not all – she's not just conquering the written word but also ruling the YouTube realm with her channel, bookGeeks India, dedicated solely to the art of book adoration, and boasting a fan base of over 24,000 subscribers! 🎥📚 Her ultimate goal? "To serve a nation through literature." 🇮🇳 With a passion for Indian literature, she's on a mission to ignite the reading spark in both kids and grown-ups alike. 🔥 When she's not nose-deep in a book or typing away, you'll find her brainstorming with her hubby or captivating her 8-year-old daughter with enchanting tales. And every now and then, she indulges her creative spirit through painting and nurturing her garden. 🌻🎨 Join Sankalpita on her bookish adventure as she brings the world of literature to life, one page at a time!

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The lost treasure of azad hind fauj | piyush rohankar | book review, author sunil joshi talks about his book ‘kachche pakke rang zindagi ke’ (कहानी संकलन) | hindi interview, wildhood awakened: stories of a childhood near chilika lake | amruta kaustubh | book review, related articles, 27 souls: spine chilling scary stories | vaidehi taman | book review, सुनो माँ (suno maa) | संदीप भूतोड़िया (sundeep bhutoria) | पुस्तक समीक्षा.

Book Review: The Diary of Anne Frank

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Recently I’ve been listening to the unedited version of The Diary of Anne Frank read by Helena Bonham Carter for the 70th anniversary of the book which was released in 2012.

When this commemorative version of Anne’s diary was released, Meryl Steep also recorded “ a moving video message, sharing with viewers how Anne Frank’s values have shaped her own, including holding on to hope when the world has entered dark times “, which we’ve included here:

Tens of millions have read  The Diary of a Young Girl since it was first published in 1947 and it has been translated into more than 60 languages!

What is it that is so compelling about the diary of a young girl, written between her 13th birthday and when she was arrested with the rest of her family two years later?  This book is her very personal, deeply moving account account of what it was like to be literally hidden away in a secret “ annex ” in her father’s office building in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation of the early 1940’s. The Frank family lived in hiding from 1942 until 1944 when they were discovered, arrested and taken to prison. Except her father Otto, Anne and her family members who had been hiding, tragically died in concentration camps in 1945 just months before liberation.

In fact, according to the Guardian , “ Amsterdam was occupied by the Nazi regime from 1940-1945, during which time 80,000 Jews were rounded up and deported to death camps. Only 18,000 survived .”

Some of the themes that young Anne writes about during the two years she and her family hid from the Nazis during World War II bring to mind echoes of this year of global coronavirus related lockdowns and quarantines. Of course, the virulent threat from the German regime that causes the Frank family to go into hiding is far more sinister than anything we are experiencing here in the United States. And yet it is Anne’s incredible honesty and vulnerability that allows us to imagine on a very human level, her longing for freedom, for fresh air, and for the chance to fully embrace her potential.

“I must have something besides a husband and children, something that I can devote myself to!  I want to go on living even after my death!  And therefore I am grateful to God for giving me this gift, this possibility of developing myself and of writing, of expressing all that is in me.”

Most of us will thankfully never know the reality of being persecuted, of having to wear an identifiable mark (see below) on your outer garment and  or of living under the threat of being ripped away from all you know and sent to a concentration camp – all of your belongings confiscated – while those who dare resist are often killed on the spot.

According to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., “ Holocaust is a word of Greek origin meaning “sacrifice by fire.” The Nazis… believed that Germans were “racially superior” and that the Jews, deemed “inferior,” were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community. During the era of the Holocaust, German authorities also targeted other groups because of their perceived racial and biological inferiority:  Roma (Gypsies), people with disabilities, some of the Slavic peoples (Poles, Russians, and others), Soviet prisoners of war, and Black people. Other groups were persecuted on political, ideological, and behavioral grounds, among them Communists, Socialists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and homosexuals. ”

Jewish People Were Made to Wear Yellow Stars During the Nazi Occupation of Amsterdam

Anne’s diary was originally published by Anne’s Father Otto in 1947, the year his youngest daughter would have turned 18.

