English
Introduction
In our research we will talk about a young lady, better to say, a survivor who definitely deserved to be mentioned in 'the city of ladies'. The girl who had no chance to grow up. We would like to tell a heartbreaking story of one of the most famous teenagers in the whole world. Anne Frank was one of more than a million Jewish children who died during the Holocaust. When she was hiding in the hideaway, Anne kept a diary, where she recorded her fears, hopes, and emotions. This diary was found by Mip Gis in a secret room after the arrest of her family. Mip Gis was one of those people who helped to hide the Franks family. After the war, the diary was published in several languages and introduced into the school curriculum in many countries. Anne Frank has become a symbol of the lost children's hopes who died during the Holocaust. Frank is definitely one of the most famous and discussed Holocaust victims. Her personal notes taken during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands became known as 'The Diary of Anne Frank'. The girl herself named her diary 'Het Achterhuis' ( 'In the backyard'). Released in book format, records of Anne Frank became a bestseller and formed the basis for several plays and films.
Short but prolific life of a child
Anne Frank was born 12 June 1929 in an assimilated Jewish family in Frankfurt am Main (Germany). Her father Otto Frank was a successful merchant. The family was still elder daughter Margot, who was born in 1926. In the spring of 1933, after the Nazis came to power in Germany, Anna's family moved to Amsterdam (Netherlands), where Otto founded the branch of Opekta trading company.
In the mid-1930s, Anna studied at the Amsterdam school, Montessori. In the summer of 1941, when the Nazis occupied the Netherlands and forbade Jewish children to attend the Dutch school, she went to a Jewish school.
In July 1942, with the beginning of the deportation of Jews from the Netherlands, the Franks family - father, mother, Edith, elder sister Margot, and Anna - had taken refuge in a hidden room of the enterprise of her father's office, along with four other Dutch Jews. In this refuge, they hid until 1944. Friends and colleagues secretly brought food and clothing to the Franks with the great risk to their own life ("Anne Frank", 2006).
While Anne was in a refuge, she kept a diary in which talked about days, when the end of the good days has come. The entries were conducted from June 12, 1942, till August 1, 1944. At first, Anna wrote only for herself. But in the spring of 1944, she heard a speech by the Minister of Education of the Netherlands on the radio. He said that all the evidence of the Dutch period of occupation should and would become public property. Impressed by these words, Anna decided to publish her own book after the war, the basis of which would have become her diary. She began to rewrite her notes, exposing them to the literary conversion. However, she continued to maintain the original diary. The last entry was written on August 1, 1944.
On August 4, 1944, after being denounced by an anonymous Dutch informer German police found a secret room and arrested the occupants. In September 1944, the Franks family, along with other Jews who hid with them, was plunged into a train bound for Auschwitz. Anna and her sister were chosen for forced labor and in October 1944 they were moved to the concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen in northern Germany. Both sisters died from the outbreak of an epidemic of typhus in the camp in March 1945, just a few weeks before the liberation of the camp by the British army. Their mother, Edith, died in Auschwitz in January 1945 ("Anne Frank", 2006). Otto Frank was the only occupant of the secret annex, who survived the war. He was in Auschwitz before its liberation by the Soviet army on 27 January 1945. After the war, Otto tried to return to his business and then decided to devote his life to the memory of his younger daughter.
Historical background
Anne Frank happened to live during one of the cruelest periods of the history not only for Jews but for the entire world. No matter who was right, no matter who won, both sides lost a countless amount of people, young soldiers who served for their countries. However, the Holocaust will always wake up the memories of an unfair treatment of people by their nationality and the most useless murders in the world's history. It will always be a trauma both for Jews and the world. And the most important thing is to remember this event, remember and to tell everybody that there was a period in our history when innocent people were killed. More than 75% (104,000) of Dutch Jews that lived in Netherlands during WW II were deported and then cruelly killed (Marc Van Berkel, 2015). It is important to remember those numbers because people's ignorance will definitely lead to a repetition of the same events. The Anne Frank's Diary works as that reminder of the terrible events. A young girl made a huge influence on the whole world. She helps to reveal the ignorance and cruelty of Germans. Those who deny the Holocaust or underestimate its value, thereby consciously or unconsciously, rehabilitate the fascism and open the way to new genocides, and not only Jews. The recognition of the Holocaust and the perpetuation of its memory made humankind and especially historians, philosophers, politicians and cultural figures look in the absolutely different way at the phenomenon of genocide, and for the first time, such villainy was unanimously recognized around the world as a phenomenon unacceptable in the future. If we do not recognize the genocide of another people, then we approve it. And if we do not sympathize and do not recognize the tragedy of another people, do not demand from others to sympathize with us. And even at the time when we can doubt and try to justify the plans or ideas of Hitler just remember the little lady on the attic who was hoping for the bright future and for the career of a writer. The lady who always stays a child because her life journey was cut short by the ideas of a powerful man.
