I've read this book ten times and it never gets old. Every young adult should read this!

I have finally, at the age of 33, gotten around to reading Anne Frank's diary. There is little point in adding another glowing review. Everything has been said. But after reading some of the negative reviews, I feel compelled to respond. It seems there are two primary criticisms (Three if you count the ridiculous idea that the diary is a forgery, which I won't dignify). The first is that Anne doesn't talk a lot about the war or the holocaust. To this, I can only say, that's all for the better. She was a thirteen year girl living in total isolation from the rest of the world. She really had no special expertise or light to shed on these subjects. There are many excellent history books on both of these subjects. The second criticism is simply that the book is boring. She talks too much about her day to day life, her thoughts, her feelings, and so on. To this I can only say, what part of "Diary of a Young Girl" is ambiguous? The annex was her entire world. What do you expect her to write about?

What a few don't seem to understand is that this is not a "book about World War II", or even about the holocaust. If that is what she had written about, the diary wouldn't even be a footnote in history. This is the story of one young girl, in her own voice, trying to figure out what it means to live, to grow, and to be human in the most depraved and inhumane circumstances. She wrote about her hopes, her dreams, her fears, and occasionally about peeling potatoes. But the thing that some people don't see is that even when writing about the most mundane topics, she was actually writing about people, about how they endure and falter, about how they come together and how they fall apart. And despite the enormous injustice she endured, she always made the case for optimism, for hope in humanity, and for love of life. I don't know that I can agree with her, having adopted a more cynical outlook, but that just increases my admiration for her and my shame in myself for not living the gift of live to the fullest.

The other thing that stands out is the maturity of the writing. After reading just the first entry, I was blown away by the eloquence and clarity of Anne's writing. I could hardly believe that I was reading the prose of a 13 year old girl. She does write a lot about the trials and tribulations of being a teenage girl, but the voice of the writing does not feel childish at all, except perhaps in its optimism. The world lost a great talent and a brilliant soul to those murderous barbarians.

This is a difficult book to digest, and two days after finishing, I'm still haunted by it. Anne's optimism, faith, and courage inspired me throughout, but made the knowledge of what would come at the end all the more a bitter pill to swallow. All that we can do is to honor her by making sure her story and the story of millions of holocaust victims are never forgotten and never happen again. So far, we're not doing so well with that.

And there, I've done it. I've written a review. I didn't intend to, but I did. So go out and read it, if you haven't.

I knew that the Diary of Anne Frank was the second most purchased book in the world, the Bible being the first, but I still wasn't sure if I wanted to read it.
In our eighth grade class, our teacher is big on the Holocaust. And when she first mentioned that we would be learning about it, I was excited; to a point. I know that most kids my age think 'ooh blood and guts and gore' and think it's cool or funny or a joke. They all watch horror movies that almost make them immune to real life experiences that involve real horror or real tragedy.
So before we started learning about it, I wanted to know more in depth about how it was like to be a teen during the Holocaust. So, I summed up the guts and checked it out at the library. When I started reading it, I couldn't stop. Anne and I are so similar. She's always happy-go-lucky despite the terrible circumstances; she's very curious, careless, and sometimes a trouble maker. And even though I'm not Jewish, I think it's extremely easy to worm your way into her shoes. You learn so much, and it's really emotional, knowing that Anne Frank, this person you've grown attatched to, and her family, everyone except her father Otto Frank, has been killed. Slaughtered innocently by the Nazis, a cult led by Hitler that cornered them just because of their religion or their looks.
I think that if anyone wants to learn about the Holocaust, this is a must read; it's an amazing journey that might not end so happily, but Anne never ceased to hope. It has such vivid details of everything that sometimes it's hard to believe that something like the concentration camps and Hitler and everything existed. The fact that it's in diary form makes it all the better.
This non-fiction diary is amazing, and I think everyone, at some point, should read it.

a wonderful story told by an innocent child.
it is a must read for all generations

I am presently living like a refugee, so I can say from experience this is a good way to understand what it means to be stuck in a room for four years, having done that myself.

This is what happens when wars get out of hand. Required reading for government workers.

Sometimes you wonder to what purpose a person releases the details of a love ones life after death. This is just such a case. I will admit, I did not read the book as instructed in school, or many of the books forced upon us. As an adult, I went back and read many of them to see what I had missed (like the Red Badge of Courage, Uncle Toms Cabine, Tom Sawyer, etc.). This book from the hype would seem to be a literary masterpiece, rather, what it turns out to be is a rudementarry, and purposely selected piece of a little girls journal. If the purpose of the book was to delve into the mind of a teenage girl of the 1940's who does not get on well with her family or others, and seem a bit spoiled, it is a glowing success. The problem here is that it is meant to showcase a little girl in hiding from the Nazi's during WWII. To this it fails in that it merely touches on those issues (other than the ad nauseum complaints that Anne Frank makes about her inconveniences). I also get the feeling that this was severly edited to make the father look better than he was (in that he released the book), while making everyone else the villan. I guess this book is timeless in that most teenagers today have the same rants and raves. If you are reading it looking for historical perspective of a Jewish teen in hiding, you will not get much more than the backdrop which leaks through every now and again, since all the rest could truly be the rants of a teen of any generation. I know this review will be unpopular since this book is considered a modern day classic from our generation, I just feel there are numerous books that are far better at demostrating the attrocities, and difficulties of living through World War II, and going into hiding as a Jew during that time period. I was dissapointed.

I am probably being redundant when I say this, but this was a profound book. This was a rare look into the life of a Jew living in hiding during Nazi occupation that shaped the worlds understanding of this dreadful persecution. Anne begins as a spoiled and restless child, but her time in hiding definitely changes her. She becomes more precocious and reflective, sharing her insightful thoughts with her diary. She comments on her parents, her living conditions, her learning pursuits, politics and the war, her desire to be loved, among many other things. Of course, there is great conflict in the "Secret Annex" with eight people living in such close quarters for over two years, but it reveals the fragility of human nature when confronted with such tension. Anne's descriptions allow the reader to easily imagine their plight and her writing matures throughout. Anne's diary is a timeless and necessary piece of literature. The tragedy of her death is nothing compared to her devotion to humanity.