Her cousin Bernd Elias (Buddy), commented that, “ when [he] knew Anne, she was a girl like every other girl .” And yet Anne was documenting her pre-teen and teenage thoughts and feelings against a backdrop of increasing horror. One heartbreaking story Anne relates is when Bep, one of the Dutch women who helps the hiding family in a myriad of ways, sees an older Jewish woman thrown half-naked and beaten on her doorstep. She has to deliberately suppress her human response to open her door and rescue the old woman, as doing so would lead to Bep’s own death.

“ Hatred, of course, and racism are still working away all over the world. They are with us. It is so important that children learn to respect all religions and all nationalities .” Bernd Elias’ words ring especially true when considering current situations where some groups around the world are being persecuted, eradicated, and imprisoned for their religious beliefs and cultural identity.

Hearing Anne’s adolescent concerns and longings in the midst of bombings and the daily disappearance of her fellow Jews in Amsterdam causes me to pause and reflect on where other young people in our world today are subjected to this type of injustice. In particular, this story causes me to think about the current plight of Uighur people that Julie Clark talked about in an article for Culture Honey.  It horrifies me to learn of the tactics that the government in China is using against this Muslim minority people form the Xinjiang region of northern China. And yet there are so many accounts surfacing of Uighurs that are being systematically persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, terrorized and yes, even killed. The government is destroying their places of worship and the social fabric that ties them together as families and communities.

Tragically, according to Amy Qin writing in the New York Times , “Nearly a half million children have been separated from their families and placed in boarding schools so far.” “State media and official documents describe us[ing] boarding schools as incubators of a new generation of Uighurs who are secular and more loyal to both the party and the nation.”

Anne Frank’s Original Diaries and Short Stories

Thinking about the story of Anne Frank from the perspective of our global climate leads to a large question.

What can we do to ensure the millions of Uighurs detained and imprisoned by the Chinese government will not  suffer the fate of the millions of Jews, like Anne, who senselessly lost their lives?  This is something that Culture Honey founder Georgia Sanders examines in her new article , talking about raising awareness with calls/emails and boycotting certain products.

At one point Anne writes in her diary, “ I have reached the point where I hardly care whether I live or die, the world will keep on turning without me, and I can’t do anything to change events anyway. I’ll just let matters take their course and concentrate on studying, and hope that everything will be alright in the end. ” I can imagine those who created the strategy for the Uighur children covered in the New York Times article quoted above, wish that they would similarly fall into despair.

Many of us who becoming aware of the enormous violence being committed by the government of China in the Uighur community are struggling with a growing sense of powerlessness. The laws have become so draconian that Uighurs in China are being imprisoned for simply practicing their religion (see here ). According to Amnesty International , those Uighurs living in the diaspora are also subjected to tactics of intimidation. However, it is important to remember Anne’s final entry in her beloved diary, “ that in spite of everything I believe that people are good at heart .” Let us together see what love can do. *

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Heidi Pidcoke, a psychotherapist specializing in trauma, completed a Master's in Somatic Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco in 1995. Heidi has continued to explore her passion for healing and growth which incorporates the body by studying modalities such as Voice Movement Therapy, Core Energetics and Radical Aliveness. She has lived and worked on several continents including South America, Africa, Europe and North America. Heidi is currently consulting with the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) while maintaining her clinical private practice. (www.heidipidcoke.com)

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Diary of Anne Frank: Book Review

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Published: Mar 20, 2024

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

Book Review of  Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl The Children’s Book Review

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

Written by Anne Frank

Ages 13+ | 400 Pages

Publisher: Bantam | ISBN-13: 9780553577129

What to Expect: Autobiography, Holocaust, and World War II.

Anne Frank was a young girl with a promising future ahead of her, having moved with her family from Germany to Amsterdam in 1933. She could not have foreseen the hardships that lay ahead for her and her loved ones when the Nazis invaded. They were forced to hide in a small attic with limited resources during World War II’s harsh and challenging times.

