BOOKS | MEMOIR | READING
I’m Currently Reading THIS MEMOIR—Chapters of Which is Also in My Textbook
You might know this book...and have probably read it, too.
It’s February already! And I think I’ve got my hands on one of the most fantastic reads of the month, already—saying from 10 pages I’ve read.
This memoir is special. I first heard about it maybe a couple of years ago—when my elder sister was in class 10.
There were two memoirs that I used to find among books at my home every now and then: First one was Helen Keller’s The Story Of My Life and the second one was Anne Frank’s The Diary Of A Young Girl.
Although I’d read The Story Of My Life by Helen Keller back in my 8th grade but I never finished, or read enough of, The Diary Of A Young Girl.
But Now I’ve Got a Reason...
And that is: Some initial chapters are in my syllabus. It’s been more than a month since I read its syllabus portion...
...but it was not until a couple of weeks or so ago that I got this feel that “I’ve got to read it. I’ve heard enough about it. I oughtn’t miss this classic—especially not as a teenager, if I happen to be.”
So I picked this book up—THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL by Anne Frank.
A Quick Overview of the Book
Although, I know most of you guys would be knowing what this famous memoir and diary is all about, let me present it in brief.
The Diary of a Young Girl, also known as The Diary of Anne Frank, is a book of the writings from the Dutch-language diary kept by Anne Frank while she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. —Wikipedia
The first entry in this diary is of June 12, 1942—her thirteenth birthday. She wrote:
“I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support.”
Her last entry is on August 1, 1944. It was originally written in Dutch. She died in 1945 in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Germany.
Anne’s father Otto Frank was the only one of the people who survived. During his long journey back to the Netherlands he learned that his wife Edith had died. Once in the Netherlands, he heard that Anne and Margot were no longer alive either.
Anne's writing made a deep impression on Otto. He read that Anne had wanted to become a writer or a journalist and that she had intended to publish her stories about life in the Secret Annex. Friends convinced Otto to publish the diary and in June 1947, 3,000 copies of Het Achterhuis (The Secret Annex) were printed.
This is a heartfelt memoir of a teenager. Although we all know what happened in the Nazi Germany, this personal account speaks volumes. I only started reading it a couple of days ago. And it’s already reminding me that I was missing this.
If you haven’t read it, I’d highly recommend you to do so.
Pictures that speak volumes
As I was researching a little for this article online, I came across a website that’s managed by Anne Frank House, a museum based in Amsterdam—AnneFrank.org.
Now known as ‘Anne Frank House’ previously was the hiding place of Anne Frank that has now been reconstructed into a world-famous museum that receives more than a million visitors every year.
This website is a storehouse of facts and information about Anne Frank. It has some amazing photographs too and I’d like to share them with you. I hope it’ll fascinate you as much as it did me.
I think that is it for this article. History sometime gives you goosebumps.
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