The Blog of Anne Frank

 

. . . 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 . . .

  470 comments for “The Blog of Anne Frank

  1. nyla
    7 Jan 2009 at 6:04 am

    dear anne i have lots of your books and their cool i love hearing about you your friend nyla

  2. Andrew
    9 Jan 2009 at 10:16 am

    R.I.P
    R.I.P Anne
    R.I.P

  3. Cool girl
    9 Jan 2009 at 11:54 am

    It is so sad I almost cried.

  4. Cool girl
    9 Jan 2009 at 11:57 am

    Anne was the most brave girl EVA !!!!!?

  5. 2SLIC / DROWSY
    9 Jan 2009 at 5:47 pm

    I AM SORRY ANNE FRANK N I THINK BY READING UR BOOKS DAT U WERE A NICE PERSON AND THAT U WNET THROUGHT A LOT FROM THE NATIZ

  6. DROWSY
    9 Jan 2009 at 5:48 pm

    I FEEL SORRY MARGOT FRANK BECAUSE I KNOW THAT U WERE SHY AND CALM AND ALSO BEATIFUL BY READING YOUR SISTERS DIARY AND BOOKS

  7. STEPH
    9 Jan 2009 at 6:14 pm

    i AM SO ANNOYED AT THOSE THINKING/PRETENDING TO BE REINCARNATIONS…..THIS IS NOT WHAT THIS PAGE IS ABOUT. IT IS ABOUT THE STRUGGLE, LOVE, COMPASION. MISREY AND FRANK HONESTY OF A GENERATION SINCE LOST TO MODERN CONCEPTIONS. A TRUELY REMARKABLE FAMILY CAPTURED IN A UNIQUE STYLE. THEY SHOULD BE HONOURED AS SUCH – NOT HAVE MODERN DAY DRAMA-QUEENS THAT UNFORTUNATELY LACK THE HISTORICAL VALUE IN THEIR BRAIN. I MEAN OMG AM ANNE FRANK LOL – DOES NOT WORK FOR ME. YOUR BUTCHERING THE ACTUAL EMPTHATICS WHICH IS JUST SHAMEFUL! SHAME ON YOU AND YOUR FAMILY FOR BRINGING UP SUCH A PERSON!.

  8. Lauren
    10 Jan 2009 at 8:43 am

    Hi wen I watched the film of Anne frank I just couldn’t beleive that people could go through all that upsetting and terrifing life. If u were alive I would want to meet u. U were brave I would of been terriffed. U were a good person. R.I.P. xxxx

  9. vicky
    11 Jan 2009 at 1:18 pm

    I love reading a diary book and photo book about Anne Frank and You must not going in the hiding at Annex. you better going to Switerland and I think your friend Hannah Gosler and Fritz Pfeffer was right. you can come back to netherlands after war. but too late for you. I’m sorry for you and your family. Anne Frank

  10. vicky
    11 Jan 2009 at 1:22 pm

    I love reading a diary book and photo book about Anne Frank and You must not going in the hiding at Annex. you better going to Switerland and I think your friend Hannah Gosler and Fritz Pfeffer was right. you can come back to netherlands after war. but too late for you. I’m sorry for you. Anne Frank..

  11. laulau x
    12 Jan 2009 at 9:35 am

    hiya x
    i love anne frank i recently watched a programe on bbc1 about her and her family it was about 5 episode. the last one was so sad i cried( i no thats wierd) but the thing is ive read the diray and watched many things to do with her too so i feel as if ive known her for ages and shes my friend so i guess thats why i cried.Just seein and reading the fear and terror in her books and stuff makes me so sad. I seem to have grown realy close to her and im so sad that she died.
    I could go on talkin botu her for ages but i wont
    people may think im sad but hey
    Anne Frank was a great person and is someone we should look up too
    so sad she died :'(
    x

  12. 12 Jan 2009 at 3:05 pm

    i understand your pain, i feel it too, but this kind of stories are for us to make some conscience and never let that happen again

  13. Noel
    12 Jan 2009 at 4:57 pm

    I dont get why you people are joking about being a recarnation of something that is this searious. Anne Frank was only one of the millions of Jews who died and is only known about because her diary was found. This happened because one man thought that he could change the world. And look how close he got. We should just be thankful that we live in late times and learn from the mistakes of the past.

  14. julia
    13 Jan 2009 at 12:51 pm

    i know all about anne frank! history is MY FAVORITE SUBJECT!!

  15. julia
    13 Jan 2009 at 12:52 pm

    HI I LOOKED UP ANNE FRANK I KNOW ALL ABOUT HER

  16. michelle
    13 Jan 2009 at 4:25 pm

    hi, i am michelle iam ten years old. i read the book anne frank life in hiding . it is a verysad story but i really like it

  17. 15 Jan 2009 at 2:07 pm

    you know some stuff you said in that blog is not true like they left in 1945 and were not sent to auschwitz they only went to bergen belsen her dad went to auschwitz and the van daans didn’t leave a month before they all got caught at the same time and margot left with them and she also went to bergen belsen last thing margot anne and…….. mrs. frank all died together because of typhus and feel free to replie i knw more trust me just read the book.

  18. linda
    20 Jan 2009 at 3:46 pm

    dear anne, i feel very bad for u=[ ~crys~] if any peole say any thing rood about u ignore them,cuzz they didnt know what u went thrue and ur family,especially those nazis omg!!!!i hate those genisidel people!!!if i were in ur time and could change that i would,and u guys [jewish people]didnt do anything to them+u guys r still geting killed today by these other people i wish they didnt do anything cuzz theres nothing rong with being different god made every body different evan if ur twins so the nazis dont have no reason to kill all jewish people or different people,so if ur races and listening to this dont say that u hate different because were all different srry,thats how god made us!!!

  19. linda
    20 Jan 2009 at 3:50 pm

    hey its me linda,i just wnted to say hi o..i still belevan u!!!

  20. Angry person
    21 Jan 2009 at 10:55 am

    HOW DARE YOU SAY YOU ARE LIKE ANNE FRANK AND YOU SAY YOUR LIFE’S ARE THE SAME??? It is a completly irresponcible mannor, she was a 13 year old girl living with terror, tieredness and hell, and you think that you are like her/?! And you are not reincarnated Anne Frank! That comes across as very offensive and racist. And Rachel this was a young girl growing up and just trying to be a normal girl. Its not “gross” its just natural. But think about this, would YOU like YOUR private diary published…?

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