The Girl Who Was Anne Frank

About the Author & Lesson

Louis De Jong: A Dutch historian and journalist, best known for his monumental work on the history of the Netherlands during World War II.

The Lesson: This poignant write-up tells the story of Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl whose diary became one of the most powerful testimonies of the Holocaust. It follows her family's move to the Netherlands to escape Nazi persecution, their two years in hiding in the "Secret Annexe," and their eventual betrayal. The lesson highlights the enduring spirit of Anne Frank, whose message of hope and racial tolerance continues to touch millions long after her tragic death in a concentration camp.

I. Comprehension Questions (Brief Answers)

Answer: The Professor says this to imply that every human race is worth saving, as all races are precious.

Answer: His statement implies that every human race was worth saving as all races were precious.

Answer: Anne's father, Otto Frank, was a banker living in Germany.

Answer: Once Anne Frank's diary was published by her father, numerous people sent small presents; some exquisite dolls were made for him by Japanese girls. On the birthdays of Anne and Margot, flowers arrived anonymously.

Answer: The family members of Mr. Otto Frank were his wife, Mrs. Frank, and his two daughters, Margot and Anne. His mother was alive but she had emigrated to Switzerland long before.

Answer: Most people had the impression that Margot, Anne's elder sister, was more promising and that Anne was not particularly a brilliant student.

Answer: Otto Frank decided to migrate to the Netherlands in the autumn of 1933 because Hitler began issuing anti-Jewish decrees one after another, and because the Netherlands was hospitable enough for him to start a small firm.

Answer: Mr. Van Daan was a fellow refugee whom Otto Frank took in as a partner of his firm.

Answer: Mr. Frank's staff admired him for his warm personality. They admired his courage and the evident care he took to give his two girls a good education.

Answer: The lucky fact was that the Franks lived in a town surrounded by friends and the girls led a happy life. This was lucky because the Frank family could only rarely afford a holiday and they did not even own a car.

Answer: Early in July 1942, Margot Frank was called up for deportation but she did not go. This forced Frank to go into hiding.

Answer: They hid in a secret annexe in Otto Frank's office building.

Answer: In all, eight people hid in the Annexe. They were Mr. Otto Frank, his wife, and his two daughters, the three members of the Van Daan family, and a Jewish dentist.

Answer: The hiding party had a link with the outside world only by the radio and the four courageous staff members of Otto Frank, two of whom were typists who brought them food, magazines, and books secretly.

Answer: Anne Frank recorded her life in the Annexe with all its inevitable tensions and quarrels. She created a wonderful and delicate record of adolescence with complete honesty of a young girl's thoughts and feelings.

Answer: Anne compared herself to a songbird whose wings have been brutally torn out and who is flying in utter darkness against the bars of its own cage.

Answer: Anne reveals her grief because she feels that her mother does not understand her.

Answer: Anne penned her private thoughts in the diary and kept it away from the other members of the hiding party.

Answer: The Jews were carried in cattle-trucks to Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp. The men and women were placed in separate camps and tortured so much that most of them died of exhaustion.

Answer: Even in the terrible conditions of the concentration camp, Anne remained brave, looking after her sister and providing comfort to others, showing a spirit that hatred could not wear out.

Answer: She was hungry, her head was shaved, and her almost skeleton-like body was dressed in the coarse, shapeless, striped garb of the Concentration Camp. She was pitifully weak, her body racked by typhoid fever.

Answer: Miep found the diary scattered on the floor of the Annexe after the family had been arrested by the Nazis.

Answer: Anne had written in a detailed manner about the help given by Miep and other people to her family at the risk of their own lives. If Miep had read the diary, she would have destroyed it for reasons of safety.

Answer: It took Mr. Frank many weeks to finish reading the diary as he used to break down after every few pages, overcome by emotion and pain.

Answer: The care of his daughter's diary became the passion and mission of Mr. Frank's life.

Answer: Mr. Frank spent all the money he got from the publishers as royalties on humanitarian causes which, he felt, would have been approved by Anne.

Answer: The German audiences responded to the tragic play of Anne Frank in silent remorse. People did not even go out during the interval and sat in their seats as if afraid of the lights outside and ashamed of facing each other.

Answer: The post-war administrators had toiled for years to make people realize the senseless and criminal nature of the Nazi regime, but they had failed. The Diary of Anne Frank succeeded in doing what the administrators had failed to do.

Answer: The people of Berlin chose her name for the Anne Frank Home because she symbolized the spirit of racial and social tolerance.

II. Close Study (Extracts)

a. Who is the speaker?
Answer: The speaker is the professor.

b. To which question is this statement an answer?
Answer: The statement is an answer to the question "how the professor knew that the human race was worth saving," posed by a student.

c. What does the speaker imply in this statement?
Answer: The professor implies that every race is precious and therefore is worth saving.

a. Whose words are these?
Answer: These are the words of Anne Frank.

b. What does 'everything' refer to?
Answer: It refers to the atrocities and cruelty committed by the Nazis on the Jews.

c. What quality of the speaker is revealed here?
Answer: It reveals the quality of compassion, love, and forgiveness in Anne Frank towards humanity, even her persecutors.

III. Paragraph Writing

Answer: After the war, it was estimated that of the 107,000 Jews deported from the Netherlands, only 5,000 survived. Anne's diary gave an insight into a world of destruction from the viewpoint of a young person trapped in a vicious world. When the diary was published, it became popular worldwide and was made into a play that won the Pulitzer Prize. Played in 20 countries, including Germany, audiences received the tragedy in a silence heavy with remorse. In Dusseldorf, people did not even leave during the interval. The Diary of Anne Frank succeeded in making Germans open their eyes to the criminal nature of racial persecution where years of administrative efforts had failed.

Answer: Anne was a gregarious girl who found imprisonment very cruel, yet she had a positive mind and created a friendly world for herself in the Annexe. She was very articulate and sensitive to everything around her, differing from the other teenagers in the house. Despite a world of hatred that should have worn out her spirit, she held on to her hope in mankind more strongly than ever. Her words, "I still believe that people are really good at heart," reveal a heart filled with extraordinary compassion and forgiveness.

Answer: The Nazis treated the Jews with utmost cruelty and barbarism. Jews were called up by the police without reason and transported in cattle trucks filled beyond capacity. On arrival at death camps like Auschwitz, adults were taken to gas chambers, while others were made to starve and die. Families were brutally separated. Women and children were kept in pathetic conditions without proper food or attire, and many died of exhaustion, disease, and typhus. Human dignity was stripped away, and every day was a struggle physically and emotionally.