| Title | : | Anne Frank: The Biography |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0805059962 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780805059960 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 330 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1998 |
Anne Frank: The Biography Reviews
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قبل 85 عاما، ولدت آن فرانك، الفتاة اليهودية التي أصبحت مذكراتها أبلغ الشهادات ضد الممارسات النازية إدانة وتأثيراً.
في عام 1942 وبعد إحتلال الألمان لأمستردام بدأ النازيون حملة منظمة لإعتقال اليهود بهدف إرسالهم إلى معسكرات التعذيب. اختبأت عائلة آن فرانك مع أربعة آخرين في منزل خلف شركة والدها. كان هذا هو المكان الذي بدأت فيه آن بتدوين يومياتها التي جعلتها مشهورة بعد الحرب.
تدبرت العائلة أمر اختبائها في هذا المنزل من الألمان لمدة سنتين، لكن تمّ أخيرا الوشاية بها و أسرها. توفيت آن في معسكر الاعتقال وهي بعمر الخامسة عشر فقط. توفيت أختها وأمها هناك أيضاً، أما والدها أوتو فرانك فقد نجا من المعسكر وعاد إلى أمستردام حيث قام بنشر مذكرات ابنته وإطلاق مؤسسة آن فرانك.
اليوم يعد المنزل الذي اختبأت فيه آن وعائلتها أحد المزارات السياحية التي يزورها آلاف السياح يوميا.
كتبت في دفتر الزوار بعد أن انتهيت من جولتي في منزل آن فرانك: لا تزال آن فرانك بعد 85 عاما من وفاتها تموت يوميا في غزة .. ولا تتمكن من كتابة مذكراتها!
رغم أنني عادة أتأثر بهذا النوع من الكتب، وتصيبني قراءتها بنوع من الإحباط، إلا أن هذا الكتاب لم يحرك في داخلي شيئًا (رغم الجهد المبذول في كتابته ولهذا منحته أربع نجمات) لسبب واحد ووحيد .. ألا وهو أنني لم أعد قادرا على هضم النفاق الصهيوني الذي يرفع قصة آن فرانك كقميص عثمان في وجه كل من ينتقد إجرام إسرائيل وممارساتها البربرية!
لتتنزل رحمة الله على روحك يا آن فرانك، ولعناته على أحفادك الذين فاق إجرامهم إجرام النازيين الذين قتلوك! -
I was sent a review copy of this book in April, and although I was so excited to read it, it just sat on my night stand collecting dust until I finally decided to pick it up. The reason for my trepidation? I am an extremely unreliable, emotional reader who is afraid of failure. I don't make promises to finish a book once I start it. I don't abide by rules or deadlines, and my ratings are almost always based on whether I was able to relate to the author and their work on a personal, down-to-earth level.
Don't even get me started on reviews. I'd rather write a review on a book that was mildly entertaining, than to attempt a gut wrenching one on a book I absolutely loved, out of fear of completely missing the mark or being misunderstood. Why even bother? Neurotic, much?
In the case of Anne Frank, we already know how the book ends. For this reason it took me six months to mentally prepare myself to really "go there", and I am so glad I waited!
Muller unhurriedly sits you down for a long, interesting "true story" about the Frank family, included extended family members, and the ripple effects of the National Socialist German Workers' Party rise to power. So rich in both family and social history, during the course of my reading, I started to feel as though I myself was being systematically stripped of personal freedoms that I never gave a second thought to, like riding a bike to work/school or meeting a friend for coffee, all the while in my heart hoping that this would be the extent of the Fuhrer's nonsensical whims.
Dread starts setting in when Otto moves his family to Amsterdam from Frankfurt, and many members of the extended family start seeking refuge in neighboring countries years before Hitler officially begins his greedy conquest. Relief is in sight, but for how long?
Relief turns to resignation and claustrophobia as Hitler and his armies surround Holland, after promising to respect its neutral stance. As the Franks' circle of Jewish friends start dwindling either because they've managed to get exit Visas to other countries, or have "volunteered" to serve time abroad in German work camps, resignation quickly turns into paranoia and gripping fear.
Like I said before, we all know how this story ends, but throughout this book, it's really easy to forget that; hope is such a resilient, tenacious quality...and it's also infectious. I think that what makes "The Annex Dwellers'" story so compelling (especially when I read Anne's diary for the first time as a 13-year-old) was just how close they all came to surviving--a matter of weeks or a couple of days/hours, in some cases, before the camps were liberated. To think that their story is just one in several millions. It's mind boggling. I sat lost in thought for the rest of the day after I finished this book. It was hard to say goodbye to the friends I had made, especially when it was abrupt and premature.
