The Diary of Anne Frank is the poignant and powerful true account of Anne Frank, a Jewish teenager who went into hiding during World War II to escape Nazi persecution. Written between 1942 and 1944, Anne’s diary details her life in hiding, her thoughts, and her struggles as she faces the harsh realities of living in fear.
Anne and her family, along with another Jewish family, the Van Pels, and later a dentist named Fritz Pfeffer, hide in a secret annex above her father’s business in Amsterdam. They are sheltered by trusted friends who risk their lives to provide food, supplies, and information. For two years, Anne writes about her experiences, the difficulties of living in isolation, and the tensions that arise in such close quarters.
Anne also reflects on her personal growth, her relationships with her family members, and her feelings of frustration and loneliness. She expresses her desire to become a writer and dreams of a better, freer world after the war. Her writing reveals her sharp insight, humor, and sensitivity despite the difficult circumstances. Anne’s relationship with her mother is strained, and she has a complicated bond with her sister Margot and with Peter, the Van Pels’ son, with whom she develops a close, sometimes romantic, connection.
Tragically, in August 1944, the Frank family’s hiding place is betrayed, and Anne and her family are arrested by the Gestapo. Anne and her sister Margot are eventually sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp and later transported to Bergen-Belsen, where they both die of typhus just weeks before the camp is liberated in 1945.
Anne’s diary was found by her father, Otto Frank, the only surviving member of the family, who later decided to have it published. The diary was first published in 1947 under the title Het Achterhuis (« The Secret Annex ») and has since become one of the most widely read books in the world, offering a heartbreaking but also inspiring account of a young girl’s courage, hope, and resilience in the face of unimaginable horror.