The Hiding Place
Corrie ten Boom, Elizabeth Sherrill, John Sherrill
A Dutch family hides Jewish neighbours in their home, showing the courage and risk of the helpers who made lives like Anne's in hiding possible.
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Find Similar BooksAnne Frank
by Anne Frank
Amsterdam (Netherlands)
★★★★☆4.0 (47)
A teenager's private diary from two years in hiding becomes one of the most intimate and humane records of the Holocaust, written with startling honesty, humor, and ambition.
What It's About
This is the diary Anne Frank kept from her thirteenth birthday in June 1942 until August 1944, while she, her parents, her sister Margot, another family, and a dentist hid in sealed-off rooms behind her father's Amsterdam business. Editions carrying Eleanor Roosevelt's introduction are the classic English translation first published in the early 1950s, built from the text her father, Otto Frank, prepared after the war.
What makes the diary endure is that it is not mainly about war. It is about being a sharp, restless, funny, often self-critical girl growing up in a few cramped rooms with seven other people. Anne records quarrels over food and noise, her prickly relationship with her mother, a hesitant romance with Peter, her reading and schoolwork, and her hopes of becoming a writer. Outside events such as raids, rumors of deportations, and news of the Allied advance press in at the edges, making the ordinary entries feel heavier.
Reading it is easy sentence by sentence but emotionally demanding. You come to know Anne as a real person, and you know, as she does not, how the story ends. The diary rewards slow reading: her voice matures visibly over two years, from chatty schoolgirl to a reflective young writer thinking hard about faith, human nature, and who she wants to become.
Read this if you…
- want a personal, human entry point into the history of the Holocaust
- value honest, first-person writing about growing up and family conflict
- have never read it or last read it as a school assignment years ago
Skip it if you…
- are looking for a comprehensive history of the Holocaust or the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands
- prefer fast-paced narratives, since long stretches cover routine life in hiding
Key Ideas
- 1
Ordinary adolescence under extraordinary pressure
Much of the diary covers familiar teenage concerns: feeling misunderstood by parents, irritation with adults, crushes, and questions about identity. Set against the constant threat of discovery, these everyday worries become deeply affecting. The book shows that persecution does not erase personality; Anne remains fully herself, petty and generous, bored and curious, even while her life is in danger.
- 2
Confinement and the strain of shared space
Eight people living in silence during working hours, sharing scarce food and little privacy, inevitably clash. Anne documents tensions with candor and sometimes cutting humor, offering a vivid picture of how fear, hunger, and close quarters wear down relationships. It is an unusually honest account of what hiding actually meant day to day, beyond the dramatic moments.
- 3
A writer finding her voice
Anne wanted to be a journalist or author, and she later revised her entries with publication in mind after hearing a broadcast urging Dutch people to preserve wartime records. Her growing skill is visible: sharper observation, more self-awareness, more ambitious reflection. The diary is both a document and the early work of a genuinely talented writer.
- 4
Hope and its limits
Anne repeatedly wrestles with whether people are fundamentally good, finding comfort in nature, faith, and imagination. Her optimism is moving precisely because readers know the outcome. The book invites you to hold her hope alongside historical reality rather than letting one cancel the other, which is part of why it remains so widely read and discussed.
Limitations
The edition with Eleanor Roosevelt's introduction uses the older text edited by Otto Frank, which omitted some passages about Anne's sexuality and her harsh comments on her mother and others. The later Definitive Edition restores much of this and gives a fuller portrait. As a diary, it offers a narrow window: Anne knew little of the wider war, and the book ends abruptly with the arrest, so readers seeking context on what followed will need supplementary sources or a modern edition with historical notes.
Questions Readers Ask
- Is this the same book as The Diary of a Young Girl?
- Yes. Editions introduced by Eleanor Roosevelt are the classic English translation of Anne Frank's diary, published under titles like The Diary of a Young Girl. They follow the text edited by Otto Frank. The later Definitive Edition contains roughly a third more material, including passages originally cut.
- Should I read this edition or the Definitive Edition?
- For a first read, either works, and the older translation has its own historical interest. If you want the most complete picture of Anne, including her candid thoughts on her body, her mother, and her fellow residents, choose the Definitive Edition. Scholars and serious readers may also want the Revised Critical Edition comparing versions.
- Is it appropriate for younger readers?
- It is widely taught to students around ages twelve and up, and the older edited text is relatively gentle. Younger readers often connect strongly with Anne's voice. Adults should be ready to discuss the historical context and her death in Bergen-Belsen, which the diary itself does not describe.
What Creators Say About Anne Frank
Reviews from readers on YouTube. Their opinions are their own.
- Published
- 1993
- ISBN
- 9780553296983
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Category
- Amsterdam (Netherlands)
Book details and cover from Google Books.
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