What lessons can we learn today from the Anne Frank Diary?

June 12, 1942 a young Jewish girl named Anneliese Marie Frank made her first record in the now famous diary, which she received for her birthday. She did not know that future generations would read and discuss her diary, and that, thanks to her notes, she would be an unforgettable symbol of the Holocaust tragedy for millions of readers around the world.

Life in the shelter: observations

Anne Frank was only 16 when she was killed in the Nazi death camp of Bergen-Belsen. Before that, she had been hiding with her family and four other Dutch Jews from the Nazis for two years (between 1942 and 1944). Their refuge was a secret attic hidden in one of the office buildings in Amsterdam, of which only a few people who helped the Frank family knew.

All this time Anna wrote down her secret thoughts and painfully honest observations about achterhuis - "refuge", as she called her secret house. These diary entries reflected the tension and danger faced by her family and the people who helped her. But they also show the youthful idealism and thoughtfulness of the author. Anna not only documented the daily life of eight people who were forced to live in cramped conditions of a hiding place, fearing that they would be discovered at any time. The diary also describes moments of tenderness, humor and optimism, even in the face of a terrible reality.

The lessons of the diary and the reaction of critics to its publication

"Anna Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl" was published in Holland in 1947, and the English edition was followed in the US in 1952, according to the "House-Museum of Anne Frank." After publication in the US, the book was immediately announced a "classic", as well as deeply intimate and touching story, according to a review published in the same year in The New York Times.

The diary of Anne Frank is filled with love and discovery, reports The Times. Although there are also moments of disgust and hatred for what is happening, but these feelings are so lively and close to the reader that in the overwhelming majority of cases they are universal for human nature. The people described by Anna seem close to the reader, because they could live even with them in the neighborhood. Emotions that reigned within the girl's family, their tension and fears are those human qualities that can appear in any person even in such a difficult situation.

Immortal popularity

Even those first readers of the diary of Anne Frank were able to recognize the unique power of her voice and probably suspected that they would not be able to forget about him, according to the Times.

"Of course, her diary will be loved by many, because this wise and beautiful young girl returns faith in the infinity of the human spirit," writes the Times.

Indeed, based on the popularity of her book, which continued to grow every year, it can be argued that Anna was loved by many readers. By 1969, her diary was published in 34 languages, and now it is available at 70. Considering that more than 25 million copies were sold, "The Diary of Anne Frank" has become one of the most read books in the world.

The Eternal Voice of the Murdered Children

One of the remarkable aspects of the book is its consistent impact on the reader. "Anna's diary continues to influence readers around the world, in part because her intriguing personal story also gives an idea of a very dark period in human history," says Edna Friedberg, a historian at the Institute of Education at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in the United States.

For many millions of young people, Anna Frank and her diary are the first entry point to the complex world of the Holocaust, largely due to the voice of a teenage girl.

She is very intelligent and receptive, but also very real. Anna Frank became the voice of more than 1 million Jewish children who were killed during the Holocaust, but she also managed to survive these events thanks to her diary.

As a teenager's diary, this book has been particularly accessible in terms of understanding for young readers and serves as a unique and powerful reminder that even in the context of global events young voices can have a big impact.

Anna's records are just one of many diaries of children and adolescents that have survived since the Holocaust. They remind children that they have the right to vote, that their view of the world matters, and therefore goes beyond the specifics of the place and time.

Why Anna did not have time to finish her diary

In 1944, almost two years after the Frank family began to hide, a Dutch radio broadcast from London asked to keep diaries of the times of the war, since they are of great importance to the people of the Netherlands. "This proposal inspired Anna, who listened to the radio program with her family, and began to rework her diary and adapt it to the novel, suggesting that she could publish it after the war, when her family would no longer have to hide, yet she sometimes doubted her writings Abilities, "they say in the museum.

In May of the same year, Anna wrote that in her head the diary was already finished, although in fact everything is not going so fast, and she doubts whether someone will be able to read it once.

Unfortunately, Anna did not have a chance to develop her ideas. On August 4, 1944, Anna and her family, as well as other asylum-seekers, were detained by members of the Gestapo-Nazi secret police. All those arrested were sent to Auschwitz, the death camp in Poland. However, Anna and her sister Margot were subsequently transferred to Bergen-Belsen, another concentration camp in Germany, where they both died of typhus in 1945.

How could history

The recently discovered documents show that Otto Frank, Anna's father, maintained contact with the Americans, trying to get visas for their family while they were hiding, but documents that could potentially save everyone were taken too late.

What happened if Anna's family still got visas and was able to leave for America? Most likely, the girl's name would never become a household name. But it could give a lot to our world. Although even now, thanks to Anna's personality and her diary, we can see what has been destroyed as a result of the killing of 6 million people - the world has lost their prospects, creativity and potential.