I was in a training course sitting and drawing roses in my note book, the instructor - out of the blue -decided to choose the one girl with no attention to stand in the middle of the class room and tell a story that will grab everycody's attention. he wanted to see if we can actually make the right choice. I was really surprised and nervous. i stood there and talked about the one story that grabed my attention lately specialy with the fact that i just came from Amsteredam. I talked about Anne and her story, her diary and the amazing sense of words and expressions she had. I talked to them about my passion towards her days and her hidden Annexe she hide in for almost 2 years. everybody listened and were totally into the story and me . The book is amazing, its a different kind of diary and different type of memoir. Its really an amazing story for an amazing young story teller.

Anne Frank was an aspiring writer, a young lady, and Jewish girl who was in hiding in the attic in Amsterdam, Netherlands during the horrors of World War II. Anne's personal diary resurrects the actual horrors of the war and the holocaust which claimed her life as well as her mother, sister, and other residents in the attic. Life was hard enough as a Jewish girl in Hitler's time, it was practically impossible to survive much less thrive. This diary explains how Anne coped with daily horrors and daily living situation being unable to speak above a whisper rather than not be heard. Her legacy is her diary and it humanizes the inhuman experiences that harmed so many innocent people regardless of religion, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. Anne writes candidly about her struggles with a sense of optimism. We can only imagine how she survived and thrived in the attic despite her circumstances. You never get the sense that she blamed the world or others for her situation. She has this sense of optimism and hope all through out despite her fate as she died in Bergen-Belsen right before liberation. I wonder if she had lived that the world would never get to know this fascinating young girl as she transformed into a young lady of so much promise and hope. She gives us all hope that life is not always doomed but it's how you look at it.

It's very unfortunate that some people in our country remain uneducated and uncompassionate about the facts behind the premeditated murder that occurred during Adolph Hitler's reign. There is also a great lack of proper spelling, grammar and punctuation amongst the one and two star reviewers in the Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl reviews. All of these facts are reasons to be concerned for the future of our youth and their education in english and world history. The great tragedy of all is that there is still doubt that the Holocaust really happened and was very horrible, there is still doubt that six million people were really murdered and doubt that the diary of Anne Frank was really authored by one of these murder victims. Hopefully we as individuals can speak for those 6,000,000 innocent murder victims, without forgetting the casualties of World War II and the millions of troops who gave the full measure of devotion and make a difference by speaking up when we hear someone deny or misinterpret the facts.

I read Ann Frank Diary Of A Young Girl a long time ago and I still have it.
I thought that in this definitive edition,there would be much more text and much more new revelations.
In this edition,her writings about her sexual curiosity,her unpleasant feelings toward her mother and others is included along with a few added paragraphs that were omitted in the original version.
Comparing the first version and The Critical edition and The Definitive addition doesn't make lots of sense to me.That's enough on "the editions".
Back to Ann Frank's Diary, the one thing that always gets me misty eyed is that she is so young and that her attitude and outlook is so happy and hopeful.She was an optimist.
I know there are less popular journals written about this period and the suffering,but somehow,it seems fateful that Ann's would be the one to become a legend.Even the fact that there exists a brief moving film clip of her out on the balcony waving, when at that time there wasn't much personal family filming,that seems to reinforce my thinking that hers was a purpose of example.
In such a short life,she suffered everything you could think of.Isolation,no friends,little food and finally starvation,disease and death in those camps.
Her pre-war life was lavish,both mother and father were wealthy and Ann seemed spoiled and had many friends making it all the more harder to go from wealthy and popular school girl to a life in hiding,with limited food and clothing and fresh air.Instead she looks to the future and herhope of freedom after the war is over.
Other children might become extremely depressed and feel doomed and hopeless.
Her father making sure the children continued their studies of algebra,language and providing them with books and other things to keep the children must have helped alot.Her flirtation and deepening feelings for Peter probably helped her cope too.
When I read things like "she was nothing special" and "it's only because her diary was found" that she became celebrated makes me wonder how people that say those things would manage in the same situation.
Anyway, I'm glad schools have children read the book and learn about the insane,dismal consequences of categorizing people of any race and religious belief.
The unbelievable and unthinkable did happen and I'm grateful that Ann had written her journal and that it is still so widely read.

[...] I recall the honest Anne Frank, whose youthful truths have been denied many times, faulting her father for overlooking her grievances. "He failed to see," she jots down in the last few entries of that fateful journal, "that this struggle to triumph over my difficulties was more important to me than anything else. I didn't want to hear about `typical adolescent problems,' or `other girls,' or `you'll grow out of it.' I didn't want to be treated the same as all-the-other-girls, but as Anne-in-her-own-right" [...] --from "Recollections"

i'm just commenting on the person who claims that anyone who says this diary is fake...Is totally disrespecting all people who suffered in the holocaust bla bla...

That's unbelievable, I must say i have to question the authenticity of this "diary"...Does that make me a nazi, an anti-semite? to most people it would which is totally stupid in my mind.

Anyways, the textbook view of a concentration camp...Prisoners were sent from trains to the camp where they'd go through several rooms and then have to shower because there was an outbreak inside the camp...Mainly the men who looked suitable to work were selected to labour until they couldn't keep themselves up while the rest (mainly women and children) were sent to the showers which was actually a large gas chamber...3000 people would be crammed into a room of about 240 square metres and then 30 minutes after the gas was released...SS guards would walk in the chamber while eating and smoking to get the bodies cremated.

Now maybe something is wrong here, Wouldn't Anne Frank be in that mass group sent straight to the gas chamber?

so maybe this is an authentic piece, but in my eyes it most likely is not.

While daydreaming in class, do you ever place yourself in the shoes of another of another thirteen year old? Perhaps another teenager in a different historical era? "The Diary of Anne Frank" would allow you to do just that. This diary tells the story of a thirteen year old Jewish girl, forced to go into hiding during the Holocaust with her family of four. Making entries every day, Anne writes of her life in hiding; documenting her feelings of love, the noises of gunshots outside her house and the changes her body and spirit continue to experience as she develops into a teenager. She writes of normal "becoming a teenager obstacles" such as her parents treating her unfairly, the other family always picking on her and a lonely existence in the confined space. This book does a splendid job of describing the drama that enfolds with eight people living in tight quarters. Just as many of you may have felt trapped in your teenage life, Anne's is magnified in the "Secret Annex" of a room.

I believe that this book is more real than any other narrative or memoir can be due to Anne's innocence without worrying about the outside critics. It leaves itself for you to easily empathize with the hardships of Anne with her honest accounts of observations, memories, feelings and troubles any teenager experiences, in addition to the complexity of her tragic situation. I highly recommend this book to any teenager who hopes to understand life's hardest lessons. If there was one negative about the book, it would be the repetitive nature of some of the entries. Many of the entries seem quite monotonous, but isn't this true of most teenagers' lives? Although this book is 304 pages, it is a quick read with it unlikely you would want to put it down. Published in 1993 by Bantam, it still applies this day to any teenager.

"Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl" is the diary (a non-fiction work) of a Jewish teenager who lived during the Holocaust and World War II. The book is 304 pages, which includes an introduction written by Eleanor Roosevelt and an afterword, which contains information about what happened to the Frank family after Anne's diary ends. Bantam published this edition in 1993, although a press in Amsterdam first published the diary in 1947. It was her father, Otto Frank, who went back to the place where the family hid for over two years, found the diary, and decided to publish it. Originally, parts in which Anne discusses and expresses her romantic feelings were cut out of the book, as the publisher felt they were too risqué; but when the diary was published in the U.S., these parts were put back into the book. This edition also includes photographs of Anne Frank, as well as photocopies of the actual pages of the diary. By including these, the reader is really able to get a sense of Anne's personality through her handwriting. The Reading level of this book is about an 8.2, meaning it is perfect for 8th graders, or those who read at about an 8th grade reading level, although it is a book you will read over and over, even after you become an adult.

The diary is fascinating to read--Anne begins the diary on her thirteenth birthday, weeks before her family goes into hiding. As the war rages in Europe, Anne is forced to wear a gold star, designating her as Jewish, but her life continues in a relatively normal way. This all changes when a note arrives, stating that the Nazi's want her older sister, Margot. The Frank family hides, spending their next two years in a secret annex in the building where Otto Frank worked. Anne and her family share their space with four other people--Mr. and Mrs. Van Daan (business associates of Mr. Frank), their son, Peter, and Mr. Dussel. Anne is faced with the challenge of living out her adolescence in such a confined space.

As you read her diary, you will be able to relate to the range of emotions Anne displays. She gets excited about events, she feels scared and nervous about her life, she falls in love and receives her first kiss while in hiding, she feels jealousy towards her sister, and she often feels anger and resentment toward her mother. If you did not know the context of her life, Anne might seem like a normal teenager you might know. Yet, as she wonders about whether Peter likes her or not, she also has to worry about if someone will betray the family. She lives in constant fear of discovery, and everyday, the seven hidden members of their Annex follow the news, praying for the defeat of the Nazis, so that they can once again live their lives. Ultimately, tragedy strikes Anne and her family, but Anne's words have given generations of teenagers a glimpse into what it was really like living through the Holocaust. I found this book to be so wonderful that I can't say anything bad about it, and I encourage everyone to read this dairy so that you too can understand what it was like to be a teenager living through the Holocaust.

ACH, DU LIEBER!!!!

That's the biting phrase that can best epitomize my personal feelings at the disconnect between the expectation of Anne Frank's diary and the actual reality of reading it. The Diary of Anne Frank is very, very, very disappointing and a humongous letdown!!!! To wit, I must implacably question and hold in contempt the judgment processes of the many, previous, sycophant reviewers who've been exaggerating the "beauty" or "grace" or whatever politically correct term of flattery they can invent for this diary. The Diary of Anne Frank is one of the most caustic examples of herd mentality-syndrome and mass hysteria among the many positive-rating, Amazon reviewers. In truth, this diary of Anne's is just plain, bloody awful and doesn't deserve its classic status to say the least!!!! I suppose the hordes of five-star reviewers simply turned off their brains, refused to analyze Anne's diary critically, and just subserviently jumped on the bandwagon of conventional wisdom, where her diary is hailed a "classic." BS!!!!

After having thoroughly read this, I can assure you that it's no classic and D-E-F-I-N-I-T-E-L-Y not worth your time or money...unless, of course, you get your kicks and jollies from plumbing the trivial and superficial mind of a fourteen-year-old. This stellar, brutally-but-intellectually-honest review of mine will analytically break down precisely what the hell's wrong with Anne's diary (plenty!) and warn you against reading it. If you're not narrow-minded and can take an analysis which intrepidly contravenes the discreditable conventional wisdom of the masses, then you'll be grateful for this review. If you're a hypersensitive sheeple, then I expect you to be appalled and shocked at the alleged "audacity" of this review, but that's YOUR problem, not mine. All I concern myself with is an intellectually honest review of this diary.

I went into The Diary of Anne Frank because it came to my attention that I hadn't read it in high school, whereas many of my peers had indeed had it mandated for reading in school. I attended a Catholic high school, and it's not like Catholics have something even remotely to be shameful about concerning their treatment of Jews in WWII. Why, in fact, educated people know that even N*zi Adolf Eichmann confessed in his diaries that the Catholic Church in occupied Italy was the only organization that loudly protested and opposed the mass deportation of Jews from their "ghetto" in Rome. So, I wanted to catch up on this apparent "classic" because it was missed reading at my old, Catholic high school.

However, I absolutely regret and curse this misjudgment of mine due to the appalling quality and shortcoming of the content of the diary. See, as a new reader, I perceptively went into the Diary of Anne Frank with the reasonable expectation that it would, you know, perhaps talk about her feelings relating to--I don't know!--the genocidal, N*zi occupation, which had forced her family and some acquaintances into an attic, where they lived like imprisoned animals under extreme duress. That would make for an interesting read obviously because one would delve into the psychology of a person in such duress and try to relate. Conventional wisdom has it that that's what her diary mainly relates to, but in actuality...her diary's actually filled to the nauseating brim with her infatuation (nah, kids these days would call it her "crushing) on her attic-mate Peter; endlessly boring stories about preparing and storing vegetables in their attic; girl talk about her prior crush before she went into hiding; lurid tales about her discovering her budding sexuality; typical teen-girl angst about how she's never really had close girlfriends; grumbling about the adults in the attic always rebuking her due to her forthrightness; and how she hates her mother like a typical EMO teenager, just to name a few!!!!

Anne disappointingly spends precious few entries (the vast minority) on the more interesting and valuable ruminations, such as those on human nature, persecution of Jews, and the terror felt inside the attic that came primarily from being discovered, or from the sounds and sights of war breaking loose outside her attic (on a couple of entries, she even recounts stories of downed fighter planes and their pilots' fate). That's the unpardonable fault of her diary because only these kinds of idiosyncratic entries actually material to WW2 are what would elevate her diary above that of any other, mundane, teen girl's. That so much of her diary is precisely so ordinary according to what one stereotypically expects from ANY teen girl's entries is the real pity in this exaggeratedly hyped work.

