The Diary of a Young Girl

Updated with enlightening new material, this is the complete, definitive edition of Anne Frank’s diary, “the single most compelling personal account of the Holocaust” (The New York Times Book Review) Discovered in the attic where she spnt the last years of her life, Anne Frank’s remarkable diary has become a world classic—a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit. In 1942, as Nazis occupied Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, they and another family lived cloistered in the secret upstairs rooms of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and amusing, Anne’s account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short. Praise for The Diary of a Young Girl “One of the most moving personal documents to come out of World War II.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer “There may be no better way to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the end of World War II than to reread The Diary of a Young Girl, a testament to an indestructible nobility of spirit in the face of pure evil.”—Chicago Tribune “The single most compelling personal account of the Holocaust . . . remains astonishing and excruciating.”—The New York Times Book Review “How brilliantly Anne Frank captures the self-conscious alienation and naïve self-absorption of adolescence.”—Newsday