Hello, and happy Thursday! I have a new book review coming to you today.
Well, new review, not new book.
As you (maybe) know, I was in Europe for most of July. Our trip started in Amsterdam, so on the plane on the way there one of the books I decided to read was Anne Frank's.
However, having just reread her diary a couple years back, I decided to go for her lesser known collection, Tales from the Secret Annex.
Her story is one I'm sure you know. She hid in "The Secret Annex" with her family (parents and sister), another family (two parents and one son) and a single gentleman, for more than two years. And her greatest hope was to be a writer.
This book, while containing excerpts from her diary, exists separate from it. She wanted to write, so yes, she revised her diary and wrote in there, but she also penned a collection of short stories, fables, and general musings and essays.
In August, 1944, the quiet, cramped life of the inhabitants of The Secret Annex, came to an end. At least, life as they'd known it. The SS stormed the building.
All eight inhabitants of the annex were arrested, as well as those who'd helped and hidden them. Two of the helpers were released after questioning, and the next day they returned to the annex. There they found the families' belongings - those not destroyed - strewn about. Including all of Anne's papers. One of the helpers - Miep Gies - gathered them all, intending to keep them to return to Anne after the war. (Another helper was arrested for seven weeks, and yet another was jailed in various work camps.)
The Jews who'd been hiding in the Annex were sent to various hard labour camps. They all went to Auschwitz to begin with, and survived the initial arrival selection. Then, men and women were separated. For a time, the Frank women were able to work and stay together. But Anne and her sister, Margot, were then sent to Bergen-Belsen, a women's camp, where they both died; though it is not known for certain, it is believed they died of typhoid, just days separate from each other, only months before the camp was liberated. It is said that Anne, knowing her sister to be dead and believing her parents to be as well, had no desire to go on. Her mother indeed starved to death shortly after the girls left Auschwitz, and Anne believed her father would not have made it through the first selection.
Of the eight inhabitants of the Annex, only one survived the war. Otto Frank, Anne's father. He returned to the Annex and searched for his family. When he understood that he was the only one left, he was given the papers Miep Gies collected - Anne's papers.
Among them was her diary.
And also, among them, was a smattering of short stories, fables, even the beginnings of a novel. There, too, was a collection of random memories. These pieces were among those not immediately chosen to be published as her diary; and, again, when later editions were published with missing pieces, these still, not fitting, were left out.
But they were her words. The words of a girl, a young woman, who wanted to be a writer. These were the pieces that she crafted to bring her toward that dream.
Having always wanted to be a writer myself, I understand the half-finished longer stories, the completed shorter ones. Notebooks full of musings, anecdotes. That's what this collection in.
When we were in Amsterdam, we went to the Anne Frank House. It was a very moving experience, made all the more so by reading these words of a young woman who expected one day to fulfill her dream. This collection, like her diary, humanizes the victims of The Holocaust, and is a chilling reminder of what, as a society, we do when we don't care enough about injustices and victims to speak up. When there is still a chance.
Her words, her stories, were extinguished. And so very many, many more.
This book can't really be rated. Some stories and pieces are better than others. It is much less well-known than her diary, but I do think it deserves attention, and I do recommend it, especially in conjunction with her diary, or as a visit, like I did, anything to appreciate a deeper understanding of that time.
I intend to look at this subject matter further in an upcoming blog post, since much of our trip saw remnants and remembrances of the war. What WWII era book can you recommend? And have you ever read Anne Frank's Diary? How about this collection?
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