Throughout this difficult period, Anne courageously and meticulously documented her family’s journey through her diary, a precious artifact that would later be discovered in an attic in Amsterdam. She captures her family’s struggles, their constant fear of discovery by the Nazis, and the bravery of their helpers. Despite the complex and harrowing circumstances, Anne’s diary is filled with hope and a desire for a peaceful future. Her words and thoughts remind us of the importance of embracing unity and compassion for one another in times of war and beyond.

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl  is a powerful and emotional read that urges us never to forget the horrors of war and the necessity of striving for peace and love. This renowned classic is a poignant testament to the resilience of the human spirit that should be cherished and experienced by all.

Buy the Book

About the author.

Annelies Marie Frank (12 June 1929 – February 1945) was a German-born diarist and writer. She is one of the most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Her diary, The Diary of a Young Girl , which documents her life in hiding during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II, is one of the world’s most widely known books and has been the basis for several plays and films.

What to Read After Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

• Anne Frank: Her life in words and pictures from the archives of The Anne Frank House , by Menno Metselaar and Ruud van der Rol
• Number the Stars , by Lois Lowry
• Inside Out and Back Again , by Thanhha Lai
• A Long Walk to Water , by Linda Sue Park

Bianca Schulze reviewed  Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl . Discover more books like Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by reading our reviews and articles tagged with Biography .

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Bianca Schulze is the founder of The Children’s Book Review. She is a reader, reviewer, mother and children’s book lover. She also has a decade’s worth of experience working with children in the great outdoors. Combined with her love of books and experience as a children’s specialist bookseller, the goal is to share her passion for children’s literature to grow readers. Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, she now lives with her husband and three children near Boulder, Colorado.

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How did Anne Frank's diary become one of the most read, most important and most inspiring books in the world?

More than a diary

Anne didn’t just keep a diary. She also wrote tales and planned to publish a book about her time in the Secret Annex. After the war, Otto Frank fulfilled her wish.

Since then, Anne Frank's diary has been translated into more than 70 languages. Discover the story behind the diary of Anne Frank.

The two versions of Anne’s diary

Holocaust diaries by Anne Frank and other young writers

The authenticity of the diary

The diary is not a forgery. Here are the most important facts about the diary.

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

Anne Frank was a 13 year Jewish girl whose diary written during her time in hiding from the Nazis during the Second World War showed the horrifying picture of that time as well the undying strength and positivity of a young girl who still chose to see the beauty in the world and believe in the goodness of people. A girl whose diary entries have given strength, inspiration and hope to generations of readers around the world ever since its release in 1947, read the publication history, summary, main message, best quotes and book review of the Diary of Anne Frank called “ Anne Frank The Diary of a Young Girl ” in this post below.

About Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl:

Title and Author:  Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl Print Length: 354 Pages Publication Date:  1947 Language: Dutch (translated in English and all major languages in the world) Genre:  Diary, Autobiography, Classic, Inspirational

Anne Frank The Diary of a Young Girl Book Review:

As the name suggests, the book was, in fact, a diary written by a thirteen year old Jewish girl, Anne, while she was in hiding with her family from the Nazis during the Second World War. Anne had been gifted this diary on her thirteenth birthday and in it she wrote her thoughts and daily life experiences while she and her family were hidden in the cramped annex of their company office until their discovery two years later. A touching and an eye opening account of their days spent in the annex with meagre facilities, no outside contact and the constant fear of discovery is very innocently described in Anne’s diary.

An informal journal by a little girl, the diary of Anne Frank has since become a major piece of historical importance that presents an unbiased and unhampered picture of the times of the Nazi regime. The sad and grim circumstances that forced an affluent Jewish family to leave their home and go into hiding are beautifully described. The inhuman and cruel treatment of the Jews by the Nazis and the social circumstances of those times are truthfully narrated which help us empathize and imagine the plight of the Jews at that time.

The diary is written in the first person where Anne calls it “Kitty” and addresses her entries to it. Told from the point of view of a young girl, the writing is simple and straightforward giving us an insight into the thought process of Anne who dreamed of peaceful times and like any other girl her age, of boys.

