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The Diary of Anne Frank 30975 Views

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Description:

She was just a girl who found herself in some unimaginably awful circumstances. If you feel like gaining some valuable perspective on the drama in your life, cozy up with this little book.

Author:

Author / Frank - Anne Frank

Language:

English Language

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Transcript

00:04
Diary of Anne Frank, a la Shmoop. The Diary of Anne Frank, or as it was originally
00:11
published, Diary of a Young Girl...
00:13
...is, in some ways, much like any young girl's diary.
00:17
In it, she vents about her mother.
00:19
She talks about boys.

00:20
She talks about boy trouble.
00:23
She expresses a slew of joys, fears, insecurities and doubts.
00:30
The only difference is the setting.
00:33
One of the reasons that Anne's diary affects us so profoundly is that it is nothing like
00:40
any other books about the Holocaust.
00:43
It doesn't put the reader inside the concentration camps...
00:45
...exposing them to the abject horror of the prisoners' circumstances.
00:50
It doesn't focus on the Nazis, asking the reader to examine the soldiers' psyches in
00:54
an attempt to understand what could cause them to perform such inhumane acts of brutality.
01:00
Nope. Instead... it's a coming-of-age story.
01:05
Anne lives with her parents, she has friends and crushes... and a cat.
01:10
We can see her grow up as we read... from an innocent child, curious about the world
01:15
and filled with angst...
01:16
...to a young adult. More confident, more secure... and with the newfound wisdom to be absolutely
01:29
terrified. We are naturally drawn to stories of children
01:39
anyway...
01:40
...and when one of them is placed in such a unique, chilling situation as Anne Frank...
01:46
...our attention is held raptly.
01:48
Her diary gives us insight into a point of view we just don't have much access to in
01:54
terms of World War II literature.
01:56
Not that of a grown man, who has lived a full life and has long been aware of the potential
02:02
cruelty of man...
02:05
...but of a young, blossoming girl, who felt as if she had her entire life in front of
02:12
her...
02:13
...and could not have known the extent of the evil that lives in some men's hearts.
02:19
What makes her emotional journey even sadder...
02:22
... is that we know there was an entire generation of young children with similar stories.
02:27
Anne's diary gave a voice to all those who died far too young.
02:32
We remind ourselves that, as tragic as this account is...
02:35
...it is only a mere sampling of the agony and despair that was suffered by Jewish youth
02:41
in 1940's Nazi Germany. And, while many young girls write about...
02:46
...gossip, secret crushes, and sibling rivalries...
02:48
...Anne was a young girl just like them...
02:52
...who had far more terrible things from which to hide.
02:58
Can you imagine being in Anne's situation... trying to grow up normally... at the same
03:05
time that you are surrounded by an unspeakable evil?
03:08
How would you have handled it? Shmoop amongst yourselves.
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