The Diary of Anne Frank

From Barnes & Noble: "The journal of a Jewish girl in her early teens describes both the joys and torments of daily life, as well as typical adolescent thoughts, throughout two years spent in hiding with her family during the Nazi occupation of Holland."

One would be hard-pressed to find many people that have not heard of Anne Frank and her story, including me. But somehow I had never read the book. I don't know when I first learned about the Holocaust, it must have been in school, but I don't think it was ever covered in any depth. That being the case, I suppose it isn't so strange that we didn't read Anne Frank -- without the historical background, I don't know if the book would have made as much sense.

I was surprised at my reactions to it. First, I guess I'd fallen into the trap of thinking of Anne Frank as some sort of saintly person because of what happened to her. I never considered that she was a normal teenage girl with all that implies. So it was both a shock and a pleasure to discover that she was just like everyone else at that age -- she was growing into a woman, with the accompanying physical and emotional changes; she had fights with her family; she wanted friends; she wanted a boyfriend.

Second, remembering how young she was, I was struck by the maturity in her writing. My son is the same age that she was when she began her diary, and the differences between his writing style and hers are amazing. At times I almost couldn't believe that a 13 to 15 year old girl had written what I was reading, it was so perceptive, at times even profound. She seemed to understand things that I didn't get a grip on until well into my 20's and sometimes 30's. It makes me wonder how much of that was due to her education, how much was innate, and how much was due to her circumstances. I imagine that children had to grow up much quicker in those times, yet one more thing to despise about war.

I'm sorry that I wasn't able to read this book when I was younger, but I'm glad I picked it to read now. It's so important not only to remember the horrible events that happened and the millions who were affected, but to remember that those millions were made up of individuals with ordinary lives just like ours.