Today would have been Anne Frank’s 90th birthday.
As everyone knows, Anne Frank was a Jewish girl who lived in hiding in Holland during World War II. Her diary chronicles her day to day life, her frustrations with her family and the others that were living in such close quarters. She started writing the diary for her own benefit, but after hearing on the radio that people would be interested in reading real life accounts of the war, she began re-writing and editing her entries.
I was not assigned this book at school, which can be attributed to the poor planning of our education system, so my review will not be of a English paper standard. Regardless, this book will stick with me. Anne is funny, very intelligent (she might have been a Belieber) and writes better than many adult authors. The diary is very open and honest, and she has no qualms in writing about her struggles with family or sexuality. This book is a stark reminder that the victims of the Holocaust were regular, scared people, which 70 years later can be easy to forget. In the face of the worst that humanity offers, Anne remains human and compassionate.
“It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”
Kneel Before Pop 