Originally published: October 2017

Author: Anne Frank

Published by: Penguin Random House

Genre: Graphic Novel

Length: 149 pages

Reading dates: 26 November 2018

I first read The Diary of Anne Frank as a teenager and I loved her voice, the humour in such dire circumstances and the honesty with which it was written.

World War 2 is a part of history that interests me (I studied it at A Level) so I am always keen to read around this period. At the age of 13, Anne Frank and her Jewish family first fled Germany for Holland, but were soon forced into hiding at the back of an Amsterdam warehouse, to flee the horrors of the Nazi occupation. While they were in hiding, Anne kept a diary about her life in the annex (calling it Kitty), detailing her thoughts and feelings about the people who were living with her (her own family, another family and a dentist) under extraordinary conditions, coping with the daily threat of discovery and death.

This is the first graphic adaptation of Anne Frank’s Diary and I’m so glad this book was published. The illustrations by David Polonsky are fantastic and help to makes Anne’s words come alive! Not all the diary entries are included as the book would have been just too long but the choice of entries to include were just right – we feel Anne’s frustration about being the “difficult” member of the family. She sees her sister Margot as the good one and is quite unkind about her mother, much preferring her father. We see the group’s difficulties at living so closely together, the lack of food and the daily threat of discovery. We also see the bravery of those who went behind the Nazi’s to help the family as much as possible.

The last entry is on 1 August 1944 and on 4th August the family we discovered, most likely after a tip off. Anne and Margot died in a typhus epidemic at a concentration camp during the winter of 1945. Anne’s father was the only one of the 8 Annex members to survive the concentration camp and was instrumental in getting the diary published worldwide using all proceeds for charitable and educational purposes.

I’m hoping this graphic novel format will appeal to the next generation of readers and Anne’s story will not be forgotten.

About the authors:

Annelies Marie “Anne” Frank was a Jewish girl born in the city of Frankfurt, Germany. Her father moved to the Netherlands in 1933 and the rest of the family followed later. Anne was the last of the family to come to the Netherlands, in February 1934. She wrote a diary while in hiding with her family and four friends in Amsterdam during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II.

She lived in Amsterdam with her parents and sister. During the Holocaust, Anne and her family hid in the attic of her father’s office to escape the Nazis. It was during that time period that she had recorded her life in her diary.

Anne died in Bergen-Belsen, in February 1945, at the age of 15.

Website: http://www.annefrank.org/

Ari Folman (born December 17, 1962) is an Israeli film director, screenwriter and film score composer. He is perhaps best known for directing his animated documentary film Waltz With Bashir as well as directing the live-action/animated film The Congress. He currently plans to direct an animated drama film based on the life of Anne Frank during the Holocaust.