 "Not what I thought it was" | 2009-09-11 |
| - Reviewed By the-dj |
| My mistake ordering this. It is a teacher's packet regarding Anne Frank. Although not what I thought I was ordering it arrived in good shape - shipped quickly. |
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 "Surprisingly Nice Read" | 2009-09-09 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3TMYCZNPLR7PD |
I have been half wanting to read this book since I, myself was a teenaged girl. It is, of course, a much-lauded book and yet I wasn't certain I could handle another personal account of the holocaust, especially given that this isn't even a survivor's tale.
I was surprised to find the book to be a bitter-sweet read. Anne is a 14 year old girl and despite all that is happening to her, she maintains the sensibilites of a 14 year old girl. In some sense it was like reading any young girl's diary. She questions herself and her place in the world, she admonishes those around her, she develops a crush and wonders what love is, etc, etc. Anne seems like she was a very sensible, smart and creative young girl. I was impressed with her constant efforts for study and self-improvement. It's interesting to see the ways in which every generation is the same and the ways each generation is different.
This book also gave a good sense about what it might be like to live under such duress and in such close quarters with a large group of other people. It didn't take long for everyone to stop getting along. Even despite all their stresses, they did try to make holidays and birthdays as special as they could. There were even some humorous moments.
Overall this really is a sweet book which I would recommend, especially to teenagers. It's like being a fly on the wall during a moment in history. Though I wouldn't recommend this to those seeking to learn a great deal about WWII or the holocaust. Being in captivity, as they were, and also being the diary of a young girl, there isn't too much discussion of politics (though there is some and some of the things were news to me).
Good book, I feel now like Anne is friend of mine. She seems like a charming girl who would have gone far with her life. It's a sick, sad shame she didn't get the chance. |
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| "What a writer!" | 2009-08-03 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3KFSUIP23BIEB |
What more can be said about this universally acclaimed literary masterpiece? The wonder continues to be that it was written by a young teenage girl, who was simply honest, no-nonsense, and exceptionally eloquent about the horrific circumstances which she had to endure. The everyday concerns of this young girl, which are so typical of any girl her age in any time period, persist despite the looming horror.
Anne's phenomenal writing talent shows through in every sentence and makes the reader cringe, weep, and even rage that she was denied the opportunity to pursue her dreams of a writing career. What a loss to the world. But what a gift we have in this timeless, exquisitely written journal of an ordinary girl in a very extraordinary situation.
Sarah Bruce Kelly
Author of THE RED PRIEST'S ANNINA |
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| "Beautiful and tragic" | 2009-07-30 |
| - Reviewed By longrush |
I read Anne Frank's diary decades ago and was much taken by it. What I didn't realize at the time was that her father had elected to remove passages that were heavily critical of others in the Annex and entries that dealt with his daughter's emerging sexuality.
This "definitive edition" puts those back. According to the introduction some corrections were made to the text. I wish that had not been done. I also wonder if we have have the whole diary.
Whatever the case, this is a much, much better book. Anne Frank was a remarkable girl. She is able to examine her motives, her faults, and even her physical being. It is a great story of a family in hiding from a hideous evil. Unfortunately it is an evil that still exists in other countries. The difference is that the evil is not Nazism but something else quite as bad.
Some 6,000,000 Jews were murdered by the Nazis. There are those who deny this, but there are also those who deny the moon landings. The average citizen cannot name more than one person who died in the death camps during World War II, and that one person is a girl named Anne Frank.
What makes her story so sad is the fact that she had so much to offer, had she lived to maturity. One can almost be certain that she would have had much more to contribute to literature, to history. As it is, we have only this brilliant diary, and what a piece of work it is. |
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| "Anne Frank-My hero." | 2009-07-12 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1K1ZGD5WTVMZO |
I had read the book when I was a child an wanted to get a copy for my children to read. I reread it and it prove to have the power entailed in it from the first time I read it. It is an uplifting tale of a girl who never knew that her writings would capture a historical moment. It speaks of the importance of having family, friends, and strangers to give love and support during our difficult times.Her faith never failed. Her diary was her best friend and her solace during such a horrific and difficult time.
