The Blog of Anne Frank

2 Sep 2004 / Hostile Witness

. . . everything can be taken from a man except one thing: the last of the human freedoms–to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.

— Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.

— Anne Frank

On this date — September 2 — in 1944, Anne Frank was among 1,019 people on the 68th and last train from Holland to Auschwitz. Anne and others hiding with her had been betrayed and captured a month before and held in the Westerbork detention center.

Gravestone for Margot and Anne Frank at Bergen-Belsen site

The Frank family had gone into hiding two years earlier, in July 1942, after Anne’s sister, Margot, received a call-up notice to report for deportation to a labor camp.

Anne was at Auschwitz for two months, then at Bergen-Belsen, where she and Margot died four months later of typhus, just a few weeks before the camp was liberated.

Anne’s father, Otto, was liberated from Auschwitz by the Russian Army on January 27, 1945. His wife, Edith, had died the previous day.

Otto Frank was taken first to Odessa and then to France before being allowed to return to Amsterdam. He did not learn the whereabouts of his daughters until October 24, when he received a letter informing him they had died at Bergen-Belsen.

This unfortunately was not an unusual family trajectory for European Jews in the 1940s. Anne Frank is remembered from among millions of others because she maintained a blog — I mean diary — so that her experiences, what she did, the thoughts she had, and everything she suffered was not lost.

I suppose the same holds true for everyone, with or without a diary — nothing is lost, nothing can be undone . . . and it may be possible for a life that appears to be quite pointless at the time to attain a meaning, a purpose, even through suffering, failure and death . . .

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428 Comments on The Blog of Anne Frank »

  1. Fabiana

    4 Oct 2006 @ 11:38 pm


    Realmente é uma história muito triste!

    Well-loved. Like or Dislike: Thumb up 31 Thumb down 6

  2. HW

    Hostile Witness

    5 Oct 2006 @ 9:18 am


    Sim é

    Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike: Thumb up 9 Thumb down 16

  3. Bridget

    25 Oct 2006 @ 6:29 am


    i am sorry Margot frank.

    Well-loved. Like or Dislike: Thumb up 49 Thumb down 10

  4. Annonumus

    27 Oct 2006 @ 8:17 pm


    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.

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  5. HW

    Hostile Witness

    28 Oct 2006 @ 12:13 pm


    Hi Annonumus -

    You sound like a very interesting person. It certainly sounds like you could be the reincarnation of Anne Frank. Sometimes I suspect that my wife is the reincarnation of Heinrich Himmler…

    Well-loved. Like or Dislike: Thumb up 35 Thumb down 22

  6. Leena Hancock

    4 Nov 2006 @ 12:09 pm


    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.

    Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike: Thumb up 13 Thumb down 27

  7. cata

    1 Dec 2006 @ 10:30 am


    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.

    Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike: Thumb up 11 Thumb down 16

  8. cataria

    1 Dec 2006 @ 10:46 am


    eu adoro Anne Frank porque li o livro dela e comovime muito
    eu nunca me vou esquecer dela e gostava que todas as pessoas lessem o livro dela porque e uma historia comovente e boa para as pessoas verem como a vida e cruel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Anne es a maior adoro te

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  9. cata

    1 Dec 2006 @ 10:50 am


    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.

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  10. Sonja

    30 Dec 2006 @ 1:19 am


    I am sorry for Anne and Margot Frank. I reading the diary of her at home!
    It is very sad and hard to read it.

    Well-loved. Like or Dislike: Thumb up 29 Thumb down 7

  11. Cayla

    7 Jan 2007 @ 9:03 am


    I have read many things about anne. i do not believe that she can be reincarnated! she is living beyond her death, like she wanted. It is very sad that she and margot couldn’t live about 1/2 a month longer, because they would’ve lived through the holocaust!

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  12. Rob

    8 Jan 2007 @ 10:12 am


    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.

    Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike: Thumb up 4 Thumb down 39

  13. Raul

    9 Jan 2007 @ 2:20 pm


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  14. HW

    Hostile Witness

    9 Jan 2007 @ 4:13 pm


    Thank God Anne Frank was more articulate than these last two idiots …

    Well-loved. Like or Dislike: Thumb up 29 Thumb down 9

  15. Arty

    11 Jan 2007 @ 10:53 am


    this story is verry sad

    Well-loved. Like or Dislike: Thumb up 24 Thumb down 4

  16. ayanna

    14 Jan 2007 @ 4:15 pm


    this book is i fell a good book but also a sad it mackes me wana cry thinking about what she went tro and i wish it hadent been that hard for her and her family i think i will read and charish this book alot

    Well-loved. Like or Dislike: Thumb up 20 Thumb down 5

  17. lulu

    17 Jan 2007 @ 9:01 am


    rob and raul are retarded this was a very good book about anne frank’s life and i love the diary book it maks you feel like you were a jew during the holocaust

    Well-loved. Like or Dislike: Thumb up 16 Thumb down 3

  18. ketsy

    18 Jan 2007 @ 10:35 am


    hey anne frank i think ur so brave u did good out there… i wish i was as brave as u… i saw ur movie and i think that it’s great… was it fun kissing the boy in the movie?

    Well-loved. Like or Dislike: Thumb up 14 Thumb down 6

  19. amanda

    19 Jan 2007 @ 9:52 am


    anne frank was a fabulous little girl and its sad the she died very young i read the book “the diary of anne frank” all the time it is my favorite.

    Well-loved. Like or Dislike: Thumb up 16 Thumb down 2

  20. sarah015

    22 Jan 2007 @ 9:26 am


    i read her diary, and i feel very similiar than anne… i have the same thoughts, i think that she was a big little woman, she loved nature (like me), she was in love… but she died too much young.
    it’s really terrible.

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