I found the purpose of Anne's diary much more useful in detailing how more wonderfully conservative society was in the 40s--rather than getting the reader to empathize with WW2-era, persecuted Jews--compared to today's liberal nightmare. In example, Anne's many entries where she's "crushing" on her attic-mate, Peter, involve feelings of sincere, simplistic affection and puppy love, maybe quaint but still adorable in hindsight. For instance, in many entries, Anne swoons over attic-mate Peter's confiding in her or the way he merely looks at her; to her as a girl in the 40s back then, that already qualified as a "fantasy." Contrast this to the inarguable fact that in today's world, many 14-year-olds in Anne's shoes would probably have infectious thoughts of desiring to sexually please their crushes (and then do so!) just so they could feel like "true women!" Another unmistakable motif in Anne's experiences that comes through as a confirmation of how more wonderfully conservative things were back then is the constant reference to schoolwork, and, by golly, actually doing well at it! In some entries, Anne actually *gulp* takes pride in getting good grades in school and measuring herself as a person based on her work ethic in class, again, wonderfully "old-fashioned." Again, contrast this with many 14-year-olds today who--especially if they're in the NEA's public schools--can't read, write or do any `rithmetic, yet can tell you all kinds of things about the b*tches and h*es in rap music!!!!

This latest edition of her diary, The so-called Definitive Edition, includes inexcusably AWKWARD entries involving Anne's sexual awakening, which is also a discomforting sign of the incrementing liberalism that's occurring societally, whereas her dad, Otto, wisely omitted these lewd entries from the original publication. For instance, on page 162, she writes, "Once when I was spending the night at Jacque's, I could no longer restrain my curiosity about her body, which she'd always hidden from me and which I'd never seen. I asked her whether, as proof of our friendship, we could touch each other's br*asts. Jacque refused. I also had a terrible desire to kiss her, which I did. Every time I see a female nude...I go into ecstasy." Gross!!!! This egregiously has nothing to do with WW2, or a person's feelings of being imprisoned in an attic while hoping the N*zis don't discover her. The inclusion of this lewdness was utterly ill-advised.

Surprisingly, though, some of Anne's entries include reflections which prove she possessed moral clarity and, unlike today's liberals (the arbiters of moral relativism), had the ability to judge between good and evil with regards to WW2. For instance, on page 334 (from July 21, 1944), she writes, "Now, at last, things are going well!...An *ss*ssination attempt has been made on H*tler's life, and for once not by Jewish Communists or English capitalists, but by a German general...This is the best proof we've had so far that many officers and generals are fed up with the war and would like to see H*tler sink into a bottomless pit..." Here, Anne clearly demonstrates that she confidently feels it's perfectly all right to be happy at the prospect of your enemy being killed in a war. Further, she also interprets the *ss*ssination attempt in a pro-Allies, anti-German way, suspecting that H*tler's generals are turning on him. Contrast that to today's dreadful, modern liberals who would have a hell of a hard time rejoicing about the prospect of Bin Laden's death or any terrorist's, for that matter, because they're too obsessed with getting them "legal rights" through habeas corpus and moving them onto the US mainland for detention purposes!!!!

Still, Anne's diary is soooo disappointingly off-the-mark that I want anyone even flirting with the idea of reading a fourteen-year-old's musings to just boycott it. It's so dreadful because it mostly evades reflecting on WW2 and the hardships of attic life. Mainly, it reads like every other fourteen-year-old girl's diary from the beginning of time to infinity, and, so, is an absolutely superficial read!!!! To get an idea of how WW2 affected people, you can get a better read almost ANYWHERE ELSE. If you want to get inside a fourteen-year-old girl's trivial head--which Anne's diary is really mostly about: crushes, boys, resentment of parents, etc.--you should just steal your kid sister's. What's that? Don't have a kid sister?! Well, then steal the diary of your friend's or neighbor's kid sister because you'll get the same trivialities there as in Anne Frank's diary.

Great read, highly recommend for all jr. high and Sr. high kids. I read this book in high school (many many years ago) and wanted to read it again because of the movie "Freedom Writers" and it's integral part in the movie. I highly recommend it

ACH, DU LIEBER!!!!

That's the biting phrase that can best epitomize my personal feelings at the disconnect between the expectation of Anne Frank's diary and the actual reality of reading it. The Diary of Anne Frank is very, very, very disappointing and a humongous letdown!!!! To wit, I must implacably question and hold in contempt the judgment processes of the many, previous, sycophant reviewers who've been exaggerating the "beauty" or "grace" or whatever politically correct term of flattery they can invent for this diary. The Diary of Anne Frank is one of the most caustic examples of herd mentality-syndrome and mass hysteria among the many positive-rating, Amazon reviewers. In truth, this diary of Anne's is just plain, bloody awful and doesn't deserve its classic status to say the least!!!! I suppose the hordes of five-star reviewers simply turned off their brains, refused to analyze Anne's diary critically, and just subserviently jumped on the bandwagon of conventional wisdom, where her diary is hailed a "classic." BS!!!!

After having thoroughly read this, I can assure you that it's no classic and D-E-F-I-N-I-T-E-L-Y not worth your time or money...unless, of course, you get your kicks and jollies from plumbing the trivial and superficial mind of a fourteen-year-old. This stellar, brutally-but-intellectually-honest review of mine will analytically break down precisely what the hell's wrong with Anne's diary (plenty!) and warn you against reading it. If you're not narrow-minded and can take an analysis which intrepidly contravenes the discreditable conventional wisdom of the masses, then you'll be grateful for this review. If you're a hypersensitive sheeple, then I expect you to be appalled and shocked at the alleged "audacity" of this review, but that's YOUR problem, not mine. All I concern myself with is an intellectually honest review of this diary.

I went into The Diary of Anne Frank because it came to my attention that I hadn't read it in high school, whereas many of my peers had indeed had it mandated for reading in school. I attended a Catholic high school, and it's not like Catholics have something even remotely to be shameful about concerning their treatment of Jews in WWII. Why, in fact, educated people know that even N*zi Adolf Eichmann confessed in his diaries that the Catholic Church in occupied Italy was the only organization that loudly protested and opposed the mass deportation of Jews from their "ghetto" in Rome. So, I wanted to catch up on this apparent "classic" because it was missed reading at my old, Catholic high school.