Definitely worth reading, even if you feel like you couldn't possible learn more. This is a revised edition to the original biography published in 1998, and so it included more information on pages that were not included in Anne's original diary, as well as additional information on who tipped the police about the annex and its inhabitants. Also included is background information on the team that helped hide them, and what life was like for everyone after the war ended.
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I purchased a revised and expanded edition of Melissa Muller's Anne Frank: The Biography on an affecting trip to the Anne Frank Huis in Amsterdam last year. I have been so looking forward to reading it, but for some reason - emotional turmoil over Anne's story, I expect, which never fails to bring me to tears - it took me some time to pick it up. The Sunday Telegraph deems Muller's biography 'sensitive, serious and scrupulous', and the Independent believes it to be an 'accurate and honest portrait'. The New York Times writes that Anne Frank: The Biography 'acts as a supplement to the diary, filling in Anne's fragmentary view of her own life'.
I have read Anne's own diary - which has sold more than thirty million copies in over seventy languages to date - countless times, as well as rather a few books about her, but Anne Frank: The Biography has become one of my absolute favourites. It has been translated from its original German by Rita and Robert Kimber. In this updated edition, Muller 'details new theories surrounding the family's betrayal, revelations about the pressure put on their helpers by the Nazi party and the startling discovery that the Franks had applied for a visa to the US.'
In her foreword, Muller writes of Anne's importance: 'Over the past sixty years, Anne Frank has become a universal symbol of the oppressed in a world of violence and tyranny. Her name invokes humanity, tolerance, human rights, and democracy; her image is the epitome of optimism and the will to live.' Upon her initial reading of Anne's diary, Muller had many questions which were left unanswered; this inspired her to research and write Anne Frank: The Biography. At this point, she says, 'my search began - initially in the 1990s - to search for the person behind the legend, a search for the incidents and events that shaped the life and personality of Annelies Marie Frank.' Her aim, she goes on, 'was to gather as many fragments of the mosaic as possible and create as authentic a picture of Anne's brief life as I could, illuminating the familial and social circumstances that provided the foundation of her life and left their mark on it.'
Anne Frank: The Biography opens with a copy of the Frank and Hollander family trees, which become useful to refer to when grandparents and great-grandparents are introduced into the narrative. The initial chapter of the book opens on a scene in August 1944. This, at first, seems like an ordinary day in the annexe in which Anne and her family, along with others, are hiding, but it proves to be the day on which they are discovered by the Dutch Nazis. After they have been taken away, Muller describes how Miep and Bep, office workers who helped them to hide, retrieve Anne's diary, not reading a single page so as to protect her privacy. They hoped to be able to give it back to her after the war.
The second chapter then begins with Anne's birth in Frankfurt, where her family lived on the outskirts of the city. Of their new arrival, the Franks 'had worried that Margot might be jealous of the baby, but Margot laughed with delight when she saw her. Anne's ears stuck out comically, and her wild black hair was silky and soft.' A chronological timeline is followed from this chapter onward, and we are able to chart Anne's progress as she grows, and becomes more independent. Particular attention is paid to the craft of Anne's writing, wishing as she did to become a novelist when she grew up. 'Her style,' Muller writes, 'improved rapidly, with astonishing speed considering her age... The more she wrote, the sharper her observations became and the clearer her expression of those observations; the keener, too, her understanding of others and - as if she could step outside herself and look back in - of herself as well. What she had begun in adolescent dreaminess ultimately achieved, in many passages, a maturity that was as convincing as it was astonishing.'
Political and social occurrences, particularly those which relate to the restrictions placed upon Jewish people, run alongside the lives of the Frank family. This social context has been provided throughout, and adds depth and understanding. Upon the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940, for instance, Muller states: 'In one day the social structure of Holland had been transformed. Where once there had been rich and poor, an upper and a lower class, a right wing and a left wing, and various religious blocs, now only one criterion distinguished good from bad, friend from enemy: was a person anti-German or pro-German?' Along with historical facts, Muller weaves in the interested and intelligent Anne's own opinions. Upon the surrender of the Netherlands, 'Anne was outraged... Surrender was a concept she was hearing about for the first time, and she didn't like the sound of it. It didn't suit her character.'
