Independent Reading Project

Anne Frank- A diary of a Young girl

By Suryanshu
Anne Frank
A diary of a
young girl
 About Anne’s Abominable Age
– Anne was born in 1929, Frankfurt and her
parents emigrated from the Nazi Germany for
Amsterdam four years later.
– 1934- Hitler and the Nazis come to power in
Germany.
– Germany invaded Holland in 1940 which
subsequently, resulted in all public schools
closing to Jews an year later.
– In 1942, the German Nazis began deporting Jews
from the Netherlands. They were then seized
and taken to Westerbork transit camp, and from
there they were transported to concentration
and extermination camps across Eastern Europe.
About Anne’s Abominable Age
The following year Jewish deportations
from Holland began, under the guise of
forced labour in the East. At this stage,
Anne’s family decided to go into hiding. The
Frank family remained secluded in the
Annex from 9th July 1942 to 4th August 1944
with four other Jews. Luckily, they were
supported by the non-Jewish Dutch office
workers who kept them alive.
1943- All Jews must leave Amsterdam
On 20th May 1943, approximately 750 Jews reported to
the military police building near Muiderpoort train
station in Amsterdam. They yielded to a measure taken
by Rauter (head of the German SS and the police) that
no Jew could stay in Amsterdam without permission.
Only Jews carrying a so-called Sperre, a proof of
deferral, were allowed to stay on in Amsterdam.
They arrived in Westerbork in the evening. At least two
of them, a couple, were put on transport five days
later to the Sobibor extermination camp, where they
were gassed on 28 May 1943. We do not know what
happened to the others, because their names are not
known.
Rauter was dissatisfied with the low turnout on this
day and so, the Germans held a big raid in the centre
of Amsterdam a few days later. They arrested around
3,000 people, who were subsequently deported to
Westerbork. The Nazis also forced the Jewish Council
to take away the Sperre of a large number of Jews and
to select them for transport to Westerbork.
 Who Was Karl Silberbauer?
Karl Josef Silberbauer tracked down and arrested Anne Frank and her
family as they were hiding from the Nazis in an Amsterdam attic in 1944.
He was a Gestapo officer and was one of the hundreds of Nazi henchmen
who were later recruited by West German intelligence after the Second
World War and worked for the organisation for years, a new book has
revealed.
Anne Frank’s House
For two years during the
Second World War, the
Secret Annexe served as a
hiding place for Anne
Frank and the other
people there. After the
war, it was in a state of
dilapidation. The Anne
Frank House was
established in 1957 as its
main reason or purpose
was to preserve the hiding
place that the Frank’s
lived in.
1942- Anne receives a diary
The Anne Frank’s diary of a young girl is an
inspiring and tragic account of the second world
war revealing the revelations about her
secluded life and how she suffered tremendously
when food was rationed in her Annexe ( secret
hiding place). She gets the diary on her 13 th
birthday- 12th June 1942 as a gift. Her diary gives
us a vivid and poignant reminder of those Jews
who suffered tremendously throughout the war
and the barbaric treatment and the abominable
cruelty that she got when she was arrested by
the Gestapo. Anne wrote her diary while hiding
from the Nazis in a warehouse in Amsterdam.
She was only thirteen at the time of hiding.
More about Anne Frank’s Diary And Where It Is Now
‘Dear Kitty’ is the fictional character Anne
Frank addressed many of her diary letters to.
“Dear Kitty” made her first appearance in Anne
Frank’s diary on 22 September 1942. By the
time her appearance was made in the diary,
Anne had already been camouflaged in the
Secret Annex for over two months. As hiding in
the Annex established boredom, she had
developed an important part of her routine
which was writing in her diary.
Her diary tells the story of her family who live
in Frankfurt, Germany and suddenly have to go
into hiding as a result of Hitler and the Nazi
Party’s treatment of Jews in Europe during the
second world war. They evacuate their house
and reach Amsterdam where they go hiding with
the other Jews. The diary abruptly ends on 1st
August 1944 as a result of her death.
Anne Frank's original red-checked diary is on
display at the museum. It can be found at Anne
Frank House.
 Who was Miep Gies?

Miep Gies was the last living person in

the group who helped hide the Jewish
Frank family in Amsterdam from the
Nazis. Just hours after the Franks
were betrayed and seized by the
Nazis on August 4, 1944, Gies found
the young girl's diary and saved it.
Gies stated that “I am not a hero”.
She was quoted by the Anne Frank
Museum on her hundredth birthday in
2009. She said sincerely, "It wasn't
something I planned in advance, I
simply did what I could to help."
 1942- The Frank
Family goes into hiding
When Margot received a call-up notice to report
for a so called “labour camp” in Nazi Germany
on 5th July 1942, her parents started to become
suspicious and anxious about Margot. They
thought that the call-up notice was not
regarding work and that it was told like that to
deceive them. Therefore, they decided to go
into hiding the next day in order to escape
persecution by the Gestapo.

