[Book Review] The Diary of a Young Girl

The Diary of a Young Girl. Anne Frank (Edited by Otto Frank). Puffin Books (2003). Paperback. 432 pages. 

This book is so good! I wish I read it earlier. Anne Frank wrote it during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands after she had received a blank diary as her 13th-birthday present. The diary recorded two-year life (1942-1944) of a Jewish girl who lost her childhood to the war and Nazi Germany. Because of anti-Jewish legislation, the Franks went into hiding in the "Secret Annex" of an office building in Amsterdam, where Anne's father, Otto Frank, used to do business there. With the help of some Otto's non-Jewish colleagues, the Frank family and four other Jews were able to get food and other supplies.

In Anne's diary, it mentioned the life in the Secret Annex. She frequently wrote about a difficult relationship with her mother, while she considered herself being emotionally close to her father. The diary also showed how the girl's heart had been eaten up with desperation and fear. Every time when the gunfire went off, or when someone besides the helpers came to the office, the Jews would keep quiet and conceal their existence as hard as possible, praying to survive the next day while being frightened that their hiding would be exposed. Those moments was like hell; and for Anne, it seemed like forever. 

Despite living in the dark period, she still had hope and dreams. With her aptitude for reading and writing, she wished she would become a writer. She even wrote some stories while hiding in the Secret Annex. I think her insight about world and people was invaluable, and I could see her improvement in writing through her diary. She was the girl who shone in the darkness. If she was alive after the war, she must have become a good writer. We might have seen her various works from then on.

Here are my favorite Anne Frank's quotes: 

"In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart."

"Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands."

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

"People can tell you to keep your mouth shut, but that doesn’t stop you from having your own opinion."

"Where there’s hope, there’s life. It fills us with fresh courage and makes us strong again."

"As long as this exists, this sunshine and this cloudless sky, and as long as I can enjoy it, how can I be sad?"

"Women should be respected as well! Generally speaking, men are held in great esteem in all parts of the world, so why shouldn't women have their share? Soldiers and war heroes are honored and commemorated, explorers are granted immortal fame, martyrs are revered, but how many people look upon women too as soldiers?...Women, who struggle and suffer pain to ensure the continuation of the human race, make much tougher and more courageous soldiers than all those big-mouthed freedom-fighting heroes put together!"