However, I absolutely regret and curse this misjudgment of mine due to the appalling quality and shortcoming of the content of the diary. See, as a new reader, I perceptively went into the Diary of Anne Frank with the reasonable expectation that it would, you know, perhaps talk about her feelings relating to--I don't know!--the genocidal, N*zi occupation, which had forced her family and some acquaintances into an attic, where they lived like imprisoned animals under extreme duress. That would make for an interesting read obviously because one would delve into the psychology of a person in such duress and try to relate. Conventional wisdom has it that that's what her diary mainly relates to, but in actuality...her diary's actually filled to the nauseating brim with her infatuation (nah, kids these days would call it her "crushing) on her attic-mate Peter; endlessly boring stories about preparing and storing vegetables in their attic; girl talk about her prior crush before she went into hiding; lurid tales about her discovering her budding sexuality; typical teen-girl angst about how she's never really had close girlfriends; grumbling about the adults in the attic always rebuking her due to her forthrightness; and how she hates her mother like a typical EMO teenager, just to name a few!!!!

Anne disappointingly spends precious few entries (the vast minority) on the more interesting and valuable ruminations, such as those on human nature, persecution of Jews, and the terror felt inside the attic that came primarily from being discovered, or from the sounds and sights of war breaking loose outside her attic (on a couple of entries, she even recounts stories of downed fighter planes and their pilots' fate). That's the unpardonable fault of her diary because only these kinds of idiosyncratic entries actually material to WW2 are what would elevate her diary above that of any other, mundane, teen girl's. That so much of her diary is precisely so ordinary according to what one stereotypically expects from ANY teen girl's entries is the real pity in this exaggeratedly hyped work.

I found the purpose of Anne's diary much more useful in detailing how more wonderfully conservative society was in the 40s--rather than getting the reader to empathize with WW2-era, persecuted Jews--compared to today's liberal nightmare. In example, Anne's many entries where she's "crushing" on her attic-mate, Peter, involve feelings of sincere, simplistic affection and puppy love, maybe quaint but still adorable in hindsight. For instance, in many entries, Anne swoons over attic-mate Peter's confiding in her or the way he merely looks at her; to her as a girl in the 40s back then, that already qualified as a "fantasy." Contrast this to the inarguable fact that in today's world, many 14-year-olds in Anne's shoes would probably have infectious thoughts of desiring to sexually please their crushes (and then do so!) just so they could feel like "true women!" Another unmistakable motif in Anne's experiences that comes through as a confirmation of how more wonderfully conservative things were back then is the constant reference to schoolwork, and, by golly, actually doing well at it! In some entries, Anne actually *gulp* takes pride in getting good grades in school and measuring herself as a person based on her work ethic in class, again, wonderfully "old-fashioned." Again, contrast this with many 14-year-olds today who--especially if they're in the NEA's public schools--can't read, write or do any `rithmetic, yet can tell you all kinds of things about the b*tches and h*es in rap music!!!!

This latest edition of her diary, The so-called Definitive Edition, includes inexcusably AWKWARD entries involving Anne's sexual awakening, which is also a discomforting sign of the incrementing liberalism that's occurring societally, whereas her dad, Otto, wisely omitted these lewd entries from the original publication. For instance, on page 162, she writes, "Once when I was spending the night at Jacque's, I could no longer restrain my curiosity about her body, which she'd always hidden from me and which I'd never seen. I asked her whether, as proof of our friendship, we could touch each other's br*asts. Jacque refused. I also had a terrible desire to kiss her, which I did. Every time I see a female nude...I go into ecstasy." Gross!!!! This egregiously has nothing to do with WW2, or a person's feelings of being imprisoned in an attic while hoping the N*zis don't discover her. The inclusion of this lewdness was utterly ill-advised.

Surprisingly, though, some of Anne's entries include reflections which prove she possessed moral clarity and, unlike today's liberals (the arbiters of moral relativism), had the ability to judge between good and evil with regards to WW2. For instance, on page 334 (from July 21, 1944), she writes, "Now, at last, things are going well!...An *ss*ssination attempt has been made on H*tler's life, and for once not by Jewish Communists or English capitalists, but by a German general...This is the best proof we've had so far that many officers and generals are fed up with the war and would like to see H*tler sink into a bottomless pit..." Here, Anne clearly demonstrates that she confidently feels it's perfectly all right to be happy at the prospect of your enemy being killed in a war. Further, she also interprets the *ss*ssination attempt in a pro-Allies, anti-German way, suspecting that H*tler's generals are turning on him. Contrast that to today's dreadful, modern liberals who would have a hell of a hard time rejoicing about the prospect of Bin Laden's death or any terrorist's, for that matter, because they're too obsessed with getting them "legal rights" through habeas corpus and moving them onto the US mainland for detention purposes!!!!

Still, Anne's diary is soooo disappointingly off-the-mark that I want anyone even flirting with the idea of reading a fourteen-year-old's musings to just boycott it. It's so dreadful because it mostly evades reflecting on WW2 and the hardships of attic life. Mainly, it reads like every other fourteen-year-old girl's diary from the beginning of time to infinity, and, so, is an absolutely superficial read!!!! To get an idea of how WW2 affected people, you can get a better read almost ANYWHERE ELSE. If you want to get inside a fourteen-year-old girl's trivial head--which Anne's diary is really mostly about: crushes, boys, resentment of parents, etc.--you should just steal your kid sister's. What's that? Don't have a kid sister?! Well, then steal the diary of your friend's or neighbor's kid sister because you'll get the same trivialities there as in Anne Frank's diary.

A classic that we all should read when we are young, and again when we are older. It emphasizes the fact that evil does exist in our world, and that evil often comes from a government. It belongs in all of our libraries.

Anne Frank's tale is a snapshot frozen in time.

Neither faded recollections nor hindsight feature here. This was written with the clarity of the present tense through the eyes of a young girl living through a terrible chapter of world history. This immediacy serves to empower the story further and move the reader in ways that so few books can.

Highly recommended.

Owen Zupp
Author: "Down to Earth"
DOWN TO EARTH: A Fighter Pilot's Experiences of Surviving Dunkirk, The Battle of Britain, Dieppe and D-Day

The Truth: I'm a Girl, I'm Smart and I Know EverythingThe last time I really read the diary of Anne Frank, I was nine, in Sunday school in Connecticut and pretty miserable. I had my own issues-some of the girls made fun of me, I couldn't learn to read Hebrew (no one had recognized that I had a learning disability) and I wanted nothing more than to really belong. Anne's diary made me cry and feel even more miserable.

