Diary of Anne Frank

ANNE FRANK'S DIARY

The objective of this study is to explain the living situation of the people in the annex where Anne Frank and her family went into hiding and to examine the excerpts read from Anne Frank's diary and answer as to how Anne sees her own situation compared to that of other Jews and what Anne's emotional response was to the situation. Finally this study will answer as to the limitations of the reader's understanding and the connection points and why Anne Frank's diary became so important and so well-known.

Anne Frank writes in her diary on the 13th day of January 1943 that things are happening which are terrible, both during the day and at night and specifically states in her writings that people are being taken from their homes with only a small sack of belongings and a little bit of cash which are stolen from them as they go. More shocking is that families are being separated from one another and specifically that children return home from school and their parents are no longer there. Women who go out shopping come home and find their homes sealed up and everyone gone.

I. The Living Conditions in the Annex

The living conditions in the annex are described by Anne Frank to be such that encloses all the inhabitants in an environment of fear and one that has Anne imagining the suffering that is to come. Anne Frank feels trapped and imprisoned where she is only able to be a small strip of the blue sky when she looks out the window of the place where she and her family are hidden out along with others. Anne longs to go to the country and to feel the sun and smell the fresh air. There are those who are helping Anne and the others who are hidden out by bringing them food, news, books to read and even gifts on birthdays but regardless of the filling of these needs by those she calls 'the helpers' Anne is a young girl who is trapped in hiding experiencing great fear, depression and a longing to escape from what she believes is a terrible fate that is not questionable but most assuredly awaiting her.

II. Anne Frank 1944

By 1944 Anne Frank writes that it must be due to her being unable to go outside for so long that she has

"become so mad about nature… I remember a time when a magnificent blue sky, chirping birds, moonlight and budding blossoms wouldn't have captivated me. Things have changed since I came here. One night during Whitsun, for instance, when it was so hot, I struggled to keep my eyes open until eleven-thirty so I could get a good look at the moon, all on my own for once. Alas, my sacrifice was in vain, since there was too much glare and I couldn't risk opening a window. Another time, several months ago, I happened to be upstairs one night when the window was open. I didn't go back down until it had to be closed again. The dark, rainy evening, the wind, the racing clouds, had me spellbound; it was the first time in a year and a half that I'd seen the night face-to-face. After that evening my longing to see it again was even greater than my fear of burglars, a dark rat-infested house or police raids. I went downstairs all by myself and looked out of the windows in the kitchen and private office." (Blups, 2008, p. 1)

Anne speaks of how she believes that they should live while they are alive.

III. Alive?

Anne Frank writes on the 6th day of July 1944 that while the inhabitants of the annex are alive, that they do not know why they are alive or even their reasons for being alive. Later in July 1944 Anne Frank writes of her hopelessness and states "It's utterly impossible for me to build my life on a foundation of chaos, suffering and death. I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness, I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too, I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I looked up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too will end, that peace and tranquility will return once more. In the meantime, I must hold on to my ideals. Perhaps the day will come when I'll be able to realize them!" (Blups, 2008, p. 1)

IV. Analysis

While the reader is able to examine the feelings and emotions of Anne Frank, there is a disconnect in being able to really understand the plight of Anne and her family and the other inhabitants in the annex because in today's contemporary world, it is nearly impossible to imagine that someone of an ethnic or religious group would have to go into hiding to avoid such terrible things as were happening to the Jews during this time in history. It is not possible to understand what Anne and her family and the other Jews must have been suffering due to the diversity in today's society and the globalization of the world. However, in today's society were the extremist Muslims, or the jihadists able to overtake the Christian and Jewish world, this same situation could again occur. The hate that was hoisted upon the Jewish people as a whole perpetrated that lives of the Jewish people in such a way that rendered their lives to be an existence of captivity, fear, and which stole not only their lives but their very identity from them imprisoning them in places of hiding to avoid the fates that they witnessed other Jewish families fall to.