Anne Frank

by Zoë Waxman

The Diary of Anne Frank is one of the most famous and bestselling books of all time, yet the girl who wrote it remains an enigma. The real Anne Frank has been lost, hidden behind the phenomenon that her posthumously published Diary produced.  This concise biography will rediscover Anne Frank: telling her story from the beginning to the tragic end. It will place her life within the wider context of the Holocaust itself, and also explore her afterlife: seeking to explain why her Diary still speaks to us today.

120 pages, Paperback

Published November 2, 2015

Reviews

[Kristi Hovington · Rating 5 out of 5]

My secondary students are so interested in Anne Frank and this 100+ page biography will, I think, be well received by them. It is so concise and unsentimental, yet somehow covers it all, from her childhood in Frankfurt, to world happenings outside of the secret annex which her parents were aware of but she was not, to her life after capture, her death and her legacy, even the absurd idea that her diary was fabricated, a notion popular with Holocaust deniers. Despite so much history covered in a short space, the narrative holds and the quotes the author uses from Franks’s diary to illustrate the horrific events surrounding her are illuminating.

I will definitely look for other books in this series for students.

[Karan Navani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Admittedly, I only had a high-level understanding of the holocaust before reading this book. Zoë does well to provide a broader context to the holocaust using Anne Frank's personal circumstances both before and after her diary entries. It was heartbreaking to connect so personally to Anne's familial circumstances and imagine the horrors of the situation as it unfolded over the years.

Importantly, Zoë emphasises the need to hear the stories of those impacted by the tragic events on an individual level and not just extrapolate Anne's experience to other Jews. It is essential to remember that the six million people murdered were all individuals with hopes, dreams, personalities and families.

After completing this book, I came away with a deeper understanding of the sheer oppressive terror that became part of daily life and it made me reflect on how easily people can turn a blind eye to the plight of millions.

[Sandra Mandziuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

An informative delve not only into Anne’s diary but her life and beyond. Very interesting read.