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. 10 May 2007 at 4:16 pm

    i read the story Anne Frank young diarist, and it deeply moved me. i love the book, and i am going to read annn franks diary! this story rocks, and those people who said bad stuff about it , the are just plain dumbies.

  2. feelin sorri
    11 May 2007 at 3:54 pm

    ummm wat 2 say i feel sorri for any1 tht had 2 go throu tht i do not c the point hitler gained nothin out of only his own death. i own bith the book nd the dvd i ave got 2 admit i never cry at films but i cried my eyes out at this. not 2 mention there still is concentration camps goin on in the world. i do not no bout you’s but i feel priviladged nd well no1 shud go thruo tht pain.

  3. michelle cooke
    12 May 2007 at 6:11 pm

    awwwe i felt so sad because as i was reading the story ..i felt like i was getting to know Ann but then she got killed along with over 1000 000 other jews.:(

  4. michelle cooke
    12 May 2007 at 6:12 pm

    100 000*

  5. katie
    12 May 2007 at 7:36 pm

    poor anne and her family. Her father is lucky. NAZIS STINK!!!!

  6. danielle
    12 May 2007 at 9:02 pm

    i am just reading her diary it is very sad and i feel so sorry for her and her family and feel sorry for every1 who went thro all that stuff but it is a great book

  7. Juliana
    15 May 2007 at 3:13 pm

    oh i hate the holocaust stories…there too sad!
    i’m reading her diary story right now.
    its so sad..yet so interesting…yet somehow…quite inappropriate…but i’ll deal.
    RIP Anne & Margot Frank:(

  8. 15 May 2007 at 5:55 pm

    anne frank i’m really sorry 4 u … but the same time i’m happy because u published u’re book!!!

    gran libro increible diario tambien!!!

  9. 16 May 2007 at 5:59 am

    were learning about the holocaust at our school and it is davestating to hear how many people have died because of one person

  10. naynay
    16 May 2007 at 4:15 pm

    hey guys
    i have to do a 10 page report page report and this whole topic is sa sad

  11. Shy Shy
    17 May 2007 at 10:41 am

    hey ya’ll h ow u been ?
    I’ve seen many good things and bad things that happen on some of your books… I feel unhappy about these horrible deaths and bad news…I hope your true friend Hannah Goslar is well as well as you are. I’ve only read these books about you: The Memories of Anne Frank as well as The Diaries of a Young Girl-Anne Frank. I hope you are well up in the sky(heaven) where you release your stress and don’t worry about these problems in the earth. Sometimes I say to myself, “Why must Anne Frank go through these terrible disasters and heart-breaking emotins?” I was here on 2/10/07… You are my hero Anne Frank

  12. 17 May 2007 at 5:48 pm

    Anne Frank i feel very bad about how you, and your mother died.

  13. jacob
    21 May 2007 at 4:40 am

    omg i can talk to anne frank… so wats up anne frank
    omg omg you are like my role modle but im a boy soo u ar my hero. bye anne i love you

  14. krystol
    21 May 2007 at 4:46 am

    hi anne frank you were very funny and i think you were the best duaghter your dad could have had and i idolize you so much that i played your part in the play we did in our class for at least half the book.R.I.P

  15. jacob
    21 May 2007 at 4:46 am

    hi again i love you anne frank ummm i read the play book of you and hiding in the secret annex i love your personality and how you were very energetic amd funny ok so bye

  16. Sara
    21 May 2007 at 3:28 pm

    Does anyone know where that grave is, Holland or Germany I presume?

    RIP Margot and Anne, and Edith Frank.

  17. HW
    21 May 2007 at 3:54 pm

    Sara –

    The picture shows a memorial at the former Bergen-Belsen site in Germany. It’s not an actual gravesite, though. People who died in the camp were buried in mass graves.

  18. Bob
    23 May 2007 at 6:03 am

    this is a gay book

  19. 23 May 2007 at 6:29 am

    anne sorry u couln’t though your but we learn about in history its amazing how u made it untill u got cought!

  20. Andreia
    24 May 2007 at 12:43 pm

    hey anne frank i just wanted to say dat u r funny in the book and that u have a great personality i wish u had survived u just had a few weeks left or some days left

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *