Exploring Nonfiction Reader Response- The Diary of a Young Girl

In June 1942 Anne Frank began writing a diary about her life as a Jew during The Holocaust. In her diary she talks to Kitty, an imaginary friend about what is happening in her life and what she is experiencing. As the foreword of The Diary of a Young Girl says, “Initially, she wrote it strictly for herself. Then one day in 1944, Gerrit Bollestein… announced on a radio broadcast from London that after the war he hoped to collect eyewitness accounts of the suffering of the Dutch people under the German occupation.” Anne decided to do this which eventually made it possible for readers to follow the sufferings of The Holocaust Anne experienced. Anne watches as her life is turned upside down when she had to go into hiding to avoid being possibly sent to a death camp. But even before the call, life for Jews had been becoming increasingly worse for the past two years. Nazi’s anti- Jewish laws restricted them from being in cars, owning bicycles, being out after 8pm, or going to any form of entertainment. Now in their hiding place in The Secret Annex hidden by a door and a bookcase they must be as careful as possible to not be seen.

The whole of Anne Frank’s diary I have found interesting so far. It’s weird to think of someone actually having to go through these treacherous things as a child. One of the passages that has a large impact on me is when Anne’s friend Hello left and was going to come back later. Anne was waiting for him as the book says, “At three o’ clock ... the doorbell rang… I was out on the balcony, lazily reading in the sun. A little while later Margot appeared in the kitchen doorway looking very agitated. ‘Father has received a call up notice from the SS.” This passage of the diary shows how suddenly things could change for people during The Holocaust. One minute a thirteen year old girl could be sitting in the sun reading peacefully waiting for her friend to come over. The next minute she could be hurriedly packing up her favorite belongings to flee the fate of going to a concentration camp. This is why I find this passage interesting. I can feel myself start to step into the shoes of all of the people who suffered during The Holocaust.

I have learned many things about The Holocaust through the life of Anne Frank. Some of these things will stick with my for the time being due to them being either horrific or being something that allows me to put myself in their shoes and get a hint at what they were facing. One of the passages in Anne’s story stands out so far more than others. The text states, “It’s sweltering… I have to walk everywhere. Only now do I realize how pleasant a streetcars is, but we Jews are no longer allowed to make use of this luxury.” In my own life I think about if I wasn’t allowed to be in a car and it seems like it would be very difficult to do. It’s absurd that Jews wouldn’t be able to drive a car or even get a ride from others when the weather is bad.This is another reason why it will stick with me. Something else from Anne’s life that will stick with me is how early Anne’s parents started moving their furniture to The Secret Annex and how the parents hid their planned move for so long. I never really thought about this before reading this book and now I have been thinking about it recently. The facts and information I got from The Diary of a Young Girl will stick with me for a while.