Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition

To me, this book became one of the most insightful, witty, well written and interesting books that I have ever read! It is almost unbelievable that the author, who possessed such a poignant mind with a very fine sense of humour, and a tremendous literary talent, was a girl of only 13-14 years of age!Anne Frank was a Jewish girl who, in 1942, together with her family and another family, went into a hiding in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation of Holland. She had written most of this diary while they stayed there (and not in the camps, as usually thought of). Two years later they were found out and arrested by the Nazi police and transported to the labor camps, where almost everyone was eventually killed or died, including Anne. The only survivor was her father. Anne's diary was rescued by their Dutch friends just before the Nazi returned after their arrest to clean that hiding. After the war, with her father's consent and help, Anne's diary was published and became one of the most well known books in the world.I had not heard much about it before I started to read it, and so had no particular expectations of what it will be. Quite unlike the popular image of this book, which is usually presented as the description of the suffering of the Jews during the WWII, the horrors of labor camps, etc., it is an optimistic and highly entertaining read about the life of this teenage (13-14) girl, mostly concerned with the grown ups around her and their social behaviour in that hide; her relationships with them and her innermost feelings and anxieties; her first and second love; her self exploration during those 25 months there and the hopes and dreams that she entertained for after the war is over, when they can return to a normal life; and much, much more. Although the struggles of the war and their frequent fears in hiding are also addressed, her writing mostly remains a humorous, witty, very touching and super addictive read!So I am a little bit perplexed why so many 5* reviews here emphasise so much the terrible fortune of the many Jews during the WWII and the tragic end of Anne Frank and most of her family. Whereas these are undoubtedly the shocking facts (well described in _another_ book, "Anne Frank Remembered"), they happened after this diary was completed by Anne and thus did not influence neither the spirit nor the content of it.This book is an important read for every parent because not only does it show what an early teenager anticipates, wants and needs to see in her parents, but also describes very well on how particular character traits of the parents and other grown ups, which we as adults stop even noticing because they're all so common, how these are perceived by children and how they form their opinions, and then of course their attitudes, towards us & life. I think it will be quite clear to everyone who reads the book that the parents-kids misunderstanding symptom, recurring in every generation, must be due not so much to the change of circumstances / technologies / opportunities / values, etc., but because too many of us, when we grow up and become parents, tend to do exactly the same things for our kids and become exactly the same characters which we ourselves despised while being young. No other book which I have read describes the yearnings and the needs of an adolescent so well and can offer so much practical insight for parents and kids alike as this one!I do not intend to repeat what is already written in some other reviews here, but to give you just one example where this book really struck me by the depth of Anne's thought and feelings: how well (at the age of 14!) she defined what love is and what it is not. What does it mean to love someone? In one place she writes: "Love is understanding someone, caring for him, sharing his joys and sorrows". And then few months later she adds: "To love someone, I have to admire and respect that person". Until I read her diary I thought that the best definition of what love is was given by a renowned psychologist Erich Fromm (who actually wrote it when Anne was no more): "Love... always implies certain basic elements, common to all forms of love. These are care, responsibility, respect and knowledge". But if you pause and slowly repeat and compare these definitions, how much more precise and resonating is this word that Anne used, "to admire" (the same word in the Russian translation)! Aren't we all really longing for a partner, for friends and parents whom we would not only know and respect, but admire? Does not each of us yearn to live a life that is worth not only of respect, but admiration? Sometimes it happens that just one or few precise words open up the new depths of understanding and meaning. For Leo Tolstoy, a famous Russian author, 8 words spoken in the Sermon on the Mount: "Do not resist the one who is evil" (only 3 words in Russian actually) opened up the understanding of the teachings of the Gospels. As for me, this one verb, in the context of Anne's writing about love, - to admire (not in the modern, superficial sense of admiring what is on the outside, but subtle admiration of the person's character), - enriched my understanding of love. This is just one example which is most vivid in my memory from this book, but the truth is that at no moment I was willing to speed up my reading, or to skip any paragraph or part of it, because everything she wrote is really so captivating!P.S. Few words on the English translation. This English text is beautifully written, maybe even a bit too beautiful, too stylized compared to the original. I actually cannot compare it to the original in Dutch, but when I looked at the Russian translation, some written thoughts sounded a little less accurately formulated there; somehow it felt more believable to be closer to the writing of a 14 year old girl. Yet I did preferred to read the English version, since as long as this is a translation, I think it is alright to make it more natural & harmonious in the final language, rather than trying to find ways to retain the slight unpolished-ness of the original. Besides, English is more of a kindred language with Dutch.

