# The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank Source: https://thegisthub.com/books/the-diary-of-a-young-girl-by-anne-frank Last updated: 2026-10-24 Published 1947 · 283 pages · ISBN 9780553296983 · Categories: Memoir and biography, Society and history The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank is a Jewish girl's record of two years in hiding from the Nazis in an Amsterdam annex, from age 13 to 15. A summary for students and readers who want the history and the person behind it. ## The gist In July 1942, thirteen-year-old Anne Frank goes into hiding with her family in a few rooms behind her father's office in Amsterdam. Four other Jews join them. For two years they live in silence by day, depend on a few brave helpers for food, and listen to the war on a radio. Anne writes letters to an imaginary friend she calls Kitty. She records quarrels, fear, boredom, first love and her growing sense of who she is. The diary ends on August 1, 1944. Three days later the group is arrested. Anne dies in Bergen-Belsen in early 1945, and her father publishes the diary in 1947. ## Key ideas ### 1. One voice makes a vast crime human About six million Jews died in the Holocaust, a number too large to feel. Anne's diary gives one victim a full personality. Readers learn her jokes, her fights with her mother, her crush on Peter and her plans to be a writer. Because readers know she dies at fifteen, each ordinary entry carries weight. The diary shows that history is made of single lives, and that remembering one person can teach more than any statistic. ### 2. Persecution happens step by step Before the Franks go into hiding, Anne lists the rules the Nazi occupiers impose on Jews in the Netherlands. Jews must wear a yellow star. They lose their bicycles, cannot ride trams, cannot shop except at set hours and must attend Jewish schools. Each rule seems small on its own. Together they cut Jews off from public life and prepare for deportation. The diary shows how a society can strip a group of its rights one ordinary step at a time. ### 3. Ordinary people chose to resist Miep Gies, Johannes Kleiman, Victor Kugler and Bep Voskuijl hide eight people for over two years. They buy food on the black market, bring books and news, and keep the business running so no one suspects. They risk prison or death every day. Anne writes about them with deep gratitude. The diary shows that resistance was not only for soldiers. It was a daily choice made by office workers who decided they would not look away. ### 4. Close quarters test character Eight people share a few rooms in silence for two years. They quarrel about food, noise, money and manners. Anne mocks Mrs. van Pels and complains about sharing her room with Fritz Pfeffer. Later she admits she was often unfair. The diary is honest about how fear and confinement make people petty. It also shows moments of generosity, which matter more because they happen under such strain. ### 5. Writing is how Anne finds herself Anne starts the diary because she wants a true friend and names it Kitty. Over time it becomes the place where she works out who she is. She describes two Annes: the cheerful, loud girl people see and a serious inner self. She judges her own behavior and tries to improve. The diary shows how regular writing can turn confusion into self-knowledge, even for a young teenager. ### 6. Anne chose to become an author In March 1944, a radio broadcast from London asks the Dutch to keep diaries as a record of the war. Anne decides to publish a book after the war called Het Achterhuis. She rewrites her entries on loose sheets, edits them and gives people made-up names. She also writes stories and essays. The diary is not only a private record. It is the work of a young writer who knew her goal and worked toward it. ### 7. Hope survives inside fear Anne hears of mass deportations, lives through bombing raids and a near discovery after a burglary in April 1944. She still writes about the sky from the attic window, about first love and about her plans. In July 1944 she writes that she still believes people are good at heart. The diary does not deny cruelty. It shows a girl who sees it clearly and still chooses to hope. ## Questions this book answers ### What is The Diary of Anne Frank about? The Diary of Anne Frank, published as The Diary of a Young Girl, records two years that Anne Frank, a Jewish teenager, spends hiding from the Nazis in a secret annex in Amsterdam. Eight people live there in silence with help from four of her father's employees. Anne writes about fear, family quarrels, first love with Peter van Pels and her wish to become a writer. The diary ends three days before their arrest in August 1944. ### What happened to Anne Frank after the diary ends? On August 4, 1944, police raided the Annex after a tip and arrested all eight people. They went to Westerbork and then Auschwitz. Anne and Margot were moved to Bergen-Belsen, where both died of typhus in early 1945. Their mother died in Auschwitz. Otto Frank was the only survivor of the eight, and he published Anne's diary in 1947. ### Is The Diary of a Young Girl a true story? Yes. It is Anne Frank's real diary, written from 1942 to 1944. Anne revised parts of it herself for a planned book, and her father edited the first edition. A forensic study published in 1986 confirmed that the handwriting, paper and ink are authentic, which answered the claims of Holocaust deniers. The 1995 Definitive Edition restores passages that Otto Frank first left out. ### Who betrayed Anne Frank? No one knows for certain. The police raid on August 4, 1944, followed a tip, but no