So we were never assigned this book in school, and I am just getting around to reading it as I feel I “should”. But I thought it was quite widely used in schools and generally known as a classic.
I mentioned to an acquaintance that I was reading it before bed and how depressing it was to go to sleep with that on my mind. She said she had never heard of the book!
Did you read it in school, or on your own? Have you heard of it?
And feel free to add your impressions of it, or how it affected you as a kid or adult reader.
I read it in high school. It was interesting, I guess, but I felt like I missed the age where it would have had its maximum impact on me (in terms of affect, anyway). It’s touching and sad because of its context, I feel. The diary itself is, as Eureka said, mostly mundane - I never was very interested in real-life diaries.
Of course, it’s been years since I last read it so my impressions are a bit faded.
We read it in school, but I don’t remember what grade. I remember a lot of the girls in my class getting a bit overwrought and melodramatic about it, and I didn’t really emotionally connect with it or them.
Probably read it in junior high. We had a local man come and speak at school who had been in the same camp and had known her a little bit, since they were only a few years apart. He had written a book about his experience too, so I read that as well (my friend bought it; I think this is it). Like many ~12-yo girls, I went through a period of reading a lot of books about the Holocaust, and I also read (IIRC) Miep’s memoir and a photographic history. And my mom gave me Farewell to Manzanar at about that time as well, which is how I found out about the Japanese internment camps.
Wow, I can’t believe someone hasn’t even heard of Anne Frank’s diary!
That’s a little scary, since it makes me worry that someday the public in general may actually forget the Holocaust.
The text of the play was in my textbook when I was in junior high (during the mid-90s) and I can remember reading that (but I can’t remember if it was assigned or if I chose to read it on my own). I do remember that I was assigned to read Elie Wiesel’s book “Night” in high school, and that book made a huge impact on me.
As I recall, Otto Frank ended up editing out sections of her diary that he felt were too controversial, so that might have something to do with it.
Yeah, that’s a bit weird–it’s not like Anne Frank references have even disappeared from pop culture. Plus, there’s the amusing Pia Zadora urban legend concerning her performance as Anne Frank, which must live on.
Read it in, I think, 6th grade. I didn’t find it nearly as moving as a lot of the girls did, but then I’d already read a lot of other Holocaust materials.
It was part of a larger Holocaust push – so we had watched Night and Fog, and had an assembly where a Holocaust survivor spoke to the class, and by the time we got to Anne Frank I do remember being very … overwrought … I guess, reading Anne’s mundane complaints about her mom and knowing that it was only a matter of time before they died in Bergen-Belsen.
The edition we used was the one with the sexual parts edited out (I’m pretty sure it was the only one available at the time) and I’ve always meant to go back and read the unedited version.
I thought this thread was going to be about the recently released documents showing that Otto Frank tried to pull strings to allow his family to emigrate to the US - but was rejected.
I read it in either junior high or high school–it wasn’t required. I don’t think I finished it. I found it quite boring. I thought it was kind of neat she wanted to be a writer, but wasn’t all that convinced she was going to make a success as one. I think part of my problem with the book is it made me feel claustrophobic, them living in the attic and all. I have difficulties with movies and books that take place in one oppressive setting – Ethan Frome and that movie ‘‘Mission to Mars’’ rank up there on the nausea-o-meter with regards to claustrophobia.
I think Holocaust books should be required reading, but probably not Anne Frank. Elie Wiesel’s ‘‘Night’’ was a lot more hard-hitting I think.
On preview: This seems like an incredibly harsh review of Anne Frank. I don’t mean it that way. I just was a little underwhelmed is all.
I read it in middle school, though I didn’t remember most of it. Then a couple of years ago when I was in Amsterdam I went to the museum. I ended up buying and reading the unedited version and enjoyed it. Yes, a lot of it was mundane, but what else do you expect from someone who had to sit around all day and not do much. Still for a teenager it’s well written.
Like Diogenes, I recommend the expanded version (minus the goat reference.)
I’ve read both several times, because human behavior is endlessly fascinating to me and a first-hand account of group of people trapped in a few rooms together for years makes for an interesting look at the human psyche.
For a girl her age, Anne did have a talent for writing. Had she lived, she may have made a wonderful journalist or author, or maybe she would have given up writing as life’s little concerns took precedence. We’ll never know. In looking at her story, I always reflect on how many talented people, just like her, that were lost to the horrors of the Holocaust and what the world may have missed out on as a result.
Oh, and as for the museum - we went when we had a few hours in Amsterdam, and I was all, okay, okay, about it, and then you see there’s still a few of her film stars up there and it kinda got to me.
They were having a huge Pride parade right out front on the canal, also, which I found strikingly appropriate.