Counter to its title, Anne Frank: The Biography is not simply a biographical account of Anne; it includes details of both her immediate and extended family members on both sides, as well as accounts of family friends, and her schoolmates. Photographs have been dotted throughout, which adds to the narrative, and shows those around Anne, first in Germany, and then in Amsterdam, where her family moved when she was small. Perhaps most moving in terms of these portraits is the impression we receive of her doting father, Otto. When writing about Anne and Margot's friends in Amsterdam, Muller says: 'The greatest delight of all was Mr. Frank. His wife was always there and always friendly, but the children hardly noticed her; they took such things for granted in mothers. But Otto Frank, at almost six feet a tall man for those days, was special. With Mr. Frank you could talk and joke about anything. He made up games, told stories, always had a comforting word, and seemed to forgive Anne everything... Otto's high spirits were truly infectious. And when he was at home he spent more time with his children than most other fathers did.' Of course, Anne is always the central focus here, but more of an understanding of her character can be gained from seeing those around her.
Muller is so understanding of Anne's character and qualities, and notes how great an effect being in the annexe had for her: 'At a time when a young person is recalcitrant and restless, defiant and temperamental, full of questions and searching for answers, baffled, helpless, and often irritable, Anne had no outlets for her feelings, no way to let off steam... Anne herself described the period from 1942 until well into 1943 as a difficult time. In the long days of loneliness and despair and of conflict not only with her housemates but also and primarily with herself, Kitty and the diary became her closest confidants.'
Muller's prose style makes Anne Frank: The Biography a very easy book to read; it is intelligent and measured, not to mention packed with detail, but it still feels readily accessible. The biography is considerate and meticulously researched and, as one would expect, is both touching and harrowing throughout. Anne Frank: The Biography is a moving and detailed tribute to a remarkable young woman, and works as the perfect companion to The Diary of a Young Girl. -
Ik had heel wat anders verwacht toen ik deze biografie opensloeg.Ik dacht het leven van Anne Frank weer meer in beeld te krijgen. Het bleek dat de schrijfster ook in de gaten had dat de familie om haar heen en de omstandigheden ook een aandeel hadden in wie Anne Frank was en wat ze mee moest maken. Het was niet de weer zoveelste Biografie waar je dezelfde dingen tegen komt. De schrijfster licht ook meer haar vader en moeder uit, hun familie, hun leven en hun bedrijven, wat ermee gebeurde en wat maakte dat ze een aantal harde keuzes maakte. Ik kreeg bewondering voor deze mensen die hun uiterste best hebben gedaan om Anne en haar zus Margot eigenlijk pas in het onderduik adres te hebben laten merken wat er aan de hand was maar vooral wat voor invloed dat op hun leven had. De schrijfster heeft veel gesprekken gevoerd met oude buren, vrienden en familie. Ook met overlevenden van de kampen. De laatste die de overleden onderduikers hadden gezien. Enig tegendeel, de pagina's staan echt vol met letters. Maar het was het meer dan waard.
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I have finally made it to the end of Anne Frank: The Biography. It took me a long time to finish this book, not because it is a long book, I read lots of long books, but I wanted to read it carefully, there is a lot of detail in it, and it was in the Christmas season, which for me is any time between the middle of October to the beginning of January. I wouldn't mind having all the lights and trees and things up longer, but our electric bill was over $500.00 for December, the largest one yet, so I got myself in the right mood, which isn't a good one, and took it all down. None of this has anything to do with Anne Frank except I kept starting over again, to refresh my memory on what I had already read, and finally gave up and didn't pick it up again until January. Anyway, on to the book.
It says on the book that it was first published in 1998, but I happen to have the second edition which says this:
Now, sixteen years after the book first appeared, much new information has come to light. Revised and updated with more than thirty percent new material, this is an indispensable volume for all those who seek a deeper understanding of Anne Frank and the brutal times in which she lived and died.
I'm not sure I'd call it indispensable. All those who were seeking a deeper understanding of Anne Frank before didn't have this book, so I suppose they found that understanding someplace else. But there was a lot in this book about Anne and those around her that I ever knew. The first chapter begins with the arrest. It is just another day, the same as yesterday, and the day before that, since the beginning of living in the hiding place. But this day, this ordinary day suddenly there are several men in the shop, German police, SD members, some in civilian clothes, some in uniforms, all armed. And in a few minutes we have these men appear in this ordinary annex to the surprise of our eight people hiding there. They are arrested, taken away, and after they are gone Miep and Bep enter the annex and find Anne's diary and many loose pages on the floor. They gather them up and put them in Miep's desk drawer to be given back to Anne when the war is over and Anne returns.
