The Diary of a Young Girl

Written between 1942 and 1944, The Diary of Anne Frank, aka The Diary of a Young Girl, is a collection of journal entries by Anne Frank, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl, while in hiding with her family for two years in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. When Anne died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, her diary was given to her father, Otto Frank, the only known survivor of the family. The diary was first published in 1947 under the title Het Achterhuis. Dagboekbrieven 14 Juni 1942 – 1 Augustus 1944 (The Annex: Diary Notes 14 June 1942 – 1 August 1944). The Dutch-language diary has since been translated into more than sixty languages, adapted into a Pulitzer Prize-winning stage play in 1955, as well as an Oscar-winning motion picture in 1959. The Diary of Anne Frank is universally hailed as one of the most important eyewitness accounts of WWII and the horrors of the Holocaust.

Anne Frank’s diary, referred to as Kitty, begins with a description of Anne’s thirteenth birthday on June 12, 1942. Anne chronicles normal girlhood activities, including her kinship with other girls, romantic crushes, academic standing, etc. While the Franks became residents in Amsterdam to escape German persecution before WWII, they were forced into hiding when Germany invaded The Netherlands in 1940.