Things I Liked:

A very moving book, I could relate to Anne who doesn’t, sometimes, understand the purpose of all that is happening around her. Never having witnessed and lived in war like times, I can’t fully understand all that she went through but the whole experience left me thankful of the peace that we have. The atrocities and inhuman treatment of the Jews was so shocking that I just couldn’t make myself come to terms with the fact that any human could be so cruel. Very mature and an intelligent girl, Anne had the right to live and make her dreams come true but she was denied that and this was something that saddens and angers. Futile bloodshed that can never be justified left so many people denied their full lives and happiness. 

Thoughtful, touching and sometimes also amusing, her account offers a commentary of Anne’s courage, wisdom, vulnerability, fear and also her hope and dream of a better future that was tragically cut short with her capture by the Nazis.

Although I’m only fourteen, I know quite well what I want, I know who is right and who is wrong. I have my opinions, my own ideas and principles, and although it may sound pretty mad from an adolescent, I feel more of a person than a child, I feel quite independent of anyone.”    Anne Frank Quote from The Diary of a Young Girl

Storytelling:

I laughed, cried and prayed along with Anne while reading this book and although I knew how the book ended yet I fervently hoped for the end to be just like the one Anne had dreamed about. She was hopeful till the end and saw the best in everyone. She was robbed of her dreams, future and a full life all in the name of religion and a wasteful war that could have easily been avoided.

Where there’s hope, there’s life. It fills us with fresh courage and makes us strong again.”    Anne Frank Quote from The Diary of a Young Girl

It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”    Anne Frank Quote from The Diary of a Young Girl

Conclusion:

A must read for everyone,  Anne Frank The Diary of a Young Girl is an eye opening account of the destruction, pain and misery afflicted on thousands just on the whim of one person. A book that is definitely a priced entry for any reader’s must have book collection, I give  Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl 5 super shiny stars out of 5 and Njkinny recommends this book to all readers above the age of thirteen. Go read this perspective changing book that imparts the important message of staying strong, being positive and that all people have the right to live free irrespective of their faiths and religions. No one has the right to discriminate and deny another living being the right to a happy, equal and free existence.

I wish to go on living even after my death.” Anne Frank Quote from The Diary of a Young Girl

Anne Frank still lives on in the hearts of millions of readers who read her diary and get to know a girl who lived bravely and died bravely. A diary full of wisdom and inspiring words that have given hope, strength and motivation to generations of readers ever since its release in 1947 and that still continues to inspire, this book is a must-read and a perfect gift to give your loved ones. I feel so sad and yet proud of Anne who chose to see only beauty and hope for a happy end even in the darkest moments of her life. Cheers to her and I am so glad I got to know her through her diary. This book is my absolute favourites and deservedly so. Go read it now!

A few more Anne Frank Quotes I Loved:

I don’t think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.”    Anne Frank Quote from The Diary of a Young Girl

As long as this exists, this sunshine and this cloudless sky, and as long as I can enjoy it, how can I be sad?”   Anne Frank Quote from The Diary of a Young Girl

The weak die out and the strong will survive, and will live on forever”    Anne Frank Quote from The Diary of a Young Girl

Also read the Best Anne Frank Quotes that Inspire, give Hope and instill Strength:

Best Anne Frank Quotes from The Diary of a Young Girl that Inspire, give Hope and instill Strength

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6 thoughts on “ anne frank | the diary of a young girl | book review ”.

I haven't read this in so long, I have to pick it up again. Thanks for stopping by my blog. New follower =)

A lovely review NJKinny! I read it as a teenager and it broke my heart too, the fact that I knew how it really ended, but Anne kept on hoping till the end that things would turn out well!

Thanks for following Heather.. Do re read it..This is one of those books that can be read any number of times without any loss in their appeal..:)

Thanks Reet..:) Yeah it is heart breaking and also so inspiring that despite all the hardships Anne was always hopeful..:)

I read this book first when I was in class 8…It had an overwhelming effect on me !…After that I've read this book a dozen times till date.. A nicely done review… 🙂

A inspiring story of a young girl ,its very interesting to read this book. And also it heart breaking but it was very hopeful to read it ….