This time, I'm a grown-up. In fact my kids are grown. I'm a psychologist in private practice, with an emphasis on positive psychology. That means I encourage hope and optimism in my clients. I help them look for their talents and even lost potential. And I just wrote a book in diary form, written by a 10-11 year old girl, to help girls and their moms get in touch with the best of themselves. Sooo, things are very different.

My reaction to reading Anne Frank this time was as if I had blinders taken away from my eyes. Instead of just seeing a girl in hiding and feeling oppressed with the sadness of her unfulfilled life, I saw a profoundly real teen-age girl with unbelievable wisdom and hosesty. She seems to be the compliation of all the inner knowledge, wisdom, sexual and emotional development of all girls. She is almost like the western world's Shakespeare for girls. For example, as a psychologist and a woman who was once a teenager, I was enthralled with her intimate feelings and thoughts around her crush on Peter. Lots of girls fall in love or have a crush, but few know how to process their feelings. In fact that is why 'the girl' in my new book, The Truth, falls in love, to help kids learn how to share these sorts of feeling. Anne understood so much about the ego development of a person in transition from child to woman. What she is able to put into words about her crush should help any girl experiencing deep and complex feelings.

I think every woman should take some time and re-read Anne Frank. You will certainly fall in love with her in a different way than the first time around. You may find yourself sobbing later, as I found myself, when her love of life and feelings and insights about growing-up, welled up inside of me with the realization that Anne never got a chance to do all the things that most of us women take for granted: the husband, the kids, the first apartment, friends over, pets, just getting out in the fresh air!

Anne held on to her ideals and dreams and she hoped that there would be a time that she could carry them out. She didn't make it, but we have. And so if every woman who reads this book can just be a little more insightful, a little more caring, a little more loving, listen a little harder to kids and teens-then in a way, we have carried out, as best we can, her ideals. As a positive psychologist and woman, this is my opinion as to how to maintain hope, and fulfill not only her potential, but our own.

I once tried to teach this incredible book to a class, and my voice just stopped working as I started to tell the fates of each of the people in hiding. I thought at that moment that this was the saddest book ever written.

With this edition, a new generation gets to discover Anne Frank, and those of us who have been around for a while definitely get to see a different young Anne, one who is more of a teen-ager. But the new material simply makes her more human, more vulnerable, more a symbol of the tragic losses of the Holocaust. Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl has profoundly affected millions of people, and I, for one, believe it will continue to do so endlessly.

Lawrence J. Epstein, author of "At the Edge of a Dream: The Story of Jewish Immigrants on New York's Lower East Side."

This is another important history lesson. I just read "And No More Sorrow" and am hoping students will read that as well. A similar story from an eighteen year old.

One of the most moving depictions of a hopeful young girl I can recall. Anne Frank's diary highlights the horrors of the Holocaust through her unwavering belief in the goodness of humankind. Everyone should read this book at least once during their lifetime.

I do love this book. I read it the first time at age 12. It was upsetting to me the first time but it gave me a understanding of how she had to live and how much she wanted to live. It made me realize that something like that could happen to me if war were to break out and my family and I would have to go in hiding and to realize that a person can do things in life that you would never imagine you could do. Anne Frank was for her age a very creative writer. She told about her life and didn't try to hide anything,but she would never imagine that her diary would be found (or did she)and that what she had written in it was just for herself a way she could express the pain and sometimes joy she felt. I recommend everyone to read this book and think about how you would feel if you had been in her shoes.

Somehow I managed to reach mid-life without having read this book. I thought I knew what it was about, and I did, to some extent. It was, indeed, the story of an adolescent girl in hiding during World War II. As I anticipated, she gave details descriptions of the realities of war; the fear, deprivation, and suffering her Jewish family; and beneath that, the determination make to best of horrible circumstances. Anne Frank's writing declares her to be a gifted writer, a fierce commentator, and above all, a normal teenage girl with many of the same desires and frustrations held by my own teenaged daughter today. Anne is bursting with potential. An aspiring journalist, she is also and avid reader. She is candid in her assessment of her male admirers and her curiosity about sex, while quietly quietly celebrating milestones of maturity. An unexpected blessing for me was the poignant reminder of what a girl yearns for in her relationships with her parents. Throughout the diary, Anne wrote of her close relationship with her father. In contrast, she was sharply critical of her mother. Anne expressed vividly how deeply she craved her parents' approval, respect, affection; and how easily parents disappoint the needs of their children. It is no wonder that this book has such universal appeal.

i was assigned this book for school and having visited amsterdam,having studied this topic and being told about it a lot by my parents and other people, i basically knew the whole storyline. it was interesting to read about a girl my age during a horrible period of history, but i could of done without certain...umm...descriptions present in the book. i got slightly bored in some points because nothing was happening but i guess thats the way it is if youre loked up in a small lodge- cut off from the rest of the world. if you like historic non-fictional books than i reccomend this fully, if youre more a fantasy and sci-fi person (young teen) like me though... you might want to read it cause its a classic or you could just go on with harry potter, uglies series, inkheart series, twilight series...
PS sorry if there are errors- i didnt have time to re-read

Like most American school kids I was assigned this book to read as a teenager and was amazed by the experience of Anne Frank. I decided to revisit the book and found that Otto Frank (her father) had republished the book with about 30% more content. Apparently, he had taken a lot of criticism for his heavy editing of Anne's original manuscripts and there were accusations of the whole book being a forgery. Extensive research by the Dutch government has concluded that the diary was authentic, and Otto decided to introduce material that he had first omitted for obvious personal reasons.

All I can say is "wow". The book that was once sort of a documentary of the Frank family confinement is now a facinating study of a young woman's developmental psychology. Anne was a great writer, and great observer of human nature. She was also acutely aware of her own development and evolving feminine nature. In the definitive edition we now see a young woman going through puberty and her developing sense of sexuality, and self exploration. I know that this would be controversial as her father obviously understood it would be, and he ommitted these passages in the original book. However, her relationship to her family and the 17 year old boy named Peter who became her first love and was also confined with them is really interesting.

I think Anne's diary has obviously stood the test of time in becoming one of the great published works of western civilization. I am glad that her father also decided to republish her work including things that would have been tough to accept like her anger at her mother, and her relationship with her boyfriend. Her diary is a classic. God bless Anne Frank. She was an amazing young lady.

