DIARY ENTRIES

from Anne Frank:

The Diary of a
Young Girl
Anne Frank

BACKGROUND
Otto Frank was the only member of the Frank family to survive the
concentration camps. He discovered that his daughter Anne’s diary had
been salvaged by Miep Gies, a close friend who had been a great help
to the family during their time in hiding. He decided to publish Anne's
diary as a way to honor her memory and share her story with the world.

Saturday, 20 June, 1942

1 . . . “Paper has more patience than people.” I thought of this saying NOTES
on one of those days when I was feeling a little depressed and
was sitting at home with my chin in my hands, bored and listless,1
wondering whether to stay in or go out. I finally stayed where I was,
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brooding. Yes, paper does have more patience, and since I’m not
planning to let anyone else read this stiff-backed notebook grandly
referred to as a “diary,” unless I should ever find a real friend, it
probably won’t make a bit of difference.
2 Now I’m back to the point that prompted me to keep a diary in
the first place: I don’t have a friend.
3 Let me put it more clearly, since no one will believe that a
thirteen-year-old girl is completely alone in the world. And
I’m not. I have loving parents and a sixteen-year-old sister, and
there are about thirty people I can call friends. I have a throng
of admirers who can’t keep their adoring eyes off me and who
sometimes have to resort to using a broken pocket mirror to
1. listless  (LIHST lihs) adj. lacking interest, energy, or spirit.

from Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl  213

 try and catch a glimpse of me in the classroom. I have a family,
NOTES loving aunts, and a good home. No, on the surface I seem to have
everything, except my one true friend. All I think about when I’m
with friends is having a good time. I can’t bring myself to talk
about anything but ordinary everyday things. We don’t seem to be
able to get any closer, and that’s the problem. Maybe it’s my fault
that we don’t confide in each other. In any case, that’s just how
things are, and unfortunately they’re not liable to change. This is
why I’ve started the diary.
4 To enhance the image of this long-awaited friend in my
imagination, I don’t want to jot down the facts in this diary the
way most people would do, but I want the diary to be my friend,
and I’m going to call this friend Kitty.
5 Since no one would understand a word of my stories to Kitty
if I were to plunge right in, I’d better provide a brief sketch of my
life, much as I dislike doing so.
6 My father, the most adorable father I’ve ever seen, didn’t marry
my mother until he was thirty-six and she was twenty-five. My
sister Margot was born in Frankfurt am Main in Germany in 1926.
I was born on June 12, 1929. I lived in Frankfurt until I was four.
Because we’re Jewish, my father immigrated to Holland in 1933,
when he became the Managing Director of the Dutch Opekta
Company, which manufactures products used in making jam.
My mother, Edith Holländer Frank, went with him to Holland in
September, while Margot and I were sent to Aachen to stay with
our grandmother. Margot went to Holland in December, and I
followed in February, when I was plunked down on the table as a
birthday present for Margot.
7 I started right away at the Montessori nursery school. I stayed
there until I was six, at which time I started first grade. In sixth
grade my teacher was Mrs. Kuperus, the principal. At the end of
the year we were both in tears as we said a heartbreaking farewell,

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because I’d been accepted at the Jewish Lyceum, where Margot
also went to school.
8 Our lives were not without anxiety, since our relatives in
Germany were suffering under Hitler’s anti-Jewish laws. After
the pogroms2 in 1938 my two uncles (my mother’s brothers)
fled Germany, finding safe refuge in North America. My elderly
grandmother came to live with us. She was seventy-three years
old at the time.

2. pogroms  (POH gruhmz) n. organized killings and other persecution of Jews.

