Anne Frank is arguably the author of the single most interesting documentation of the events of World War II. She manages to depict a picture of life in hiding during the time in which unspeakable cruelties and atrocities were inflicted upon the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. She achieves this by means of her best friend and moral support during trying times, her confidant, her most treasured birthday gift – her diary, addressed as “Kitty”.
The diary of Anne provides a marvelously fascinating insight of the events of the world war from the perspective of a teenage Jewish girl. Anne Frank was born on 12 June 1929 in Frankfurt, Germany to Otto Frank and Edith Frank-Holländer. She also had an elder sister – Margot Frank.
On her 13th Birthday, 12 June 1942, Anne Frank received what was to become the medium through which she would find a source of comfort and company a month later when she would be forced into hiding. Originally, it was planned that the Franks would go into hiding on 16th July 1942, however, Margot was informed that she would have to go into hiding immediately to avoid being sent to a concentration camp.
Almost immediately upon receiving the diary, Anne began to write regularly. Before being forced into hiding, Anne wrote mainly about ordinary events such as her friends, games and even her grades. However, it was after hiding that she really began to confide in “Kitty”. Anne referred to places she went in to hiding as the “Secret Annex”. Seven days later, her family was joined by the van Pels – a family that consisted of Auguste van Pels, Hermann van Pels, and their son Peter van Pels. The last edition to the household was the dentist Friedrich “Fritz” Pfeffer on November 16th 1942.
She kept writing in her diary until August 1, 1944. Anne was quick to develop an opinion of every member of the Secret Annex. She developed a disliking towards Pfeffer, finding him to be too invasive and intolerable. Similarly, she found Auguste van Pels to be a little too conservative and old-fashioned for her liking, as Anne considered herself to be open-minded. She instantly took a liking to Peter van Pels, and they shared a brief affair. Moreover, she was particularly fond of her father and often stated her preference for him in relation to her mother.
She also enjoyed scrutinizing her relationship with the members of the Secret Annex. She observed changes in herself that came along with puberty and complained about the confined and stuffy environment she was limited to. She wrote about her qualms, her beliefs, her dreams, and how she wanted to become a journalist. She expressed sorrow over her strained relationship with her mother, expressed grief over being misinterpreted by those around her and was constantly trying to correct her flaws. With the passage of time, Anne’s writing style became mature along with the topics she delved into. Anne continued to realize a marked difference between herself and everyone else she knew in the Secret Annex, much to her distress.
On September 3, 1944, all the members of the Secret Annex were shipped from Westerbork for Auschwitz, where everyone was separated. Anne and Margot were transported to Bergen-Belsen at the end of October 1944. In late February, Anne died from typhus. Bergen-Belsen was liberated on April 12, 1945, just about a month after her death.