As just about every other student, I read The Diary of Anne Frank in middle school, probably during the 6th or 7th grade. I had a distant memory of it, but not much. Well, recently I watched Schindler's List and this got me re-interested in WWII, and especially the Holocaust. I read Night by Eli Wiesel (highly recommended) and decided to move on to The Diary of Anne Frank. Let me start by reviewing the book:

The Diary of Anne Frank is a diary of a young, Jewish girl (as the title obviously states, haha) whom is forced to go into hiding with her family during the Nazi occupation of Holland in the early 1940's. During this period, Jews were being segregated and even sent off to concentration camps by the Germans on a daily basis. When Anne's sister's name was next on the list, their father decided to take the family into hiding.

Aided by some of Otto's (Anne's father) former employees, the Franks seclude themselves in a small Annex of a business in Amsterdam. There, they are joined by the Van Daan family and later by an older gentleman, Mr. Dussel. Anne's diary chronicles their plight for the following two years, until they are discovered by the German secret police and ultimately sent to their death in Jewish concentration camps.

Anne addresses various topics, from their daily activities, to her interest in the son of the Van Daan's, Peter, to some of her inner most thoughts, fears, and aspirations. I have to share with you that I was EXTREMELY impressed with Anne's intelligence. I couldn't help but compare her to myself when I was only 15 years old and I am amazed not only at her intelligence but her strength to persevere during such horrible times. This young girl manages to keep faith in God and struggles with maintaining her morality, even as all around her she is witnessing a warped world full of sin, hatred and evil. I cannot say that in her shoes I would've reacted the same.

I encourage any reader to read and/or re-read The Diary of Anne Frank. You will be completely enveloped by her wit and warmth and are surely to fall in love with her.

Anne Frank is remembered for being a sweet young girl that went into hiding during the holocaust only to be found and sent to a concentration camp where she died 3 months befroe her 16th birthday. The time in between these two horrible events is full of fear, fights,learning, and love, basically life. This version of the diary has more material than the orginal, which some people think is too much, but it is what she wrote left alone. It has what she intended the book to be. It includes story from the restrictions put on her while she wasn't in hiding because she was Jewish to her chores that she did quietly in the Secret Annex such as peeling potatoes and rubbing beans. It is not always the most interesting book, but it does provoke thought. It's sad in the fact that you know how its going to end before you start, but Anne does not as she's wrting it. Anne Frank's writing surpass her age, she writes not as a stuborn teenager, but as an intelligent young woman.

You know the storyline - a Jewish girl, her family, and some friends go into hiding for two years during the Nazi regime in Holland. Said girl writes her thoughts and observations of her life during this time in a diary, which is found and published after her death in a concentration camp. It has become a classic, and it was written by a young teenager.

My favorite aspect of this book will forever be Anne's powerful narrative voice. Her words speak, and more than that they smell and taste and touch. She gives her diary, "Kitty," an intimate portrait of life in the "Secret Annexe," both public and private - of the ups-and-downs of people's relationships, of her inner struggles and growth, of her love. Reading her diary is like looking through the window at the war from two perspectives - one from the outside in, at the life of a girl and a family who were sucked into the Nazi vacuum through no fault of their own; and the other from the inside out, at the crazy world war swirling around the epicenter of one fourteen-year-old girl.

Very interesting. I bought it for my sister. I already read the book, it is very nice and it has all the information need it.

I didn't read it, but my daughter did & found it fascinating. Not morbid tho times certainly horrifying.

Why I hadn't read this book as a middle schooler or high schooler I don't know. It was a thought provoking book.

My encounter with Anne Frank has been powerful enough--and my disgust with the liberties taken with this English translation--that I wonder whether I ought to brush up on my German/Dutch and pick up the real definitive edition (with the complete original versions) so that I can find out what Anne really wanted us to know. Red flags went off constantly as I read this English translation: the register is incredibly high-flung, broad, and literary, and not at all typical of what any early adolescent might ever want to produce. While I didn't have the original versions to compare, I did finally find the silver bullet in the entry dated November 17, 1943 where the expression "Der Mann hat einen grossen Geist / Und ist so klein von Taten!" is translated by Susan Massotty as follows: "The spirit of the man is great, / How puny are his deeds." How dare the translator take such liberties, and how did she get away with doing so? Another problem with this "definitive" edition is that none of Mirjam Pressler's editing intrusions are identified or explained; we're simply told that this edition includes much of the B-version of Anne's diary. This translation is a horrifying insult to Anne and all English-speaking readers deserve better.

An innocuous gift, a diary a girl treasures. She writes in it, "I will call you, Kitty." A scrawny teenage girl begins writing her way into the hearts and minds of mankind around the world. This book will be her legacy and her memorial.

Her family, refugees from Germany, immigrates to Holland where the boots of nazi oppression and psychopathic poison are not far behind. Ann's family hides from the invader in an attic where the Dutch who are the antithesis of German intolerance gives them meager rations.

Ann's writing tells us about herself, and her relations with her family and the van Danns cramped in an attic always starving, and never being sure when they will be brought food, or if the police will find them. Through the turmoil of maturation from girl to woman,we learn of a girl's decency, innocence, and goodness.

All the hope for freedom is gone as the police discover the hide-out, and Ann is taken to a concentration camp where she dies two months before its liberation. Going back to the attic, her father finds her diary that will bring her immortality. Her legacy begins.

We all would have wanted to see Ann Frank and thousands of other like her live. No one, especially a young innocent girl should be treated so inhumanly without the least iota of mercy or decency. The irony is that her seemingly meaningless death among millions is what gave her life meaning, and allowed her story to be told to the world.

This book is a reminder that love and kindness survives the most vile lack of humanity. It is a testament to the human spirit.

Ann Frank would have been seventy-eight June 12, 2007.

An innocuous gift, a diary a girl treasures. She writes in it, "I will call you, Kitty." A scrawny teenage girl begins writing her way into the hearts and minds of mankind around the world. This book will be her legacy and her memorial.

Her family, refugees from Germany, emigrate to Holland where the boots of nazi oppression and psychopatic poison are not far behind. Ann's family hides from the invader in an attic where they are given meager rations by the Dutch who are the antithesis of German intolerance.

Ann's writing tells us about herself, and her relations with her family and the others cramped in an attic always starving, and never being sure when they will be brought food, or the police will find them. Through the turmoil of maturation from girl to woman, we learn of a girl's decency, innocence, and goodness.

Finally, the police find them, and Ann is taken to a concentration camp where she dies two months before its liberation. Her father finds her diary in the attic after his liberation. Her legacy begins here.

We all would have wanted to see Ann Frank and thousands of other liker her, live. No one, especially a young innocent girl should be treated so inhumanly without the least iota of mercy or decency. The irony is that her seemingly meaningless death is what gave her life meaning, and allowed her story to be told to the world.