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ANNE FRANK'S DIARY

The graphic adaptation.

by Anne Frank ; adapted by Ari Folman ; illustrated by David Polonsky ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 2, 2018

A different format distills and renews Frank’s achievement.

An illustrated abridgement of the Nazi-era classic.

Anne Frank (1929-1945) as graphic-history heroine? Adapter and composer Folman and illustrator Polonsky (Animation and Illustration/Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design) worked together on the Oscar-nominated animated documentary Waltz with Bashir . According to Folman, they were approached by the Anne Frank Foundation about adapting the diary into both “an animated film for children” and a graphic novel that would introduce it to a new generation of readers. He then faced a “significant challenge”—to render the whole diary in graphic form might take a decade to complete and some 3,500 pages, while a more manageable “edit” could feature only 5 percent of the original text. Though he opted for the latter course, the abridgment retains the spirit of the whole as the perceptive and increasingly self-aware teenager navigates the usual tensions of adolescence—puberty, romance, family issues—within a nightmarish retreat from the Nazi atrocities intensifying outside their secret hideout. She feels guilty about any everyday cheerfulness she experiences in the face of so much death and destruction, and she succumbs to bouts of depression despite her typical resilience. “Even deep sleep brings no redemption,” she writes. “The dreams still creep in.” Those dreams bring out the best of the illustrations amid the depictions of the everyday confinement in which Anne, her family, and others are hiding. They were captured toward the end of the war, after the end of the diary, when the gas chambers were on the eve of being dismantled. Though she wasn’t aware of her fate, Anne writes with much awareness of not only herself, but a potential readership, with the literary aspirations of someone who feels she has “one outstanding character trait…a great deal of self-knowledge. In everything I do, I can watch myself as if I were a stranger.”

Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-101-87179-9

Page Count: 160

Publisher: Pantheon

Review Posted Online: June 26, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | HISTORY | HOLOCAUST | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | GENERAL GRAPHIC NOVELS & COMICS | GENERAL HISTORY | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

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IN THE NEWS

SEEN & HEARD

by Elie Wiesel & translated by Marion Wiesel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 2006

The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...

Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children. 

He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions. 

Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006

ISBN: 0374500010

Page Count: 120

Publisher: Hill & Wang

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | HOLOCAUST | HISTORY | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | GENERAL HISTORY

More by Elie Wiesel

BOOK REVIEW

by Elie Wiesel ; edited by Alan Rosen

by Elie Wiesel ; illustrated by Mark Podwal

by Elie Wiesel ; translated by Marion Wiesel

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS

From mean streets to wall street.

by Chris Gardner with Quincy Troupe ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2006

Well-told and admonitory.

Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.

Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.

Pub Date: June 1, 2006

ISBN: 0-06-074486-3

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006

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

Purchase options and add-ons.

• Print length 304 pages
• Language English
• Lexile measure 1020L
• Dimensions 4.2 x 0.8 x 6.9 inches
• Publisher Bantam
• Publication date June 1, 1993
• ISBN-10 9780553296983
• ISBN-13 978-0553296983
• See all details

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com review, from the publisher, from the inside flap, about the author, excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved., product details.

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0553296981
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bantam; Reissue edition (June 1, 1993)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780553296983
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0553296983
• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 11+ years, from customers
• Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1020L
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4.8 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.2 x 0.8 x 6.9 inches
• #53 in Jewish Biographies
• #165 in Jewish Holocaust History
• #3,085 in Memoirs (Books)

About the authors

Annelies Marie Frank (German pronunciation: [ʔanəliːs maˈʁiː ˈʔanə ˈfʁaŋk]; Dutch pronunciation: [ʔɑnəˈlis maːˈri ˈʔɑnə ˈfrɑŋk]; 12 June 1929 - February 1945) was a German-born diarist and writer. She is one of the most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Her diary, The Diary of a Young Girl, which documents her life in hiding during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II, is one of the world's most widely known books and has been the basis for several plays and films.