This book will be read by my children and will enlighten them and open their minds. It captivates the soul. More importantly, Anne Frank teaches a spiritual lesson of wisdom that goes beyond her years. She has "faith, hope and love" during uncertain times. |
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| "We played, we laughed, we were loved, we died..." | 2009-05-26 |
| - Reviewed By hahahoho |
Anne's story has made an indelible impact on me and helped me see more clearly into both the loveliest and the most despicable parts of human nature. Her writing has opened my heart to love more deeply and my mind to think more critically.
Anne Frank started her journal on her 13th birthday, in 1942. Her father, Otto Frank, had moved his family to Amsterdam in 1933 to avoid the Nazi rise to power, but in 1940, Hitler invaded The Netherlands, thus trapping the family there. As sanctions against the Jews became stricter, Otto went in hiding with his family into "the secret annex", an assortment of hidden rooms in his office building where he had been manager. About this same time in 1942, Anne received her journal and began recording her thoughts, feelings, and daily activities to chronicle their existence. Anne had a gift for words, and her writing contains conceptualizations about her experiences and the war that are powerful and thought-provoking. Even more, she possessed empathy, courage, faith, and determination that inspires and motivates. Thus, her journal is not only a suburb retelling of events but a powerful statement about the capacity of a human's capacity to love in the midst of fear.
On August 04, 1944, following a tip, the German Security Police discovered the secret annex, took the inhabitant to the Gestapo, then a few days later stuffed them into a train with hundreds of other Jews and carted them off to hard labor at Auschwitz concentration camp. Anne, of course, was separated from her parents. She soon became weak from malnourishment and sickness. Just a few months before her 16th birthday and a month before the liberation, Anne died in the concentration camp. In fact, everyone in her family (her sister and mother) died during those months except for Anne's father, whom she loved most dearly.
My mind keeps returning to that horrible car drive to the Gestapo and the thoughts that must have raced through Anne's mind. Imagine the beating of young Anne's heart and the sick feeling in her stomach as she sits on those horrible aluminum seats awaiting her fate. Imagine the German military officer standing guard in the corner as armbands of death are stapled around the arms of the quiet family. His eyes keep finding the ground but he cannot avoid their eyes when he looks up.
Why do you avoid their eyes, young officer? Is it to avoid seeing a girl, just a girl, who had but one wish: to live and love, and in so doing, make an impact in this world for good? Why do you avoid the eyes of her father? You can see that he stares at his daughter with such love, such desire to protect...Are you afraid that looking into his eyes you might think of your own father and his love for you? Do you suddenly glimpse - as though reflected in a mirror - your own frail arm outstretched to receive the sentence of death as your father and mother watch helplessly? May your mind never find peace in your soul until you ask forgiveness from God Almighty and from the Jewish people for your part in this crime you now commit.
They must have all known in the depths of their hearts they were sending humans, lovely human beings, to a horrible fate. And yet a whole government was compelled to follow, follow, follow - that awful, insidious coaxing of Hitler as he beat a death drum to the near-annihilation of an entire race of people.
How very important it is that absolute principles of the value and dignity of the human race are written into the constitution of every government's code. Moral principles of mutual respect and responsibility must be upheld and valued as the highest law. Because all it takes is one man, an autocrat like Hitler, to compel his government to follow him and soon the whole country will be following, their moral compass disoriented by the magnetism of the mighty. It's written into our nature.
It takes a voice like Anne's, one whose self-honesty and examination allow her to see herself and others clearly, to inspire the rest of us to uphold the right of everyone to experience peace, freedom, and happiness.
To conclude, here's a poem by Barbara Sonek called "Holocaust". Remember the Holocaust and learn from it.
We played, we laughed
We were loved.
We were ripped from the arms of our
Parents and thrown into the fire.
We were nothing more than children.
We had a future. We were going to be
Lawyers, rabbis, wives, teachers, mothers.
We had dreams, then we had no hope.
We were taken away in the dead of night
Like cattle in cars, no air to breathe
Smothering, crying, starving, dying.
Separated from the world to be no more.
From the ashes, hear our plea.
This atrocity to mankind can not happen again.
Remember us, for we were the children
whose dreams and lives were stolen away. |
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