It's very difficult to review a diary, much less one that was never written with the intention of publication, and even much less one that was written under such horrifying circumstances.

I am writing this review in January of 2023; nearly all of us can recall quarantining and sheltering in place during the COVID pandemic, but none of that even compares to what the Frank and van Pels families and Fritz Pfeffer had to endure, having essentially erased themselves from the map and cut themselves off from the outside world (except through the mediums of Otto Frank's business partners), given that the totalitarian Nazi government has deemed them Untermenschen unworthy of existence and wouldn't blink twice as to brutalize and murder them (as would happen to virtually everyone hiding in the Secret Annexe). My point being, reading this text will put in perspective how meager some of our trials and tribulations are compared to how low the world was descending not even one hundred years ago.

The diary, a gift, starts days after her 13th birthday. The diary abruptly ends a few months after she turns 15. You don't have to know the whole story to know what happened.

Much of the diary was written as Anne and her family are in hiding. Her diary consists of reminiscences regarding daily life, reflections on her prior life, and occasional philosophical deliberation. Anne is remarkably insightful for her age. She's no Hugo Grotius, but she is very observant of social dynamics and a very apt student, especially in regards to history and literature. Furthermore, she is an excellent writer for her age and only becomes better. One of the beautiful things about this text is, by virtue of being a diary, we can see Anne grow in real time. The reader truly sees Anne go from a girl to a woman as she reflects on her relationship with her parents and Peter, her growing independence, her aspirations to become a journalist or writer, etc.

Perhaps I will pause for a second and, on the subject of Anne becoming a woman, briefly discuss a controversy: the menstruation passages. Some have accused the book of being pornographic, for Anne occasionally discusses having a period and her one-time desire to touch a female friend's breasts. As to how anyone could find these scenes pornographic is beyond me; Anne is merely reflecting upon the pubescent changes of the body. She does not discuss any of her sexual desires (not that that would even be pornographic per se), and the town is far, far more of wonderment than lust. If anyone decries this book pornographic, they are also denouncing all of humanity that has ever become sexually aware as filthy with it.

But to continue.

Some of the saddest parts of the diary for me are when Anne reflects upon what she will do after the Netherlands are liberated and she can resume her prewar life. We all know what really happens.

A particularly painful theme to consider is the relationship between Anne and her mother. Anne and Mrs. Frank were constantly at odds, and Anne felt at times her mother did not care for her. Nothing could be farther than the truth. After Edith Frank was separated from her two daughters, she had a breakdown and refused to eat. She still had food in front of her, but she was saving it for her daughters, worried that they needed food. She would die of starvation.

If they both knew what was coming, I wonder how their last days in hiding would have been spent.

Perhaps a word on Kitty. I was not aware until reading Anne's diaries that most of them were written as letters to an unknown Kitty. Some have speculated that Kitty refers to a former classmate of Anne's, but really, I think Kitty is merely a fictional character from the outside. Anne needed a connection outside of the Secret Annexe, some link to the outer world.

Truly, Anne Frank's diaries are a message of hope. Hope and love for humanity, as embodied famously by one of the final lines of the book "In spite of everything I still believe people are really good at heart."

I am impressed at how Anne could retain such youthful optimism in spite of the world around her crumbling, the world which would eventually do her in. Now we can debate the merits of this hope. When I think about hope, especially in relation to the Holocaust, I think of the memoirs of Eliezer Gruenbaum (a Kapo at Auschwitz) and his observation that hope kills. It was hope that prevented the Jews from trying to escape the camps, as the guards frequently informed them the Allies would liberate the camp any day now, so there was no need to try anything foolish. It was hope in the form of bars of soap and towels that convinced imprisoned Jews that maybe the officers were leading them to showers, not gas chambers, after all, for why would the Nazis go to all of this trouble? Perhaps it was hope that kept the families hiding in the Secret Annexe for so long, as surely the Americans and Commonwealth soldiers would be marching into Holland before October...

I won't criticized her optimism; perhaps it was what most kept her going in the end, and it is truly an awful thing when a person becomes hardened and cynical so young. Her optimism and hope would have been better spent changing the world as a peacetime journalist or writer, but these traits were still powerful enough to make a dent as is.

Would Anne have wanted her diaries published? I believe the answer is an obvious yes. She reiterates a few times she would like to publish a story based on her experiences.

"You've known for a long time that my greatest wish is to be a journalist, and later on, a famous writer. We'll have to wait and see if these grand illusions (or delusions!) will ever come true, but up to now I've had no lack of topics. In any case, after the war I'd like to publish a book called The Secret Annexe. It remains to be seen whether I'll succeed, but my diary can serve as the basis."

And she already wrote a story based on her experiences. Perhaps more autobiographical than she would have liked, but a heart-warming and ultimately tear-jerking story nonetheless. Certainly something she never would have expected.

"Writing in a diary is a really strange experience for someone like me. Not only because I've never written anything before, but also because it seems to me that later on neither I nor anyone else will be interested in the musings of a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl."

I'm sure this passage has been quoted by many others, but this cruel irony is unsurpassed. If Anne realized how many millions of copies would be made of her diaries... ( )

Varsha has written the best review about this testimony —because it is a testimony, not an ordinary book—. it puts in black and white my opinion about some reviews that give me shivers of dread in view of so much banality.

If a legacy like this is not reminded to generation upon generation, if it doesn't break and open the head of the majorities, we the humans will keep on inflicting to us same such horror day in and day out until committing suicide like species.

So this is not a rating given from the enjoyment level, how would there be enjoyment in something like this? It's more a vote than a rating, a vote given from my conscience and my heart. ( )

Honestly had no words reading this book, it’s heartbreaking ( )

Good biography of a hidden Jewish girl and her family in Amsterdam. I read a couple more later in 2010 about her. The diary is not quite what I thought it was! ( )

Read this and you will change the way you see young people.