Anne Frank's Diary
When we talk about famous and outstanding personalities nowadays we usually start with the families they grew up, the education that got, then goes some prominent achievements, books, interviews, newspapers, TV-shows, and profile on Wikipedia. There is a development in their life, they can see how they influenced the world, they can witness the outcome of their actions. All those things that Anne had no time to see, to feel, to experience. The young girl who dreamt of making a difference, to left a mark on the map of the world, would never know about the enormous benefit she gave to her nation and the whole world.
The Diary of Anne Frank - one of the most famous and impressive documentation about atrocities of fascism. It has made her name famous all over the world. Her diary is one of the top 10 most-read books in the world. In 2009, the Diary has been recognized and registered as "Memory of the World" by UNESCO - the list of documentary heritage of universal value. She dreamt about its publishing but it was her father who could accomplish this. Initially, Frank did not set himself a goal to publish a diary but later he decided to do that. He succumbed to the advice and persuasion of his friends. He made a new shortened version of the original diary and its second version. It was published in 1947. At that time it was not accepted to talk openly about sex, so the corresponding passages Otto Frank did not include in the publication. He also dropped the passages in which Anna responded negatively about her mother and the other inhabitants of the attic. After all, she wrote a diary in a difficult age period - between thirteen and fifteen years - and expressed as sympathy and antipathy directly and openly.
While reading the diary of Anne the only thing you can think about is why children have to know what is war? Why should they experience hunger, fear, and hopelessness? A lot of people argues that Anne was a spoiled teenager because she bemoans their poverty sometimes, and didn't like the food. People have to forgive her. After all, she was a child who needed to become a mature adult just in a blink of an eye. Her diary was her idea of a way out, a place where she could describe all the things that were going on. That is why she imagined a friend and started to write letters to her.
Her writing is really versatile. The text is either full of optimism, or sadness, or irritation, and then again sadness. She could describe the view from the window chestnut tree and sky and then talk about the absence of food. Sometimes she was filled with sweet girlish nonsense, sometimes adult thoughts. Her writing was alive. This is a diary of a baby who has not been spared by the war. People just have to remember that. We talked a lot about remembering things and event and it is right but it would be so much better to have nothing to remember.
Anne Frank's heritage
Of course, we cannot find any interviews with Anne that is why it would be better to talk about her ideas from her own diary. It is even better then the interview. While reading her diary we cannot forget about the setting when she wrote it and her age but it is so easy. Even life in the attic could not kill her faith in 'good people' (Frank, Roosevelt and Mooyaart-Doubleday). She hoped that no matter what is happening there are still something good for everyone. She inspired people to see the beauty around them and be happy (Frank, Roosevelt and Mooyaart-Doubleday).
It is heartbreaking to imagine such a small girl and at the same time such a strong female writing about happiness, beauty, and flowers while millions of people of her nation were sent to death for nothing. Sometimes, a kind of realization came to her and she felt deserted but she was not able to share this feeling. She was not inclined to complain to her parents or sister that is why she chose paper, she thought it was strong enough. We can compare her to the candle she described because she herself has the power to defy and define the darkness (Frank, Roosevelt and Mooyaart-Doubleday). Anne decided to share a little glimpse of light during the impenetrable darkness with the help of her diary.
Conclusion
At the end of this research, we came to the conclusion that Anne Frank could not be a part of 'the city of ladies'. Firstly, she had no opportunity to become a lady. Secondly, considering all her deeds the list of 'ladies' does not deserve such a great child. We cannot measure her impact on the history and on the mankind of the humanity. She lived so little but she did so much. Her spirit is alive and it would never die. It survived till now when Anne could be almost 90 years old and her diary will live much longer.
Works cited
"A symbol of hope comes down." New York Times Upfront 15 Jan. 2007: 7. Biography in Context. Web. 18 July 2016.
"Anne Frank." Europe Since 1914: Encyclopedia of the Age of War and Reconstruction. Ed. John Merriman and Jay Winter. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2007. Biography in Context. Web. 18 July 2016.
Frank, Anne, Eleanor Roosevelt, and B. M Mooyaart-Doubleday. Anne Frank. New York: Bantam Books, 1993. Print.
Van Berkel, Marc,L.F. "Holocaust Representation in Dutch History Textbooks 1960-2010." Studi sulla Formazione 18.2 (2015): 47,68,289-290,293. ProQuest. Web. 18 July 2016.
