The Diary of a Young Girl

I have a basic philosophical problem with much of the response to “The Diary of a Young Girl.” The New York Times, for instance, called it the “single most compelling personal account of the Holocaust.” No, not by a long shot. Anne Frank’s experience was dramatically atypical. Locked in an attic for more than two years, she knew very little of the horrors taking place around Europe, in the killing fields, the ghettos, and the camps (until, that is, she and her companions were arrested and deported, but of course the diary has nothing to say about that).

I also react strongly against those who say that Anne’s “message” to the world was one of optimism and, despite everything, a belief in the goodness of humanity. But all such sentiments, however beautifully expressed, were recorded before Anne’s capture, imprisonment at Auschwitz, and miserable death of disease and starvation in Bergen-Belsen. The tragedy of Anne Frank is that the life of a young, budding artist was snuffed out and that we never got to hear the mature reflections that she could have penned as an adult. For a perspective on the whole phenomenon of Anne Frank, I highly recommend Francine Prose’s “Anne Frank: The Book, the Life, the Afterlife.”

I was exposed to “The Diary of a Young Girl” as a young person and it had a powerful effect on me. It was one of the spurs to my lifelong interest in the Holocaust. Without question, Anne Frank grew tremendously as an artist and a memoirist during her years of captivity and it is a thrill to witness her development over the course of her diary. I don’t think you can be an informed citizen of the modern world without having read this book. — Chris, June 16, 2026

Synopsis from online sources:

Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, the remarkable diary that has become a world classic — a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit.

“The single most compelling personal account of the Holocaust … remains astonishing and excruciating.” — The New York Times Book Review

In 1942, with Nazis occupying Holland, a 13-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, they and another family lived cloistered in the “Secret Annex” of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and amusing, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short.