The Diary of Anne Frank

This study guide will help you analyze the autobiography The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. You can also find a summary of the text, full characterizations, as well as inspiration for interpreting the diary and putting it into perspective.

Title: The Diary of a Young Girl (1947)

Author: Annelies Marie Frank (Anne Frank)

Genre: Diary

Anne Frank (1929-1945) was a young Jewish diarist who wrote about her experiences while living in hiding during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War 2.

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl tells the authentic and touching story of a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl who emigrates with her family to Holland in 1933 because of the persecution of Jews by the Nazis. Seven years later, she goes into hiding in a secret annex in Amsterdam for two years. At the beginning of August 1944, she and the other residents of the secret annex are discovered and arrested. At the age of only 15, Anne Frank dies in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Through Anne's diary entries, the reader not only gains an insight into the challenging everyday life of the eight people in hiding, but also a picture of Anne`s world of thoughts and feelings. In an authentic and intimate way, the reader learns about her constant self-doubt, her conflicts with herself and the other people in hiding, her first love, and her hopes and fears. 

Anne Frank's diary is a unique document not only because of its account of the war and the Nazi persecution of Jews in the Netherlands. Her descriptions of the difficult living conditions of those in hiding and the insight into their conflicts, their love life, their fears and hopes, and their search for identity are also unparalleled in this form.