Anne Frank - on Womensweb

This review of one of my all time favourite books (reviewed for the 2nd time on my blog) was written by me as an entry to the June 'The Book that Hooked Me' contest at Womensweb. It was published on the site as one of the five reviews shortlisted.

This review is based on the Definitive Edition of the book. Published by Penguin books.

Pic courtesy flipkart

If she had survived the Holocaust, and lived to this day, Anne Frank would have been 83 years old, on the 12th of June, 2012. Would she have realized her dream of becoming a published writer? I think she would have. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl is one of the most riveting pieces of work that I have ever come across. What makes it so compelling is the fact that the writer was just an ordinary girl in her teens, writing about the ordinary things of everyday life as lived in extraordinary circumstances.

In July 1942, Anne's family, along with some of their friends, went into hiding from the Nazi persecution of the Jews. They remained hidden in the Secret Annexe (as Anne calls their hiding place in a hidden area of her father's office building). They were helped from the outside by loyal non-Jew friends, who kept them supplied with food, essentials and news.

Unfortunately, they were discovered in August 1944. Anne's diary has its last entry on 1st August 1944. In the 2-odd years that they remained hidden, she wrote all her thoughts and experiences- the good, bad, and the ugly-  in a diary that she received for her 13th birthday, from her father, Otto Frank. Miep Gies, the lady who was one of their helpers, found the diary along with other papers after their arrest, kept it safe, and handed it over to Otto, who returned after the war as the only survivor.

Anne literally grows through her diary entries - we see her blossoming as a person, as an insightful, thinking, caring human being. Entries in the beginning show her to be a relatively spoilt, fairly self-centered little person whose otherwise quick mind is engaged in many inconsequential things. We see little girls like this around us so often.

Anne says this of herself- "I look back at that Anne Frank as a pleasant, amusing, but superficial girl, who has nothing to do with me. I'd like to live that seemingly carefree and happy life for an evening, a few days, a week. At the end of that week, I'd be exhausted, and would be grateful to the first person to talk to me about something meaningful. I want friends, not admirers."

I must have been around 13 years old when I discovered this book. Just around Anne's age when she began her diary. I was mesmerized by the book, amazed at her thoughts and feelings, which so closely mirrored my own as an adolescent. I connected with Anne and her thoughts, across the divide of time, place. I was drawn into her world. I think my fascination with history: specifically, the Holocaust, and my interest in writing, somehow began with this book.

Her ruminations on the books she read were also my first brushes with feminism, of a sort. "I was greatly struck by the fact that in childbirth alone, women commonly suffer more pain, illness and misery than any war hero ever does. And what's her reward for enduring all that pain? She gets pushed aside when she's disfigured by birth, her children soon leave, her beauty is gone...I don't mean to imply that women should stop having children - what I condemn are our system of values and the men who don't acknowledge how great, difficult, but ultimately beautiful women's share in society is."

Anne’s journey is one of loss, but also one of hope. Hope for a better tomorrow. Again, in her words- “I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.”

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit - on International Holocaust Remembrance day, 2012.

Pic courtesy flipkart.com

Today, 19th April 2012 is International Holocaust Remembrance day. Here is a review of a book on the Holocaust that is gentler and not so sad- one that A and I have enjoyed reading. A great book to introduce the time period to children.


When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit
Written and illustrated by Judith Kerr
Published by HarperCollins Children's Books
Ages 8-12 years

The year is 1933. Elections are being held in Germany, and one of the contenders is the Nazi party led by Adolf Hitler, well known for his anti-semitic views.

Anna's father is a political journalist. He is also Jewish. He has liberal views that do not sit too well with the Nazis. The Nazi party is expected to come to power in the forthcoming elections. If they do not, all will be well. If they do, it will prove to be dangerous for him and his family.

Fortunately for him, he has admirers of his work in the top police ranks. Someone calls him and tips him off about a possible arrest just the evening before. The family decides to move out of Germany immediately.

However, taking the entire family out would just attract attention to the flight. So Anna's father decides to go alone to Switzerland, as if on an assignment. The rest of the family is to follow in a week's time, as soon as school closes for the vacation, as if joining him there on a holiday. There is always the possibility, that in a few days' time, when the election results are out, the people of Germany would have voted out the Nazis, and it would be safe to come back home.

They have to necessarily travel light, as it would not do to be carrying too many of their possessions. It would certainly look like flight then. Anna and her brother Max have to choose among their belongings, books and toys. Anna decides to take a new toy with her, instead of Pink Rabbit, who has been with her from the beginning. After all, she has hardly played with the new toy. Pink Rabbit would not be going anywhere, and would be right there when they came back.

After a harrowing journey by train, when they almost thought that they would be caught by the authorities at the border, they get to Switzerland. They have escaped.

The Nazi party does win the elections, and Hitler does come to power. Anna and her family can never come back to Germany, as subsequent events that unfold decide. Pink Rabbit remains in their Berlin house, and is effectively 'stolen' by Hitler.

This tale of escape and survival, of a refugee life, first in Switzerland, then in Paris, with the family migrating to Britain in the end and settling down there, is autobiographical. For Anna is Judith Kerr's alter ego- it is their story. There is a very vivid potrayal of the privations of a refugee life, the experiences with different kind of people, the struggle to make ends meet, the positivity of outlook and the togetherness that keeps them afloat through many a sad day - all told in a fictionalised way that children can understand, even look at it as an adventure.

The book has a foreword by on of my favourite children's writers, Micheal Morpurgo. He refers to Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl. "The power of Anne Frank's story is that we know it is true, that these are her words, her thoughts, her feelings...Imagine for one moment that the Frank family had managed to escape, to find their way to England and safety. Imagine Anne Frank had lived. What would her diary have told us then? The truth is that many thousands like Anna (from this book) did find their way to safety and a new life. Happily for us, Judith Kerr was one of these."

Crossposted at Saffrontree..