This book is a reminder that love and kindness survives the most vile lack of humanity. It is a testament to the human spirit.

I am a senior citizen with a 15-year old granddaughter. I really bought the book for her but read it before giving it to her. I had never read it before and had not seen the movie. I was in high school during Anne's time in hiding and of course I heard about her after the war ended. It seemed to be a true copy of the diary without embellishment and I appreciated the footnotes for things I had never heard of before. It's a fast read and I recommend it highly.

From mid-1942 to August 1944, accompanied with other Jews, the Jewish Frank family went into hiding in an attic in hope that they would survive the Nazi's persecution of the Jews. At the beginning of this period, Anne Frank, thirteen years old, started a diary, which was a record of her two years hiding in the attic.

At first, most of her diary was childish. A good portion of her diary was about the squabbles between her family and one of the other families, the Van Daans. She also included her arguments with her mother, her conflicts with her roommate, Albert Dussel, her dislike towards Peter Van Daan, and the inconveniences of living in the attic. Anne had a hot temper and was disliked by everyone else, often ending in tears after arguments with various people. She often fumed at her mother and her sister, Margot. She was immature and stubborn at the time, and was extremely sensitive.

Later in the book, Anne developed more sophisticated thinking and mature views. She found ways to cool off after a debate and got more control. She wasn't as emotionally fragile as she was before. Anne started focusing more of her time on philosophical matters rather than small, unimportant arguments. She started to have a liking towards Peter Van Daan, whom, a year before, she thought was an obnoxious little brat. She wasn't so prejudiced towards Ms. Van Daan and she stopped getting mad at Margot. As Anne progressed, she gained valuable wisdom through the toughness of her situation and wrote with an adult-level quality.

I think this is a great book for almost anyone, and I certainly recommend that you read it.

This is the diary of the most courageous fourteen-year-old girl to ever live.

Anne Frank lived during the time of World War II, when you could be killed or put in a concentration camp for being Jewish -- or for not being blue-eyed and blonde. Hitler was ignorant in thinking that those withe blue eyes and blonde hair were of the superior race, and anyone else should be killed.

Anne and her family went into hiding in 1942 and managed to hide for over two years.

Was Hitler finally overruled or was the family found by the Gestapo (the police that worked for Hitler)? Read this novel about a normal teenager in hiding to find out.

This is a really good book to read if you want to learn more about World War II, or simply about being courageous and living a life in hiding. Also, not only is this novel about the war but also about how Anne grows up and discovers life and writing.

Reviewed by: Taylor Rector

I'm 23 and not much of a reader at all. I've decided to go back and read all the books I was supposed to in school and The Diary of Anne Frank is going to be hard to beat. I suggest Freedom Writer as well.

At first thought, the story of Anne Frank is terribly depressing. A young girl being trapped in the "Secret Annexe" for two years; never feeling the wind on her face or breathing fresh air, food shortages, and whispering every word for fear of being captured. Not to mention extremely crabby housemates like Mrs. Van Daan and Mr. Dussel. But when pondering over the thought, Anne Frank's legacy has lived on far beyond her wish "I want to go on living after my death." Not only did she go on living but she became an icon to many young girls around the world.
I would recommend this book to ages 10 and up. When the book was translated from German into English a few words may be a little confusing for those under age 10. What truly amazed me was that Anne Frank had such great writing skills. She had wanted to be a writer when she grew up and I thought it was very interesting that she wrote a diary as a sort of practice piece for the work that she planned on doing when she grew up. Yet, in reality, it was her diary which became famous. I really enjoyed Anne's story but found it slow near the middle of the book and had hoped for a little more action, although I know you can not change a true diary to make it more interesting. I am glad I chose this book and I encourage others to read it, too.

Although I read this originally in seventh grade English class, re-reading this as an adult was even more moving. When I was twelve I didn't know what words like 'Gestapo' meant or 'The Third Reich'...in fact, I hadn't grasped the magnitude of The Holocaust until I was much older. There were so many ways that at twelve-years-old I could connect with Anne Frank, but as an adult (although the same pre-teen connections were there), my perception of who Anne Frank was changed drastically. I had been fascinated by her diary since I was twelve, and visited The Secret Annex in The Netherlands twice in an eighteen-month span. I strongly recommend to anyone who had a fascination with Anne Frank when they were younger, to read it again as an adult.

As a budding historian, I love this memoir. It gives a unique perspective into what it was like to be a young Jewish girl during the Holocaust. It is an amazing story, written by a couragous girl and it can really open people's minds up to the whole story. It is definitely one of those books that you just have to read in your lifetime. The unedited version is great as well as the previous versions.

The basic outline of Anne Frank's story is well-known. A young Jewish girl was forced to go into hiding with her family and others during WWII in occupied Amsterdam. After two years of concealment, they were betrayed to the Nazis. Anne died in the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen before her 16th birthday. She is generally seen as a figure of pity.

This was one of those books that I always meant to read and now, having finally gotten around to it, I find myself privileged to have met such an extraordinary person. After such intimate contact with her most private thoughts, it really begins to feel that she someone with whom I have spent some time. Anne was a talented writer, even at the ages of 13-15, and her diary presents a full portrait of a complex human being, not merely a noble sufferer. The nobility is certainly there, especially in the later entries, but so is the peevishness and self-centeredness of the teenage years. She presents her inner world so clearly that it becomes plain that the world lost a great voice and perhaps a great author when the Nazis murdered her. This document is one of the greatest indictments of the Holocaust.

I'm extremely glad that the movie 'Freedom Writers' inspired me to buy this book from Amazon.com! This diary is one cheerful young girl's account of a semi-life in hiding from the Nazi's. No wonder it is the second most popular book in the world, only second to the bible - it truly brings history to life.



Even knowing the fate of Anne cannot smother the shock of reaching the conclusion of her diary. It's one thing to hear of the horrific things that transpired throughout the holocaust, but to read a 'private' diary and grow to know all the 'characters' mentioned in it, is to become even more uncomprehending of the horrors inflicted on these people based on their race.



Anne was obviously very intelligent, a talented writer, and possessed an enduring spirit. A story that emphasises the beauty that can be lost due to the evil of men.

I loved Anne Franks story. I had read one of the plays about her life in about 7th or 8th grade and decided to read her diary. You really get a feel for what she went through and how she lived. It great and it really gives you

a look at what the Jewish people during WW II had to