During the spring of 1942, Anne’s father had

started furnishing a hiding place in the Annex of
his business premises at Prinsengracht 263. He
received help from some of his clients and soon
after, they were joined by four more people.
The hiding place was cramped and Anne had to
keep very quiet and was often afraid.
1944- Anne Frank is
Captured
On August 4th 1944, the Gestapo
plundered and raided the warehouse
arresting eight Jews all hiding behind a
bookcase. As a result, were deported
top Westerbork camp and then to
Auschwitz-Birkenau. In November 1944
Anne arrived with Margot, her sister,
in  Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
where she fell ill and died of typhus in
March 1945.
 1945-Otto Frank returns to Amsterdam

Out of the eight people hiding in the Secret Annex, Otto was the only one
who survived the war. Anne and the others in hiding died in the
concentration camps. Six million Jews were murdered during the
Holocaust. After the liberation of Auschwitz, Otto took six weeks before
he was strong enough to leave the camp. On 5 March 1945, he went to
Katowice, a nearby town. There, Rosa de Winter, who had been in the
same barracks as Otto's wife Edith, told him that Edith had died.
Otto wrote letters to relatives in Switzerland and England. He wanted to
join his relatives in Switzerland, but that was not possible because he
had no proof of recognition. Therefore, he had to join other Dutch
people who were going home. On 2 April, Otto left for Odessa in the
Soviet Union (today’s Ukraine). Odessa is a city on the Black Sea. He
arrived there three weeks later.
 Background of War
• 1936- Hitler’s first military action: German Troops
occupy the Rhineland
Now that Hitler had come to power, he wanted to
repeal the Versailles Treaty. He wanted Germany to
become a military superpower once again.
• 1939- World War II begins, Germany invades Poland
• 1940- Germany Bombs Rotterdam resulting in
Netherlands surrendering
• 1941- Japan Bombs Pearl Harbour and so Hitler
declares war on the US.
• 1943- The Battle of Stalingrad: Germany
Humiliated
• 1944- D-Day: The Allied Forces Land In France
• 1945- Germany capitulated to the Allied Forces,
the Netherlands is liberated
 “Because paper has more patience than
“I see the eight of us in the Annex as
people. ”
if we were a patch of blue sky
― Anne Frank
surrounded by menacing black
clouds. . . . [They loom] before us like
an impenetrable wall, trying to crush
“I get cross, then sad, and us, but not yet able to. I can only cry
finally end up turning my heart out and implore, “Oh ring, ring, open
inside out, the bad part on the wide and let us out!” ― Anne Frank
outside and the good part on
the inside, and keep trying to
find a way to become what I’d
like to be and what I could be if
. . . if only there were no other
people in the world.”-Anne
Frank
“Look at how a
single candle can
both defy and
define the
darkness.” Key
― Anne Frank

Quotations
 Themes in Anne Frank
• Growing Up
• Love and Sexuality
• Human Nature: Generosity and Greed
• World War II: Fear, Suffering, and Hope.
• Inner Self, Outer Self, and Isolation.
 Isolation
“ I can’t bring myself to talk about anything but
ordinary everyday things. We don’t seem to be
able to get any closer, and that’s the problem.”
- by Anne Frank
The quote describes how Anne Frank creates an
imaginary friend called “Kitty” for whom she
writes to as she states that although she has a
loving family and a good group of friends, there
is no one she can truly confide in and be herself
around. Anne narrates how her family was
forced into exile and into hiding.
 Isolation
• Anne, along with many other children and
families, hid in attics and secret rooms. They
could not go outside or even look out without
endangering their lives.  “Still, I can’t help telling
you that lately I’ve begun to feel deserted. I’m
surrounded by too great a void. I never used to
give it much thought, since my mind was filled
with my friends and having a good time. Now I
think either about unhappy things or about
myself.” Anne describes how people are dying in
the war and that she cannot get it out of her
head. She feels guilty in “lamenting” her own
situation that she feels empty despite finding
safety and being with her family.
 Isolation
• ““Deep down, the young are lonelier than the old.” I read this in a book
somewhere and it’s stuck in my mind. As far as I can tell, it’s true.”
• This quote describes that after two years in the Annex, Anne reflects
what life was like for her, Margot and the bouts of listless depression that
Peter caused in the Annex as they had been hiding through their
formative and decisive years. She said that she should have been using to
explore the world and form their own opinions and ideas instead of being
in a sequestered Annex for years. However, since they cannot possibly do
that, they feel their loneliness more acutely than adults. Anne also feels
that young people liker her in the Annex won’t be like the adults they
would have been otherwise.
Readings of my favourite sections of the text
• “Mother, Margot and I are once again the best of buddies. It’s actually a lot nicer that way.”
This is one of my favourite sections because she writes a good deal about her rocky relationships
with her mother and her sister. It also shows how her feelings with her mother has dramatically
changed because a week before this was written, Anne writes about a “run-in” with her mother in
which she said she would not be sad if her mother died. Such events also highlight the fact that
Anne is experiencing the normal ups and downs of her teenage years; however, her emotions are
heightened by her life’s circumstances and cramped living situation.
• “I see the eight of us in the Annex as if we were a patch of blue sky surrounded by menacing
black clouds. . . . [They loom] before us like an impenetrable wall, trying to crush us, but not
yet able to. I can only cry out and implore, “Oh ring, ring, open wide and let us out!”
I really like this quote as it provides a vivid description of living in the Annex after more than a
year. Anne writes metaphorically as she tries to express her fears and the anxiety and
desperation that plague the residents of the annex. Every part of her quote symbolises something.
Nature is perhaps what Anne misses the most about the outside world. Therefore, she describes
her image of feeling claustrophobic and the state of being in entrapment with the image of
nature. The image of the blue sky could be suggesting liberty. Dark clouds may be signifying the
oppression from the Nazis and how the Jews are living at the edge without being arrested by the
German SS.