I will be exploring Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young girl by researching and discussing some historical background as well as context based on this memoir. It was set in the early 1940’s when World War II was occurring, the Frank family decided to leave their home in Germany and move to Amsterdam hoping to live a more secure life. By the 1940’s the Franks were stuck in Amsterdam by the German occupation of the Netherlands thus went into hiding.

Anne was the youngest child at 13 years old at the time.  She had recently received a diary to which immediately started writing down her experiences as well thoughts and feelings – she was very attached to it. The diary was written by Anne during her many years in hiding where she was trapped and unable to experience anything in the world, it gave her company, Anne said that “The nicest part is being able to write down all my thoughts and feelings, otherwise I‘d absolutely suffocate” (Anne Frank, 16 March 1944). Anne, unfortunately died at the young age of 15 in a concentration camp back in Germany after being found however the diary was recovered. Anne’s father Otto Frank was the only one of her family to survive once the war ended and managed to get a hold of Anne’s diary. He then wanted to get her diary published, to share this experience with everyone.

Anne’s diary was originally written in German as she could not yet speak a different language when first published it was called “Het Achterhuis” and since has been translated to what we know as Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl or sometimes known as The diary of Anne Frank. It was published in 1947 and translated into English in 1952. Since then it has now been translated into more than 60 different languages such as French and Chinese.

By researching about her story and her experiences I have become very interested. As the text being explored here is a diary it is essentially an autobiography. Autobiographies are really good ways to explore personal feelings and experiences. Anne often wrote in the form of “Dear Kitty” unlike the typical “Dear Diary” as it figuratively allowed her to write and talk to her best friend back home and Germany it allowed her to make some sort of connection. What I find really interesting is Anne’s character. She has a very outgoing personality and at the age of 13 was able to write a text that influenced a great load. One question I would raise is the idea of that there is often a loss in translation. It also links into the idea of globalisation and how ideas spread across the globe instantly.

Works Cited:

• Stichting, Anne Frank. “The Story of Anne Frank: Anne Frank, the Writer.” Anne Frank House. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2016. <http://www.annefrank.org/en/Anne-Frank/A-diary-as-a-best-friend/Anne-Frank-the-writer/>.
• “The Diary of a Young Girl.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Sept. 2016. Web. 17 Sept. 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diary_of_a_Young_Girl#Format>.
• Stichting, Anne Frank. “The Story of Anne Frank: The Story in Brief.” Anne Frank House. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2016. <http://www.annefrank.org/en/Anne-Frank/Anne-Franks-history-in-brief/>.