214  UNIT 2 • The Holocaust

 9 After May 1940 the good times were few and far between: First
there was the war, then the capitulation,3 and then the arrival of NOTES

the Germans, which is when the trouble started for the Jews. Our Mark context clues or indicate
another strategy you used that
freedom was severely restricted by a series of anti-Jewish decrees: helped you determine meaning.
Jews were required to wear a yellow star; Jews were required to restricted (rih STRIHK tihd) v.
turn in their bicycles; Jews were forbidden to use streetcars; Jews MEANING:
were forbidden to ride in cars, even their own; Jews were required
to do their shopping between 3 and 5 p.m.; Jews were required to forbidden (fuhr BIHD uhn) v.
frequent only Jewish-owned barbershops and beauty parlors; Jews MEANING:

were forbidden to be out on the streets between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.;

Jews were forbidden to go to theaters, movies, or any other forms
of entertainment; Jews were forbidden to use swimming pools,
tennis courts, hockey fields, or any other athletic fields; Jews
were forbidden to go rowing; Jews were forbidden to take part in
any athletic activity in public; Jews were forbidden to sit in their
gardens or those of their friends after 8 p.m.; Jews were forbidden
to visit Christians in their homes; Jews were required to attend
Jewish schools, etc. You couldn’t do this and you couldn’t do
that, but life went on. Jacque4 always said to me, “I don’t dare do
anything anymore, ’cause I’m afraid it’s not allowed.”
10 In the summer of 1941 Grandma got sick and had to have an
operation, so my birthday passed with little celebration. In the
summer of 1940 we didn’t do much for my birthday either, since
the fighting had just ended in Holland. Grandma died in January
1942. No one knows how often I think of her and still love her.
This birthday celebration in 1942 was intended to make up for the
others, and Grandma’s candle was lit along with the rest.
11 The four of us are still doing well, and that brings me to the
present date of June 20, 1942, and the solemn dedication of my diary.

Thursday, 19 November, 1942

12 Dearest Kitty,
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13 Just as we thought, Mr. Dussel is a very nice man. Of course he

didn’t mind sharing a room with me; to be honest, I’m not exactly
delighted at having a stranger use my things, but you have to
make sacrifices for a good cause, and I’m glad I can make this sacrifices (SAK ruh fys ihz) n.
small one. “If we can save even one of our friends, the rest doesn’t MEANING:

matter,” said Father, and he’s absolutely right.

14 The first day Mr. Dussel was here, he asked me all sorts of
questions—for example, what time the cleaning lady comes to the

3. capitulation  (kuh pihch uh LAY shuhn) n. act of surrendering.

4. Jacque  Jacqueline van Maarsen, Anne’s best friend.

from Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl  215

 office, how we’ve arranged to use the washroom, and when we’re
NOTES allowed to go to the toilet. You may laugh, but these things aren’t
so easy in a hiding place. During the daytime we can’t make any
noise that might be heard downstairs, and when someone else is
there, like the cleaning lady, we have to be extra careful. I patiently
explained all this to Mr. Dussel, but I was surprised to see how
slow he is to catch on. He asks everything twice and still can’t
remember what you’ve told him.
15 Maybe he’s just confused by the sudden change and he’ll get
over it. Otherwise, everything is going fine.
16 Mr. Dussel has told me much about the outside world we’ve
missed for so long. He had sad news. Countless friends and
acquaintances have been taken off to a dreadful fate. Night after
night, green and gray military vehicles cruise the streets. They
knock on every door, asking whether any Jews live there. If so, the
whole family is immediately taken away. If not, they proceed to
the next house. It’s impossible to escape their clutches unless you
go into hiding. They often go around with lists, knocking only on
those doors where they know there’s a big haul to be made. They
frequently offer a bounty, so much per head. It’s like the slave
hunts of the olden days. I don’t mean to make light of this, it’s
much too tragic for that. In the evenings when it’s dark, I often
see long lines of good, innocent people, accompanied by crying
children, walking on and on, ordered about by a handful of men
who bully and beat them until they nearly drop. No one is spared.
The sick, the elderly, children, babies, and pregnant women—all
are marched to their death.
17 We’re so fortunate here, away from the turmoil. We wouldn’t
have to give a moment’s thought to all this suffering if it weren’t
for the fact that we’re so worried about those we hold dear, whom
we can no longer help. I feel wicked sleeping in a warm bed,
while somewhere out there my dearest friends are dropping from

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exhaustion or being knocked to the ground.
18 I get frightened myself when I think of close friends who are
now at the mercy of the cruelest monsters ever to stalk the earth.
19 And all because they’re Jews.
20 Yours, Anne  ❧

216  UNIT 2 • The Holocaust

 Comprehension Check
Complete the following items after you finish your first read. Review and clarify
details with your group.

