Anne Frank-Book review by;Ben Steuri

Anne Frank, the Diaries of a Young girl is about a twelve year old Jewish girl who lives a normal life and goes to a normal school with all her friends. Anne’s father's name was Otto but was typically referred to as Pim. Her mother’s name was Edith (might not have been mentioned in the book) but was referred to as mummy. She had a sister named Margot and they got along fine for the most part. Margot was always smarter than Anne and was thought of as being better. When the evil dictator from Germany, Adolf Hitler, begins his long conquest for genocide on all Jewish people, Anne and her family were slowly being deprived of all their pleasures. The threats on all Jews became so strong, that the Frank family moved to an isolated apartment above an office complex. They called it their “Secret Annex”. The “Secret Annex” was located behind a book shelf through a secret door. Directly under them were the office and a warehouse which was regularly active throughout the day. This meant that there would have to be certain hours you could run water and go to the bathroom. They were soon joined by another Jewish family, the Van Daans. This added three more people into the house. There was Mr. Van Daan, Mrs. Van Daan, and Peter who was just a couple years older than Anne. Everyone got to know each other in just a short amount of time and had already made their opinions on one another. In Anne’s opinion Peter was too shy, Mrs. Van Daan was too aggravating and Mr. Van Daan was never a real problem. Anne’s 13th birthday came around and she got a puzzle, some sweets, money, books, etc……and most importantly, a diary. Anne would begin to write in her diary regularly and record what was going on. She believed that paper was more patient than people so she would write anything she wished and for however long she wanted to. Life was getting harder for her to constantly be bothered by everyone and be told what to do. On Tuesday November 17, 1942, the eighth member of the annex arrived. His name was Albert Dussel. Dussel was a dentist who was living alone after his wife fled the country when war broke out. He was chosen by everyone to be the eighth person to join in the living quarters. With such small living quarters and not enough room for all, Anne was forced to share a room with him. Things were getting tight with the extra body, therefore causing more and more problems to occur. Soon, everyone was getting on each other’s nerves and the best way to avoid a potential problem was to just keep quiet and mind your own business. For the next following year, boredom, depression and pessimism were all factors in the daily routine. Good news on the radio would rarely come, and when it did it wouldn’t stay for long. Air raid alarms would go on constantly throughout the night. Anne would often cry about her situation and how much she had missed all her friends. Since she had no connection to the outside world, she would always be wandering what her friends were doing and if they were even still alive (but she would never really know). Finally, on August 4th 1944, this group of people desperate for freedom, are turned in by a Dutch informer. The Gestapo invaded the office, made their way upstairs, and arrested the Jews. They were jammed tightly into a train and taken to the Nazi’s concentration camp where their fate would then be decided. They would all be branded with there own “serial code” numbers, have their heads shaved, and then be put to work. The weak would be killed in some of the most brutal ways. Anne eventually ended up in Auschwitz, one of the worst concentration camps ever built. Anne died in a matter of days before her camp was freed by British forces.
My Reaction:

In my opinion this book was well written for a girl that’s only 12-14 years old. Two years ago when I was at my old school in 6th grade, my class read this book as well and one girl in my class actually knew a holocaust survivor and had her come to the school and share her experiences. She was about 89 years old and still had her number tattooed on her forearm. She told true stories about how she was raped and had six children who all died. It was very emotional for her but it was a good learning experience for us students to learn a part of history firsthand.