I first read this book (the edited down version) when I was nine years old, I received the book as a gift, and again when I was twelve for school. I recently re-read the book (the new un-edited version) and coming from an entirely different perspective now that I am a thirty year old mother.First, I want to say that I absolutely believe that this book should still be included in school curriculum. The only thing 'new' about it is that pages and passages were added. Nothing was taken out and the translation was not changed. Reports that the book is so different that it's nothing like the original are false. Reports that the story is different are false.There is no reason for the edited version to still be used because children read Anne Frank's diary around ages 11-14 years old which was around age when Anne herself was writing the diary. Anything that could be seen as supposedly "inappropriate" can be seen on daytime television with a PG or maybe PG-13 rating. Especially these days, there's definitely nothing in there that is beyond the norm for the average tween-teen. I think that continuing to use an edited version is insulting to Anne Frank's memory. Not only that, but it provides valuable information about the time period and gives more relateability to the diary.The passages which are included in the new version are not anything that the average 8-12 year old girl does not already know about her own body and the "birds and the bees", and are so few and short that they comprise a tiny percentage of the work itself. The romance between herself and Peter is very chaste and nothing untoward happens in the story. (Spoiler: they hold hands and a kiss a few times. that's it.) The passages that some see as inappropriate are not at all titillating, a medical textbook is more erotic. Coming from a mom's point of view, I would definitely allow my daughter to read the unedited book.I think this should stay on school book lists because some kids these days see the Holocaust as something that happened a long time ago that is meaningless now, without realizing that genocides and racial motivated violence still happens every day. I think it seems to them like just another thing they have to learn about along with The Hundred Years War and the Crusades.Anne Frank's diary gives kids perspective and helps makes the tragic loss of life during WWII a tangible thing they can understand. The diary is so relate-able and reflects so many feelings that all teens have had, that she becomes three dimensional to them and no longer a just some person that died a long time ago. This sensitivity towards the loss of a life is what we need now in the times we live in.As we read the diary we see how much potential was lost not only in Anne but in her entire family. Anne Frank was an intelligent and well-read young woman who studied multiple languages and had an analytical mind. I believe we lost a shining beacon of women's intelligence when she died. She was an emerging feminist, activist, and writer! I think she would have been an amazing woman who would have gone on to do great things. All that potential was lost millions of times over during WWII, and this is what we feel deep in our hearts upon closing the book.Most of the book is about the privations and hardship of living hidden away in the "annex". There is very little coverage of the violence of the times or much that is going on in the outside world because they had little knowledge of it since they were hidden. I think this is partly why some schoolchildren report the diary is boring. It does get repetitive at times, which reflects the feelings of those living in hiding. They had to wait and wait in fear, not knowing what the next day would bring.There are many self-reflective passages where Anne laments being picked on by the adults in the annex, wondering if she will live up to the expectations they have for her, hoping she can reach her goals. There is a thread of hope apparent even in her most depressing writings. I think these are the parts I think teens find most relate-able because all teens want to achieve things, please their parents, and find hope in their moments of despair.Toward the end of the diary we see just how difficult things have become for the family which is not always accurately represented in the movie versions of the diary. They were starving, never full at meals, and having to exist off moldy and tasteless food. There was one bathroom for eight people and at times the toilet could not be flushed. They had threadbare, holey clothing which was too small. The cat used the bathroom wherever it wanted towards the end, and their helpers came less and less frequently as circumstances got worse and worse. Their conditions deteriorated in ways that children living in the comfort of the 21st century could never imagine. It's so important for kids to read about these conditions and contrast them with their own in order to not only feel grateful but to feel sympathy for those who lived in these terrible times.The Kindle version had fairly large print and worked just fine on my phone and tablet with no issues. The new version has a new introduction and I believe the epilogue has changed a bit as well. I enjoyed the footnotes feature which allows you to touch the number which takes you to the footnotes page, then when you touch the number again it takes you back to the page you were originally on. I had no problems purchasing or downloading.If you want to know more about what happened to Anne Frank after the diary, there is a book called "The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank" by Willy Lindwer which includes stories from people who met her in the camps.Another recommendation is the author Eva Schloss who was Anne Frank's stepsister, who wrote about surviving Auschwitz.

Good Quality

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Das Buch ist zur Information für Freunde in Australien, die sich über die deutsche Vergangenheit informieren wollen.

One of my top 10.

The content: I feel this is a must read, by everyone. If you have ever seen any of the movies, I'd strongly recommend reading this after (not before) seeing one of the movies - this isn't fiction, this is real life (as you likely already know), and reading her actual diary gives so much more insight into all that happened, and into the people involved, and into Anne herself, a very real and vibrant life force, that endured and suffered and lived, only to have all that taken away.There are so many aspects of life in the Secret Annex that the movies/etc didn't cover, so reading this is not simply a text version of the movies/etc, it is like being there 24/7, rather than the more limited aspects and events portrayed in the movies. And in the form of a diary, this is truly an amazing, and no-holding-back way to know the truth of it. Anne is not shy in her diary; she is blunt, open and honest, and after reading for a while, you can feel her heart, soul, passion, fears, hopes, honesty - I truly cannot think of any other way that her story could have been told, that would have given us readers the connection to her, the others, and her situation, as her diary does.Version: There are several published version of her diary - read the book intro, it will explain - seems all publishers have the same intro, almost word for word. This is the one I chose after looking at many published versions, it is the most complete version easily available. But one day, if it is possible, I would like to find what is referred to as the 'Critical Edition', which is the only one that includes her original unedited (version a), though it doesn't seem to be accessible.Published quality: I have found an unusually large number of errors in this publishers version, and I am not sure if that is any different from others. It is stated that, in general for any version c, spelling and grammar, etc have been corrected. But the many remaining errors, things like names (possibly auto-corrected) to words, and some other obviously incorrect words (though not obvious what the correct one is) can make certain passages difficult to follow. Still, that only happens once in a while, so it is not frustrating, and if you have trouble putting the diary down once you start reading, you can stop and think and re-read and figure out what she was really wrote/meant, something I found essential, as I did not want to misunderstand even a bit, and I feel I was able to accomplish that.I've been reading this on a Fire HD 8 Tablet, using the Kindle app. That works great.But, this is about Anne, who she was, all that she was, and what she experienced, as well as the others she lived with, and those who courageously helped them - this is not a 'story', this is being able to look into her mind in every way, and understand. Everyone should understand, and learn from that.