Summarizer (Ana) - Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

For this first literature circles meeting my group, Nina, Claire, Arabella, and I have read the first 90 pages of The Diary of a Young Girl: Anne Frank.

June 12^th 1942, the day of Anne Frank’s thirteenth birthday, she had a journal waiting for her along with other gifts. Although, she found this one particularly special because it would give her someone to confide in, be to her the friend she never had. At first her journal would have looked like the one of an ordinary girl, even though after just a month everything in her life had changed. Jews were forced to a life in fear of that that wasn’t permitted by Hitler and his anti-Jewish laws. Jew bore badges in the shapes of yellow stars on the fronts of their coats, were obligated to be inside by eight o’clock, were not permitted: to go to places of entertainment, use trams, visit Christians, go to shops during hours other than those between three and five o’clock (and still could not go to any shop that did not have the place card reading “Jewish shop.”), or participate in public sports. Furthermore, as a result of Hitler’s anti-Jewish laws Anne’s family was forced into hiding in a secret annexe, along with the Van Daan family.  The two families were safe by comparison. Their miseries lied in boredom, hunger, and the stories they would hear of the outside. As a distraction Anne engages herself in the teachings of French and math. Soon enough the Franks and Van Daan’s are dismayed when a carpenter comes to fill the fire extinguishers and as a result knocks on the door and shoves it. A doctor by the name of Albert Dussel, who Anne finds “a stodgy old-fashioned disciplinarian” joins the Frank’s and Van Daan’s in the secret annexe. As their lives in the annexe continues, so does the bombing, but Anne cannot bear the loud noises that come with them.