one has proven who gave it. Suspects named over the decades include a warehouse worker. A 2022 cold case study named Arnold van den Bergh, a Jewish notary, but historians challenged its evidence and its Dutch publisher withdrew the book. ### What are the main themes of The Diary of a Young Girl? The main themes are persecution and survival, growing up, identity and hope. Anne records how Nazi rules isolate Jews and how fear shapes daily life in hiding. She writes about her conflicts with her mother, her bond with her father and first love. She describes two sides of herself. Through it all she holds on to the belief that people are good at heart. ### Why is Anne Frank's diary so important? It gives one victim of the Holocaust a full voice. Readers come to know Anne as a funny, moody and gifted girl, which makes the scale of the crime personal. It also records the courage of the people who hid her. It has been translated into about seventy languages and is one of the most read books in the world. ## Quotes > In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. (Entry of July 15, 1944 (B. M. Mooyaart-Doubleday translation)) > I want to go on living even after my death! (Entry of April 5, 1944) ## Full summary ### A diary for a thirteenth birthday **The Diary of a Young Girl**, often called **The Diary of Anne Frank**, is the diary of a Jewish girl who hid from the Nazis in Amsterdam from July 1942 to August 1944. It was first published in Dutch in 1947 under the title Het Achterhuis (The Secret Annex). It is one of the most read books in the world and the best-known personal account of the Holocaust. Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1929. Her father, **Otto Frank**, moved the family to Amsterdam after Hitler came to power in 1933. Anne grew up there with her mother, **Edith**, and her older sister, **Margot**. In May 1940 Germany invaded the Netherlands. The occupiers then passed one rule after another against Jews. Jews had to wear a yellow star. They could not ride trams, own bicycles, go to cinemas or visit non-Jewish homes. Anne had to change to a Jewish school. On her thirteenth birthday, June 12, 1942, Anne received a red and white checked autograph book. She decided to use it as a diary. Soon she began to write her entries as letters to an imaginary friend named **Kitty**. She writes about school, boys, her friends and her wish for a real confidante. She says that paper is more patient than people, so she can tell it things she tells no one else. ### Into the Secret Annex On July 5, 1942, Margot receives a call-up notice to report for a labor camp in Germany. The family does not wait. The next morning they walk through the rain to Otto's business at Prinsengracht 263, wearing layers of clothes because a Jew with a suitcase would draw attention. Otto has prepared rooms at the back of the building for months. Anne calls this hiding place the **Secret Annex**. Its entrance is later hidden behind a movable bookcase. A week later the **van Pels** family joins them: Hermann, his wife Auguste and their son Peter, who is fifteen. In November 1942 a dentist, **Fritz Pfeffer**, arrives too. He shares Anne's small room. Eight people now live in a space that is meant for none. Anne used made-up names for many people when she revised her diary. Early editions call the van Pels family the van Daans and call Pfeffer Albert Dussel. Newer editions often give both names. The group survives because of a few employees of Otto's firm who risk their lives to help. **Miep Gies**, **Johannes Kleiman**, **Victor Kugler** and **Bep Voskuijl** bring food, books, news and company. They buy food with ration cards from the black market. They keep the business running in the front of the building so that no one suspects. Anne writes about them with gratitude and admiration. ### Life in hiding The rules of the Annex are strict. During working hours the people in hiding must be silent. They cannot run water or flush the toilet while warehouse workers are below. They cannot look out of the front windows. The curtains stay closed. At night they listen to the BBC and Radio Oranje, the station of the Dutch government in exile, on a radio downstairs. Anne records the small details of this life. She describes meals of spoiled potatoes, beans and endless kale. She describes the bathing schedule, the fights over food and the noise of bombers over the city. She studies French, shorthand, history and mythology to keep her mind busy and to prepare for life after the war. She pastes pictures of film stars on her wall. She also writes about fear. Every unusual sound could mean discovery. Through the windows and the radio she learns that Jews are being rounded up in the streets and sent away. She writes about friends she imagines suffering in camps while she sleeps in a warm bed. She feels guilt for her own safety. The people in hiding get on each other's nerves. The adults argue about food, money and politics. Anne describes Mrs. van Pels as vain and quarrelsome, and Pfeffer as fussy and selfish. She admits later that she was often unfair. These portraits make the diary lively and funny in places, but they also show how hard it is to stay kind under constant pressure. ### Anne and her family Much of the diary is about Anne's place in her own family. She adores her father, whom she calls Pim. She feels that her mother does not understand her. She writes harsh words about Edith, and in later entries she reflects on them with some regret. She describes Margot as quiet, clever and good, the daughter everyone praises. Anne feels compared and criticized. This is the voice of a teenager. Anne