The Diary of a Young Girl
The diary of Anne Frank, a Jewish girl in hiding in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation.
The Verdict
The most widely read book to come out of the war, and one that has earned its place rather than merely inherited it. Anne Frank's diary of two years hidden in an Amsterdam annex is not a Holocaust narrative in the usual sense — the horror is almost entirely offstage — but a luminous, funny, irritable, hopeful record of an adolescent mind coming into its own under unbearable confinement. That she was murdered at Bergen-Belsen at fifteen, months before liberation, gives every ordinary page its weight.
Who Should Read It
Read it if you want
- The essential first book on the Holocaust
- A deeply human, accessible entry point for any age
- Insight into the daily reality of hiding
- One of the great coming-of-age documents
Look elsewhere if you want
- An account of the camps themselves (read Levi or Wiesel)
- Military or political history
- A complete picture of the Final Solution
Why We Rated It 4.9
Historical Context
The Frank family went into hiding in July 1942 in the secret annex behind Otto Frank's business on the Prinsengracht. They were betrayed and arrested in August 1944 and deported; only Otto survived. Anne died at Bergen-Belsen in early 1945. The diary was first published in Dutch in 1947 as Het Achterhuis.
Criticisms & Debates
Decades of editions have raised questions about editing: Otto Frank omitted some passages (on Anne's sexuality and tensions with her mother) from the first edition, later restored in the Definitive Edition. Fringe denial of the diary's authenticity has been repeatedly and conclusively refuted by forensic study.
Events Covered
Editions & Reading Notes
Read It Alongside
Collector's Corner
Where to Buy
ISBN: 978-0553296983
Other Books About the Same Events
Frequently Asked Questions
- Which edition of Anne Frank's diary should I read?
- The Definitive Edition, which restores passages omitted from the original 1947 publication, is the standard recommendation for general readers.
- Is the diary authentic?
- Yes, conclusively. The Netherlands Forensic Institute examined the manuscripts in detail; denial claims have been thoroughly refuted.
- What happened to Anne Frank?
- She was arrested in August 1944, deported to Auschwitz and then Bergen-Belsen, where she died of typhus in early 1945, shortly before the camp's liberation.
- What should I read after it?
- For the camps the diary never describes, Primo Levi's If This Is a Man and Elie Wiesel's Night are the essential next steps.