456 Frank, Anne
where her life was taken, they can assume that her
story would have been one laden with the cruel
existence of such a treacherous place. Before Anne,
along with her family and friends, was found in the
secret annex that concealed them from Nazi forces
for just over two years, she speculated about the
lives of Jews who were not as lucky as she perceived
herself to be. Anne’s frequent reveries about the
atrocities being committed outside of her cloistered
world and the extreme deprivations that she and her
companions in the annex faced make Anne Frank:
The Diary of a Young Girl one of the most important
chronicles of the cruelty committed against Jews
during World War II.
Even before Anne made her home in the annex
of her father’s warehouse she experienced some of
the restrictions imposed on Jews. In 1940 Germany
occupied Holland, where Anne made her home, and
like all Jews she was forced to wear the yellow Star
of David, which came to symbolize captive Judaism.
Jews were also commanded to yield to a curfew,
deliver up their bicycles, and shop within a limited
frame of time in designated Jewish shops. Jews were
forbidden to drive, ride in trams, partake in public
sports, go to the cinema and other arts arenas, and
visit Christians. Anne’s friend from school, Jopie,
said to her, “You’re scared to do anything, because
it may be forbidden.” Yet Anne felt that “things
were still bearable” in spite of the ever-increasing
restraints against Jews. Like so many Jews at the
time, Anne did not appreciate the fact that these
restraints were incremental nails in the proverbial
coffin.
Circumstances were no longer bearable for the
Franks when Anne’s sister, Margot, was “called-up”
by German forces. Intending to escape one cruel
fate, Margot and her family trade in their lives for
another. On one hand the Franks are lucky to have
an alternative life available to them. On the other
hand the isolation and destitution they would
endure for just over two years was a hardship deeply
felt by all. Anne explains that “silence fell on the
house; not one of us felt like eating anything” the
night before they were to begin their new life. On
their arrival at the annex Margot and Mrs. Frank
are too miserable to help unpack their belongings.
Yet their lives in the annex develop into a state of
sustainability, though misery abounds. After about a
year in hiding Anne writes: “We miss so much here,
so very much and for so long now.” She goes on to
say, “I long for freedom and fresh air.”
Anne’s suffering pales in comparison to the
suffering of others in the annex, though. Perhaps
because she retains steadfast hope, or maybe because
of her youth, Anne is able to rebound more easily
than her mother, who seems to feel the cruelty of
her situation more acutely than anyone in the annex.
Anne says of her mother, “Her counsel when one
feels melancholy is: ‘Think of all the misery in the
world and be thankful that you are not sharing in
it.’ ” Anne rarely depicts her mother out of her usual
malaise. Readers might assume she habitually fol-
lows her own advice. As Anne very astutely notices,
however, Mrs. Frank’s means of surviving her own
cruel fate is flawed. If Mrs. Frank should ever “expe-
rience the misery herself,” how is she supposed to
live? Like all of the women in the annex, Mrs. Frank
died in a concentration camp after being discovered
by the Gestapo.
Anne, too, cannot stop herself from comparing
her life to the lives of other Jews. “If I just think of
how we live here,” Anne writes, “I usually come to
the conclusion that it is a paradise compared with
how other Jews who are not in hiding must be liv-
ing.” Indeed, Anne’s perception of the barbarism
committed against Jews outside of her walls was on
point. Anne saw other people face the same cruel-
ties she would endure later. “Day and night more of
those poor miserable people are being dragged off,
with nothing but a rucksack and a little money. On
the way they are deprived even of these possessions.
Families are torn apart, the men, women, and chil-
dren all being separated.” Like so many before her,
Anne was stripped of all of her belongings, includ-
ing her diary. She had to endure being separated
from her father, her mother, and eventually her sister.
Families were sent to concentration camps where
many faced a certain death. Anne Frank, who felt
the suffering of others, died of typhoid disease just
a few months before she would have been liberated.
Her voice carries the resounding story of the cruel
fate of the 6 million Jews who died at the hands of
the Nazi regime.
Jeana Hrepich