is moody, sharp and self-critical. She feels that the adults treat her like a child while she is changing fast. She writes about her body, her first period and her curiosity about sex in a frank way for her time. Otto Frank cut some of these passages, and some harsh lines about Edith, from the first edition. The 1995 Definitive Edition restores much of the cut material. Over two years, the diary shows Anne growing up. She learns to watch herself. She describes **two Annes**: the loud, joking girl that people see, and a deeper, serious Anne she shows to almost no one. She wants people to see the second one. ### Peter and first love In early 1944 Anne grows close to **Peter van Pels**. At first she found him shy and dull. Now she visits him in the attic, where they talk about their families, their fears and the future. They look at the sky through the attic window. Anne writes that the sight of nature gives her comfort and hope. In April 1944 Peter kisses her for the first time. Her father warns her to be careful, because the two of them cannot escape each other in such a small space. Anne defends her right to her own feelings. Later her feelings cool. She sees that Peter is kind but not a match for her mind. The story of their bond is one of the most human parts of the diary. ### A writer finds her purpose On March 28, 1944, Anne hears a radio broadcast from London. A Dutch minister in exile, **Gerrit Bolkestein**, asks people to keep their diaries and letters so that after the war there can be a record of what the Dutch people suffered. Anne decides to turn her diary into a book. She begins to rewrite her entries on loose sheets, with an eye to readers. She plans to call it Het Achterhuis. She also writes short stories and essays. She says she wants to be a journalist and then a famous writer. She writes that she wants to go on living after her death through her work. In the same spring the danger grows. In April 1944 burglars break into the warehouse, and police search the building. They come close to the bookcase but do not find the Annex. Anne describes a night of terror. Then, on June 6, 1944, the radio reports the Allied landings in Normandy. Hope returns. Anne writes that she may be back at school by autumn. In her last letters she writes about her ideals. She sees the cruelty of the world and still says she believes people are good at heart. In her final entry, dated August 1, 1944, she describes herself as a bundle of contradictions. She writes again about the two sides of her character and how she wishes she could be the person she wants to be. ### What happened after the diary On August 4, 1944, German and Dutch police raid the Annex. Someone has given them a tip. Who betrayed the group is still not known for certain. All eight people in hiding are arrested. Kleiman and Kugler are also arrested and sent to labor camps. Both survive. The eight are sent to the Westerbork transit camp and then, in September 1944, to Auschwitz. Edith Frank dies there in January 1945. Anne and Margot are moved to **Bergen-Belsen** in Germany. They die there of typhus in early 1945, probably in February or March, a few weeks before British troops liberate the camp. Anne is fifteen. Hermann, Auguste and Peter van Pels and Fritz Pfeffer also die in the camps. Otto Frank is the only one of the eight to survive. Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz in January 1945, and he returns to Amsterdam. After the raid, Miep Gies had gathered Anne's papers from the floor of the Annex and kept them unread. When Otto learns that his daughters are dead, she gives them to him. Otto edits a version from Anne's original diary and her rewritten pages. It appears in Dutch in 1947. An English translation follows in 1952. A stage play wins the Pulitzer Prize in 1956, and a film follows in 1959. The building at Prinsengracht 263 opens as the Anne Frank House museum in 1960. ### Why the diary matters The Holocaust killed about six million Jews. Numbers that large are hard to feel. Anne's diary gives one of those lives a name, a face and a voice. Readers know her jokes, her moods, her crushes and her hopes. They also know how her story ends. That knowledge gives every ordinary entry its weight. The diary is also a record of moral courage. The helpers risk death for two years and ask for nothing. The book shows that ordinary people could choose to resist. Holocaust deniers have long claimed the diary is a forgery. A forensic study of the handwriting, paper and ink by the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation, published in 1986, confirmed that Anne wrote it. Some scholars and readers also debate how much the first edition softened her voice. The Definitive Edition and the critical edition now let readers see her text in full. ### Who should read it Read it if you want to understand the Holocaust through one person's daily life, or if you are a student meeting this history for the first time. It also rewards adult readers who want a real portrait of growing up under pressure, written by a gifted young writer. ## Do this week - Visit the Anne Frank House website and take its free virtual tour of the Secret Annex. - Write one diary entry tonight as a letter to an imagined friend, the way Anne wrote to Kitty. - Read the list of anti-Jewish rules Anne records in her early entries and note which rule surprised you most. - Look up the story of Miep Gies and share one fact about her with a friend or student. - Find out whether a Holocaust museum or memorial is near you and plan a visit. Summary by The Gist Hub (https://thegisthub.com). In our own words, not the book's text.