The Life of Anne Frank

With succinct, clear prose, readers are given the situation in Germany up to the early years of World War II as life for Jewish people deteriorated and they found themselves fleeing the Nazis, only to find themselves trapped and in increasingly greater danger. The possibility of being sent to concentration camps was a danger for the Dutch Jews in Amsterdam, and it was this threat that necessitated Anne Frank’s parents, Otto and Edith Frank, to find a place for the family to hide. Readers are introduced to the Annex thoroughly, including its location, the residents, and their helpers, before being given a comprehensive look at their daily lives.

Any reader that has been in self-isolation during the Pandemic may have a greater understanding of the unchanging day-to-day schedule faced by Anne and her family during the years in the Annex, although the need for silence presented a further, dire threat. The book is able to delve into this fear and the difficulties that arose from it which all become less important when it was the Annex, itself, that came under scrutiny as Prinsengracht 263 experienced several burglaries and the bookshelf guarding its opening had a few near misses before the tragic day in 1944 when it was raided. The book’s conclusion deals with what happened to the eight residents and the two helpers who were arrested in the raid.

In this, the 75th year of the anniversary of Anne Frank’s death, a reiteration of Otto Frank’s recognition of his daughter’s efforts and publication of her diary help emphasize the importance of their story and highlight the effect it has had, having been translated into 70 languages, turned into plays, films, while remaining an important piece in the overwhelming tragedy of the Holocaust.

What makes this an enticing book is the clarity with which it is presented. Laid out in a colourful and eye-catching presentation, every page includes, and is laid out against, a backdrop of a photograph. It is solely these, presented in cooperation with the Anne Frank House, that make up for a lack of documentation or other resources such as suggested websites or further reading. The book comes as one of two parts presented in a thin cardboard slipcase, along with a folder of individual sheets. The double-sided pages in the folder are divided into two kinds, with seven sheets presenting further information relevant to Anne, such as replicating the cover of one of her favourite magazines, a ration card, or a Jewish registration card. A further nine sheets use Anne’s activities as a start for the reader, providing her/him with several suggestions for writing and drawing. All sheets are assigned a number, with the numbered symbol placed in the book at the corresponding text in order to help readers find the correct sheet.

The publisher has meant the two to be kept together, printing the book’s cover with the image of a seal that refers to the folder and its contents, and reproducing the book’s cover, including the seal, on the slipcase. Given that the majority of the folder’s contents are activity sheets that would be difficult to catalogue, and are meant for one user, it is more likely that this book would be added to a library without the additional contents.

While The Life of Anne Frank remains a useful volume without the folder, the complete slipcased edition would be more appealing as a gift.

(Note: The Life of Anne Frank was reviewed from the gift edition. The edition for libraries does not include the slip case.)