1. What does the author say is her reason for starting a diary?

2. Why does Anne start her diary entries with the words Dear Kitty?

3. How old were Anne's parents when they got married?

4. In the beginning of her entry from November 1942, how does Anne
describe Dussel?
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5.   Notebook  Confirm your understanding of the text by writing a summary of

the diary excerpt.

RESEARCH
Research to Clarify  Choose at least one unfamiliar historical detail from the text. Briefly
research that detail. In what way does the information you learned shed light on an aspect
of the diary entries?

Research to Explore  These diary entries may inspire you to learn more about young
people affected by war. Formulate a research question about the subject, and briefly
research it. Share what you discover with your group.

from Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl  217

 MAKING MEANING

Close Read the Text

With your group, revisit sections of the text you marked
during your first read. Annotate what you notice. What
questions do you have? What can you conclude?
from ANNE FRANK: THE DIARY
OF A YOUNG GIRL
Cite textual evidence
Analyze the Text to support your answers.

Notebook  Complete the activities.

for GROUP DISCUSSION
When you work in your
group to answer the
Analyze the Text questions,
be sure to support your
opinions and ideas with
evidence from the text.
1. Review and Clarify  With your group, review the diary entries.
Though Anne died during the Holocaust, do you think she lives on
through her diary? Explain.
2. Present and Discuss  Now, work with your group to share the
passages from the text that you found especially important. Take turns
presenting your passages. Discuss what you noticed in the text, what
questions you asked, and what conclusions you reached.

  WORD NETWORK 3. Essential Question:  How do we remember the past? What has
this diary excerpt taught you about how we remember the past?
Add words related to the
Holocaust from the text to Discuss your thoughts with your group.
your Word Network.
language development
 Standards
Reading Informational Text
Concept Vocabulary
• Cite the textual evidence that
most strongly supports an analysis restricted    forbidden    sacrifices
of what the text says explicitly
as well as inferences drawn from
the text.  Why These Words?  The concept vocabulary words from the text are
• Determine a central idea of a related. With your group, determine what the words have in common.
text and analyze its development Record your ideas, and add another word that fits the category.
over the course of the text,
including its relationship to
supporting ideas; provide an

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objective summary of the text. Practice
• Analyze in detail the structure
of a specific paragraph in a text,
Notebook  Confirm your understanding of the vocabulary words
including the role of particular by using a dictionary to verify the meaning of each word.
sentences in developing and
refining a key concept.
Language 
Determine or clarify the meaning Word Study
of unknown and multiple-meaning
words or phrases based on Latin Root: -strict-  In her diary entry for Saturday, June 20, Anne
grade 8 reading and content, describes a long list of rules that only Jews were required to follow,
choosing flexibly from a range of
strategies.
and she explains that those rules restricted people’s freedom. The word
b. Use common, grade- restricted includes the Latin root -strict-, which means “draw tight.” Find
appropriate Greek or Latin another word that contains the root -strict-, and explain how the root
affixes and roots as clues to the contributes to the meaning of the word.
meaning of a word.
d. Verify the preliminary
determination of the meaning of
a word or phrase.

218  UNIT 2 • The Holocaust

 essential question: How do we remember the past?

Analyze Craft and Structure

Central Idea and Supporting Details  Informational texts are often
organized according to a central idea and supporting details. The central
idea is the most important idea about the topic that a paragraph or an
entire selection conveys. The central idea may either be directly stated or
implied using the details provided.

• To find a stated central idea in a paragraph or section of text,

identify the topic, or what it is about. Then, look for the topic
sentence—the sentence that states the author’s central idea about
the topic. Often, the first sentence of a paragraph expresses its
central idea.
• To determine an implied central idea in a paragraph or section of
text, make an inference based on details in the text. An inference
is an educated guess that you reach by analyzing the details in the
text and making connections among them. For example, if someone
walks into a room with a wet umbrella, you can infer that it is raining
outside without needing the person with the umbrella to tell you
that directly.