Born in the city of Frankfurt, Germany, she lived most of her life in or near Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Born a German national, Frank lost her citizenship in 1941 and thus became stateless. The Frank family moved from Germany to Amsterdam in the early 1930s when the Nazis gained control over Germany. By May 1940, they were trapped in Amsterdam by the German occupation of the Netherlands. As persecutions of the Jewish population increased in July 1942, the family went into hiding in some concealed rooms behind a bookcase in the building where Anne's father worked. In August 1944, the group was betrayed and transported to concentration camps. Anne and her sister, Margot, were eventually transferred to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they died (probably of typhus) in February or March 1945, just weeks before the camp was liberated in April.

Otto Frank, the only survivor of the family, returned to Amsterdam after the war to find that Anne's diary had been saved by one of the helpers, Miep Gies, and his efforts led to its publication in 1947. It was translated from its original Dutch version and first published in English in 1952 as The Diary of a Young Girl, and has since been translated into over 60 languages. The diary, which was given to Anne on her thirteenth birthday, chronicles her life from 12 June 1942 until 1 August 1944.

Bio and photo from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Unknown photographer; Collectie Anne Frank Stichting Amsterdam (Website Anne Frank Stichting, Amsterdam) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Yosihumi Ooisi

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Movies & TV Shows About Anne Frank's Life, Ranked

• Anne Frank's diary continues to inspire filmmakers worldwide, with adaptations spanning different decades and countries.
• The story of Anne Frank and her time in hiding during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands has been portrayed in various movies and TV series.
• Some adaptations, like "The Diary of Anne Frank" (1959), are highly acclaimed, while others, such as "Love All You Have Left" (2018), face criticism for their execution.

This article contains discussions of concentration camps.

The story of Anne Frank has been portrayed many times since her diary was first published in the 1940s with some versions of her story ranking higher than others. Born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1929, Annelies Marie Frank was a young Jewish girl who kept a diary while she was in hiding with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in what she called The Secret Annex. She and her family were eventually discovered in August 1944, and Anne later died with her sister Margot in the Bergen Belsen concentration camp in early 1945 (via Anne Frank House ).

The sole survivor of the Annex, Anne's father, Otto Frank, had Anne's diary published in 1947 and it was a huge success worldwide, particularly with teenage girls. The diary continues to be a bestseller to this day, with film and television adaptations coming from all over the world. From an Italian version that came out in 2009 to an Oscar-winning movie in 1959, Anne's story has continued to inspire millions of filmmakers and actors everywhere.

10 Best Movies About The Holocaust

Mi ricordo anna frank (2009 tv film), starring: rosabell laurenti sellers (anne frank), panna szurdi (hanneli goslar), emilio solfrizzi (otto frank).

This version of Anne's story may not be as well known, but it is one of the few movies on this list to feature scenes in a concentration camp. Following Anne's relationship with her friend Hanneli Goslar, the film jumps back and forth quite a bit to make sure that the entire story is covered. The film even covers Otto Frank years later as he tells his daughter's story to children in a classroom. Unfortunately, the jumping back and forth makes it hard to follow all the action, and unless audiences decide to read a complete biography of Anne Frank, it can be confusing.

The Diary of Anne Frank (1980 TV film)

Starring: melissa gilbert (anne frank), maximillian schell (otto frank), joan plowright (edith frank), james coco (hans van daan), doris roberts (petronella van daan).

Anne Frank's years in the attic inspired multiple movies about her life in the 1980s and this movie was one of the first in the United States. With Little House on the Prairie 's Melissa Gilbert as the titular character and Maximillian Schell as Otto Frank, it is one of the few on the list where the casting does not work for the film. Gilbert's American accent feels out of place in the setting of the film and some of the pronunciations, such as the name of Anne's cat, are way off. The only versions of the film that are available to watch on YouTube have too much background noise.

Love All You Have Left (2018 movie)

Starring: caroline amiguet (juliette forster), sara wolfkind (anne frank), michael christopher shantz (jeff forster), kathleen sheehy (melanie forster).

