(Writing about books was never in my mind, but writing what I want feel, is always. Due to lots of free time around, I took a chance to explore reading. This post is about a book and my opinion and views about the same which drip through the writeup. Please do read and leave a comment about what you feel.)
It's the very first time to write about a book I have read.. It has many reasons but one important one being I am not very good reader. It has only been academic books mostly which I have read regularly and some non academic books but exposure to it was always very limited. I was truly, really moved after reading this one, at the end. It wasn't only the things written in it but the person, circumstances under which it were written, and the tragedy followed due to which the writer stopped writing.
The Book is : 'The Diary of Young Girl' a literary translation of Dutch book " Het Achterhuis " published by Otto Frank. Yes most of you have guessed it by now, it's the diary of Anne Frank. It's almost more than 70 yrs since it was first published but here I am reading it now.. But it was only after I read it, I was intrigued how popular this book has been worldwide and inspired so many people.
Anne Frank had a sister Margot, Mother, Edith Frank and Father, Otto Frank who were initially the only people in hiding in the Secret Annex.. Anne began writing a diary when she received an autograph book on her birthday. This diary is result of her desperate urge to truly confide into someone and speak her heart without any judgements. It's very casual as I began reading this book since I found it when I was searching for some other ebook. She describes specific necessary details about the events happening before and after going into hiding. It took almost very end of the diary, that I was hit and was hit hard with a sense of gravity with which this girl was writing, the unbelievable courage she showed and yet with such subtly she writes everyday happenings as I can.., we can literally imagine it happening. I just wish I knew Dutch, so that, I could read her original diary in its glory with her own hand writing. The diary mentions events between 1942 and 1944 and over this brief period, as a reader, we see her grow in her thinking, responses, relationships and writing which she realises on her own as much as we do. Her relationships with her family members, later on with their guests in hiding and ultimately with herself are really thought provoking. She really writes what she feels, in the sense that she doesn't try to write what a reader would like but what she wanted to say.. She mentions almost everything possible. The people in hiding with her, their behavior towards her, in between themselves, her responses to them, the helpers they had, their lives, the outside world, the uncertainty, gradual inhumating of Jews and much more. But yet, it ain't a complete sad story all along, she does mentions some humorous situations, typical everyday conversations, unnecessary individual comments of all members of the 'Annex family' over the things happening outside, unfruitful serious discussions which is say, like, water in oasis. Once over radio, she overheard that Dutch minister plans to publish the writings during the war period, so that the world would know the tyranny they faced, due to which she organizes her diary a bit, changes the name of the people with her, but in no way moves away from her honesty. Towards the end of 1943 she starts writing mostly about Peter Va Pels, the only boy of Hermann and Auguste Van Pels and her liking towards him, not due to attraction but desperate longing for affection. Her first kiss, urge to spend more an more time with Peter, his bravery in dealing unusual events are some things which she doesn't shy away from writing even being, a what, 15-16yrs old, embodying her maturity. The Diary ends with a phrase written in bold 'ANNES DIARY ENDS HERE' and you would definitely feel the emptiness she leaves us with so many things we would love to see, she thought of, which would have come true.
4th August 1944 about 10-10:15am, was the day they all were caught in a raid by Sicherheitspolizei, a Dutch officer and this is the reason which stopped her from writing her diary any further. Later they were transported to Auschwitz a concentration camp. Only Otto Frank survived the war and later on published his daughters diary.
But I must tell you, throughout the book, any day you read, you must try to understand the rigorous unwavering fear she and thousands other like her who in hiding, were facing. Any moment there could be a raid and then and there was sure death or even worse, a concentration camp.. The Anne Frank Foundation which does many charitable objects, on its website mentions in detail Anne's life, the Secret Annex, the people with her. To visit click on the below mentioned link. Apart from her diary, there are a few photos and only brief, very short video which her neighbors in Amsterdam had shot during their wedding and we see her peeping down to have a good look at newly weds, which the couple submitted after the war. To watch the video, click on the below mentioned link..
All in all, Anne Frank was a girl who had a strong story which she told to the world through her diary, compelling us to remember always, one of the darkest, tragic, inhuman times when humanity stooped to such pathetically low level..
Do read her diary not just to feel how lucky you have been but to sympathize with her, truly understand her and most of all to show the respect she deserves..
I do not claim it to be a book review.
