A review by capy
The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition by Anne Frank

medium-paced

5.0

Writing in a diary is a really strange experience for someone like me. Not only because I’ve never written anything before, but also because it seems to me that later on neither I nor anyone else will be interested in the musings of a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl. Oh well, it doesn’t matter. I feel like writing, and I have an even greater need to get all kinds of things off my chest. Paper has more patience than people.

a new peak of 2023 for me is reading this whole diary on her birthday, i'm pretty sure i highlighted about a third of the entries and, even though i didn't cry, my heart was with her the whole time. in my own way, i know what it's like to be the youngest in a family that has much bigger issues at hand, to constantly feel overlooked to the point where you resort to finding comfort in yourself over and over and over again (and in anne's case, living in the same vicinity for 2 years!!). when she said she had to raise herself, i had to pause and reflect on how many times i've told myself that. and it's not that my parents weren't present or supportive, but they were busy with things i didn't understand and i spent most of my teen years avoiding being a burden.

the expectations she put on everyone else (especially her mother), the thought that they were her age once and that they should know how she needed to be comforted, that all she wants is for them to hold her hand along the way but she only felt silenced and pushed aside... and this is only one facet of this book! so many different passages give us a look into who she would be if she wasn't forced into the reality of the holocaust. the fact that she was excited about possibly going back to school in october and we read in the afterword that she was in a concentration camp that same month... if that doesn't make you sick, i don't know what would. thinking of her story and multiplying it by millions, if i was given the ability to time travel, i would have definitely [redacted] baby h*tler + befriended anne

p.s: can't help but be suspicious of how positively her father is portrayed throughout the book, given that he edited it? i haven't read enough about his control over the editions or if anne's original version is the one the public got but all good