CITE TEXTUAL EVIDENCE

Practice  to support your answers.

Notebook  Work individually to fill in this chart for paragraph 9 of the excerpt
from Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.

PARAGRAPH 5

Topic:

Central Idea:

Supporting Detail:
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Supporting Detail:

Supporting Detail:

Supporting Detail:

Supporting Detail:

Supporting Detail:

When you have finished, share your completed chart with your group, and come to a
consensus about the topic, central idea, and supporting details.

from Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl  219

 Language development
from ANNE FRANK: THE DIARY
OF A YOUNG GIRL
 Standards
Reading Informational Text
Determine the meaning of words
and phrases as they are used
in a text, including figurative,
connotative, and technical
meanings; analyze the impact of
specific word choices on meaning
and tone, including analogies or
allusions to other texts.
220  UNIT 2 • The Holocaust
Author’s Style
Word Choice  An author’s style is his or her way of using language.
Style includes a writer’s word choice, or diction, and sentence structure.
The author of a diary often uses an informal, conversational style. Anne
Frank is no exception. In her diary, her style is conversational and even
intimate, as if she were speaking to a trusted friend. In fact, she even
gives this friend a name—Kitty. Notice the unique qualities of her style in
the passages from her diary shown here:
Passage 1: Notice her use of contractions, simple words, and the
informal expression jot down.
. . . I don’t want to jot down the facts in this diary the way most people
would do, but I want the diary to be my friend, and I’m going to call
this friend Kitty.
Passage 2 Notice how this sentence has a natural flow rather than a
stiff formality.
In any case, that’s just how things are, and they’re not liable to change.
Read It
Work with your group to identify two additional examples of Anne
Frank’s style. Explain specific ways in which her diction and syntax create
an informal, conversational style. Use the chart to record your notes.
PASSAGE from the DIARY DICTION AND/OR SYNTAX
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Write It 
Notebook  Write a diary entry in which you use diction and syntax
to create an informal, friendly style. Your diary entry can simply be about
your day or about an interesting event in your life. Avoid any personal
subjects that you do not want to share with a wider audience.
 Effective Expression

Speaking and Listening

Assignment
Reread the excerpt from Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.
Then, engage in a collaborative group discussion in which you
discuss what you learned from Anne Frank’s diary entries.

Prepare for the Discussion  To prepare for your group discussion, reread
the diary entries. Then, briefly respond to the following questions:

• What does Anne mean when she writes that she doesn’t have a
“real friend”?

• How might learning Anne’s thoughts add to readers’ understanding of

the horror of the Holocaust?

• Otto Frank decided to publish his daughter’s private thoughts and

feelings. Was that the right thing to do?
  evidence log
Before moving on to a
During the Discussion  Use the questions and your responses to guide
new selection, go to your
your group discussion. During the discussion, follow these guidelines:
Evidence Log and record
• Ask questions of other group members. For example, you may ask what you learned from the
excerpt from Anne Frank:
someone to elaborate on an idea, or explain it more thoroughly. You
The Diary of a Young Girl.
may also ask someone to clarify a point.

• Respond to other group members’ questions with relevant observations

and new ideas.

• Think about new ideas or information expressed by others, and

consider the ways in which these ideas and information confirm your  Standards
views or change your perspective. Speaking and Listening
Engage effectively in a range of
collaborative discussions with diverse
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• Use evidence from Anne Frank’s diary entries to support your ideas
partners on grade 8 topics, texts, and
during the discussion. issues, building on others’ ideas and
expressing their own clearly.
a. Come to discussions prepared,
having read or researched material
under study; explicitly draw on
that preparation by referring to
evidence on the topic, text, or issue
to probe and reflect on ideas under
discussion.
c. Pose questions that connect
the ideas of several speakers
and respond to others’ questions
and comments with relevant
evidence, observations, and ideas.
d. Acknowledge new information
expressed by others, and, when
warranted, qualify or justify their
own views in light of the evidence
presented.

from Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl  221