I'm late getting to this book. I read the play version when I was in 9th grade, but this is the first time I've read Anne's actual diary. I don't think I've ever read a more impactful book. Such a remarkable person, and yet so ordinary at the same time. So much potential and zest for life, lost forever. Times this by 11 million and the Holocaust is a staggering, incalculable loss for the world. Yet somehow, this is a mostly hopeful book, despite the terrible circumstances Anne and her annex-mates lived in for two years. Anne's diary has so much to teach us. Little wonder, then, than everyone in the world knows her name. ( )

The cover is not quite right. ( )

I really think the Anne Frank story has been somewhat robbed of its meaning by being used constantly as a teaching aid. I just took in the story as it was, trying not to think about Anne Frank the symbol as opposed to Anne Frank the real human girl who died for no good reason. If you properly understand it, this is a great, powerful primary text. ( )

It was truly sad to read about Anne Frank having so much optimism for a future after the war that she would never have. And that her mother and sister also died in the Internment camps. And truly it seems that Anne could have had a very promising future as a writer. I was surprised to find a diary so well written and by someone as young as 14 and then 15. I wish I wrote as well in my diary entries. I love the way she interacts with her diary like it is a person she finds such solace in confiding in.

Anne was very reflective, particularly of herself. She had a great awareness of her strengths and weakness and strove to better herself. As I read, I began to remember what it felt like when I was younger and had the same kinds of thoughts and feelings as Anne expressed. It is a gift that Miep and Anne’s Father were able to save Anne’s Journal and share her story, as well as part of their stories, with the world. It gives a look into the life of one family affected by Hitler’s reign and his spread of Antisemitism. And though she had to die so young to this hatred and discrimination, her story was thankfully able to live on beyond her, just as she wrote about wanting for her future. Sometimes it is the connection to just one such person’s personal story that brings a better understanding of a such a large scale event in history.

By looking into Anne’s life as she tried to be a “normal teenager” whilst having to hide in fear before eventually being found by the secret police, we see many similar lives that had to be lived this way and that were taken too soon for these same reasons. At the same time, we are able to see through Anne’s story, not just the hate of antisemitism, but the courage of those who took in Jews in defiance of Hitler’s regime. The courage and optimism of Anne, her family, their roommates, and those who helped them, in the face of such hate, is indeed a story not to go untold.

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It made me smile, cry, and caused my heart to break. It was a true look into what this Jewish girl, her family and her friends went through hiding from Nazi's. ( )