Love All You Have Left may not be about Anne Frank's story, but it does cover the depths of how losing a child can impact someone's life. It is also one of the only movies that is set during modern times. After she loses her daughter in a shooting, Juliette Forster soon finds out that a girl is hiding in her attic who claims to be Anne Frank. With very stiff acting and camera angles that are repetitive, the movie borders on being disrespectful to Anne's memory. According to Kimber Myers from the Los Angeles Times , the film is " a maudlin drama that inspires eye rolls rather than tears ."

The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank (1988)

Starring: mary steenburgen (miep gies), paul scofield (otto frank), lisa jacobs (anne frank), huub stapel (jan gies).

Another adaptation that came out in the 1980s, The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank focuses on Miep Gies as the central character. While it may not be the most accurate in terms of how each character looks compared to the real-life version, it is one of the most historically accurate versions made. The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank won an Emmy Award in 1988 for the script and has a beautiful music score by Richard Rodney Bennett that accompanies the scenes perfectly. Mary Steenburgen has a long and interesting acting career and this film compliments her ability to act out each scene with grace and poise.

My Best Friend Anne Frank (2021 Netflix film)

Starring: aiko beemsterboer (anne frank), josephine arendsen (hanneli goslar), stefan de walle (otto frank).

This is another film that focuses heavily on Hanneli Goslar's friendship with Anne over the years, including the last time she saw her at Bergen Belsen. It is the first Dutch film made about Anne and is currently streaming on Netflix. The film does not hold back from the realities of living in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam during World War II, which includes a concentration camp scene. While the film goes back and forth from happier times in Amsterdam to the concentration camp reality, it is a strong film with plenty of touching and intense moments that remind audiences to value the friendships they have.

Anne no Nikki (1995 anime film)

Starring: reina takahashi (anne frank), seiko tano (margot frank), fumie kashiyama (edith frank), g kat (otto frank).

One of the two animated films on this list, 1995's Anne no Nikki is an anime film following Anne's story. Similar to other films and TV series on this list, Anne no Nikki follows Anne's story up to the arrest. While there are a few differences in the plot, such as who accompanies Anne to the Annex, this movie tries to stay as loyal to the book as possible in terms of setting. With beautifully painted backgrounds that represent certain moments, Anne's story is brought to life for audiences with sensitivity and emotion. There is no sugarcoating anything and the music also helps balance out the mood.

Where Is Anne Frank (2021 animated film)

Starring: emily carey (anne frank), ruby stokes (kitty).

The second animated film on this list, Where Is Anne Frank follows the tale of Kitty, Anne's imaginary friend and the recipient of the diary entries. Kitty tries to learn where Anne is and what happened to her in modern-day Amsterdam while learning more about Anne's life. The film is a good introduction for children who are learning about Anne Frank in a kid-friendly setting and teaches messages of tolerance and goodwill. Like Anne's real story, the film does not end on a happy note, but it is a good introduction to the diary for children and spreads Anne's message of helping others from a fresh perspective.

The Diary of Anne Frank (2009 TV series)

Starring: ellie kendrick (anne frank), tamsin greig (edith frank), geoff breton (peter van daan), iain glen (otto frank), felicity jones (margot frank).

Starring Ellie Kendrick as Anne, the BBC version of the story follows Anne's life in hiding. While there are brief moments of her life before she went into hiding, the series makes sure to stay true to real life. Kendrick's portrayal of Anne is feisty and kind, just as Anne was in real life. The show stays true to the book and even quotes from the diary on several occasions. All the actors also bear a resemblance to their real-life counterparts, which makes this series one of the best adaptations out there in terms of historical accuracy.

A Small Light (2023 TV series)

Starring: bel powley (miep gies), liev schreiber (otto frank), joe cole (jan gies), amira casar (edith frank), billie boullet (anne frank), ashley brooke (margot frank).

Based on Miep Gies' story, A Small Light shows the reality of what the helpers went through while they were assisting the people in hiding. The series shows how Miep Gies and her husband Jan helped hide the Franks and their friends while trying to live a normal life themselves. While there are a few creative liberties that are added for drama, the series was well received by the public and by critics, even boasting a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The series also shows aspects of Miep's story that are not commonly shown in other Anne Frank adaptations, making this one of the best ones out there.

Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001 TV film)

Starring: hannah taylor-gordon (anne frank), jessica manley (margot frank), tatjana blacher (edith frank), ben kingsley (otto frank), brenda blethyn (auguste van pels), lili taylor (miep gies).

This film is broken up into two different parts, through Anne's life in hiding and her life in Bergen Belsen. As the film's intro states, Anne Frank: The Whole Story is based on Melissa Müller's biography of Anne and is one of the few films on this list that shows Anne in the concentration camps. There is no sugarcoating anything for drama and the film uses events seen in the diary to help move the story along. With an all-star cast including Schindler's List actor Ben Kingsley as Otto and a then 13-year-old Hannah Taylor-Gordon as Anne, there is a good balance of telling the facts without making it maudlin.

The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)

Starring: millie perkins (anne frank), joseph schildkraut (otto frank), richard beymer (peter van daan), shelley winters (petronella van daan), diane baker (margot frank), ed wynn (albert dussel).

The very first film about Anne Frank, 1959's The Diary of Anne Frank is considered to be the best adaptation of Anne's story . It was an instant success, garnering public and critical praise as well as winning three Oscars. Otto Frank personally approved Millie Perkins to play the title role. There are a fair number of creative liberties to allow for drama, but the film stays with the spirit of the story. While it is one of the longest movies on this list, at exactly 3 hours even with some events being left out, it is a good version of Anne's story and honors her memory in every way.

Sources: Anne Frank House , Los Angeles Times

PCS Theater to Present THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK This Spring

The production will run from April 19 to May 4.

PCS Theater will present "The Diary of Anne Frank," a poignant dramatization by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett , recipient of the 1956 Tony Award for Best Play and Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. This iconic production, based on the book "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl," will run from April 19 to May 4, captivating audiences with its powerful narrative and exceptional performances.

Set against the backdrop of World War II, "The Diary of Anne Frank" chronicles the emotionally touching story of a young Jewish girl hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam. Anne's diary, filled with her hopes, dreams, and fears, serves as a testament to the resilience of the human spirit even in the darkest of times.

Director Joel Rosenwasser leads a stellar cast and crew in bringing this timeless tale to life on stage. Audiences will be moved by the performances of Jessica Gollin as Anne Frank, alongside a talented ensemble including Autumn Scouten, Kevin McPeak, Erin Hall , Glen Macnow, Leah O'Hara, Andrew Rubin, Paul Kerrigan, Samantha Solar, and Breen Rourke. Supporting the incredibly gifted local actors are a talented production team.  Theodora K. Psitos (Producer); Katie Pakkebier (Stage Manager); Reba Ferdman and Betsy Berwick (Costume Design); Murrie Gayman (Set Design); David Toll (Lighting Design); Dina Bogino (Properties Design); Suzanne Hall (Scenic Artist).

The production will run on the following dates:

Friday, April 19 at 8:00 pm Saturday, April 20 at 8:00 pm Sunday, April 21 at 2:00 pm Friday, April 26 at 8:00 pm Saturday, April 27 at 2:00 pm and 8:00 pm Sunday, April 28 at 2:00 pm Thursday, May 2 at 7:30 pm Friday, May 3 at 8:00 pm Saturday, May 4 at 8:00 pm

In addition, PCS Theater is thrilled to offer a relaxed performance on Friday, April 26 at 8:00 pm, providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all theatergoers. There will also be an Actor & Designer Talk Back session on Sunday, April 28 at 2:00 pm, offering audiences a unique opportunity to engage with the creative minds behind the production. PCS Theater is committed to accessibility, with the venue being ADA accessible and accommodations available upon request. Tickets can be purchased online at PCSTheater.org .

Special Rates:

Group discounts are available! Inquiries can be mailed to [email protected] .

Students can enjoy a special rate of $10 per ticket. PCS Theater is a member of Art-Reach Philly, where members of the ACCESS program are entitled to discounted tickets.

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