Why Read About A Dead Girl?

By Christy Giles

This picture of Anne Frank with her diary is one of the most famous pictures in the world. Anne always dreamt of becoming a writer and becoming famous. Then on 25th June 1947, Otto Frank (her father) published Anne Frank’s diary, calling it ‘The diary of a young girl’. Her dream came true but she did not get to see it. She died at the age of 16 years old (in Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, Germany). So why should we read about her?

Her story details the horrors of the Holocaust through the eyes of a Jewish teenager, She tells us about her life. How she, her family, and the Van Dan family had survived in the Annex for two years before the Germans found them.

In this picture, we see a family picture with Anne Frank, Edith Frank (Mother), and Margot Frank (Older Sister). In Huntly College, whanau plays a significant role in students' lives. Students sometimes experience similar situations as Anne Frank and her family, who were stuck in an Annex. As part of Covid, students have been constrained to a small area with their families.

At the beginning of the diary, she shows us the characteristics of being a courageous, empathetic, compassionate and friendly person. We can see this in her writing, where she explains about how the Holocaust started, “What is done cannot be undone, but one can prevent it happening again.” This quote shows that she accepts that life during the war is hard.

She also says, “We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same.” This quote shows that there is one main thing that everybody has in common and that is we all want to be happy. However, as her writing improves, she becomes more introverted and thoughtful.

It is inspirational that even the young, the oppressed, and the dead can have a voice and still make a difference even today. Students in Huntly College strive to be heard through reading and writing despite our age.

A timeline of Anne Frank's diary entries serves as a summary of what she wrote. It also helps Huntly College students to keep track and see trends in her writing.

Anne Frank’s Awful Life

By Jankia

‘The Diary Of A Young Girl’ by Anne Frank was first published by Contact Publishing in 1947 and in English in 1952. The book was set in World War 2 when Hitler carried out the Holocaust.

It explores the life of Anne Frank who begins her diary at thirteen years old and she says “It's strange, writing a diary. Of course, I've written things before, but who will be interested in the thoughts of a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl? Well, does it matter? I want to write, and I want to bring out so many things that lie deep in my heart”

She begins to write at first because she is lonely. This changes when she wants to write for the world.

In the beginning of her diary, Anne Frank shows characteristics of being shy and cringy.

We can see this in her writing, when she says, “But something amusing happened too yesterday. A boy called Hello Silberberg asked me to walk to school with him. Hello is sixteen, and tells lots of funny stories. He was waiting for me again this morning.” This quote shows she is shy as she is not used to talking to boys.

However, as the book progresses, she becomes more mature and change is seen in the way she later writes, thinks and acts. She begins to grow when she says in her diary, “Peter needs love, too. That's why he holds Mouschi the cat so tightly”.

The quote shows she is more mature because she is thinking of others. It is no longer what a boy can do for her but his needs are important—“Peter needs love, too”.

Do you think her life was awful?

A Jewish girl's harsh and heartbreaking testimony about the Holocaust.

(Part 2) by Christy Giles

The main themes in “The diary of a Young Girl” are prejudice, discrimination and oppression through the eyes of teenager Anne Frank who was living the horrors of the Holocaust. It explores the life of a teenager from before the Holocaust, when it started, until nearly the end of the war. Anne Frank hid in the annex for two years with her family and another family.

This painting provides a picture of the six million Jews who perished during the Holocaust. From the perspective of a teenager like us, the book gives us an insight into the lives of six million Jewish people. This is more than the entire population of New Zealand.

According to the British library website, “The badges were often printed on coarse yellow cloth and were a garish yellow colour. The star, which represented the star of David, was outlined in thick, black lines and the word 'Jew' was printed in mock-Hebraic type. In the Warsaw ghetto, Jews wore a white armband with a blue Star of David on their left arm. In some ghettos, even babies in prams had to wear armbands or stars. Jewish shops were also marked with a Yellow Star.” The yellow star was intended to dishonour the jews and to mark them out for discrimination and segregation. The policy was also made easier to identify Jews to deport to camps.

Being forced to do anything against your will gives me a sense of helplessness

I remember getting forced to participate in sports and speeches from teachers here at Huntly College in year 9. The teachers would tell me to get up in front of the class and do a speech or they would tell me to participate in sport activities, even if I say NO to them they will still tell me to get up and participate. Although this is not the same level of helplessness as what happened to the Jews, it helps me understand a little bit about how they feel.

Through her writing, one of the main messages Anne conveys to us is surviving under difficult conditions of discrimination and oppression. Anne describes how she feels about what has happened during the war. She writes about the war. “I could spend hours telling you about the suffering the war has brought, but I’d only make myself more miserable. All we can do is wait, as calmly as possible, for it to end. Jews and Christians alike are waiting, the whole world is waiting, and many are waiting for death." She wonders “ Why are there wars? Why,oh why, can’t people live together peacefully?”. This shows us that she was tired of hiding and that she wanted to do more than just sit down and write. I sympathise with her because she tells us what happens and how it all started, especially the part where she explains how Hitler blamed the Jews for many of Germany’s problems and then discriminated against them.

At the end of her diary, the families including her were arrested, split up and sent to concentration camps to get killed, but only one survived and that was Otto Frank-Anne’s father.