The second chapter puts us back in Frankfurt, Anne has just been born and Margo is now a three-year- old. The Franks are living in an apartment in the city. From here most of what I read, the things about their families and friends I hadn't know before. The book tells how Edith and Otto met, their wedding, and their honeymoon in Italy. We learn of Otto and Edith's parents, their brothers and sisters too. Otto was a bit of a world traveler when he was young spending time in Spain, England, New York, but he loved Germany best.
As the girl's grow we find that Margot obeyed orders without protest. Anne on the other hand was willful refusing rules of behavior that Margot obeyed without protest. And we meet ten-year-old Gertrud Naumann who becomes a favorite in the Frank home, often staying and taking care of the girls. For years after they move away they still keep in touch with Gertrud by writing. Things aren't always parties, vacations, and happy visits of the Franks and their friends, for we also have the first volume of Mein Kampf published in 1925, that for some reason people actually seemed to like. Anyway, the second part was published in 1926, and finally you could buy the entire thing, if you really wanted to, from 1930 and on. I guess you can buy it now if you had any desire to, but I'm not sure. Otto Frank leafed through it and read a few passages in it. So did I, I also leafed through, read a few passages, and quit, there are too many books out there to read than spend time on that one.
The next chapter is titled "Exodus" and is it about just what it says. We are far enough along, or the Nazis are, that they are now forbidding all kinds of stuff that doesn't make any sense at all. Meanwhile Margot is going to school where she was a good pupil with excellent grades. She was one of only five Jewish girls in her class, but no one cared. The other thirty seven girls didn't even seem to notice, the teachers didn't care, Margot was no different from anyone else. All was still bright in her child's world. But we're told, the adults' world was rapidly darkening. And finally the Franks leave for Amsterdam where everything is better. For a while that is.
Each chapter brings us farther along in the journey of the Franks. The next chapter being "A New Home", followed by "Growing Danger" and finally the last time we see Anne, "The Last Train". I could say more, so much happened after that last diary entry by Anne we all know, and we see that in this book-more, what happened when the diary ended, but I have the feeling that this is getting a little long or a lot long. There is so much to learn in this book. I will let Otto end the review:
"I am in good health and am holding up well despite the sad news of my wife's death", Otto wrote. "If only I can get my children back!" Weeks of anxiety followed..... "There is never news from Russian-occupied territory," Otto complained to his sister, "and that is why I cannot get any news about the children in case they are in Germany. Up to now I was convinced I would see them return but now I begin to doubt."...... "I can't think how I can go on without the children, having also lost Edith."
and finally...."there is so much misery around me that I try to help where I can. I feel no bitterness, because I saw so much misery, lived in wretchedness and meet all over the same situation. So I cannot say: Why me? Out of the over than 100,000 Jews who were departed about 2,000 returned as yet." -
or several years, I taught The Diary of Anne Frank as an 8th grade English teacher. I have read several books on Anne, including a couple of different biographies. I was eager to read this one, and I was not disappointed. I would consider the most comprehensive biography of an incredible young woman. I learned many things about Anne that were only alluded to in other things I have read. I have a clearer picture of the true person that she was than I have had before. Muller does not canonize Anne but presents her as the talented multi-faceted teenager that she was. Sometimes she is a spoiled little girl, and at other times, she is a young woman who has insights that few teenagers would have. Additional information is included in this book also, information about her father's business (which frankly left me confused, to be honest!), relevant historical information, and insights into her extended family. The reader especially gets to know her father much more, which would be expected since he alone of the family survived. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning more about this extraordinary young lady whose writings have touched so many and who has left a lasting legacy beyond value.
**I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.** -
Wonderful biography about Anne, her family and friends, with lots of fine detail, yet it never drags or is boring. As the story of those days is told, snippets from the Diary are included alongside. Though the book starts with the arrest of those in hiding, at the end Muller traces where each person was transferred to and writes what is known of their final days.
Includes an index in the back that gives short bio details of the people Anne mentioned in her diary. I really appreciate that Muller uses everyone's real names (unless they requested anonymity); it brings the Diary back to Reality.
I like how Muller keeps an objective view on each and every person mentioned, and can even step back and keep Anne herself in perspective. Muller shows clearly (and very frighteningly!) how the Nazis systematically stripped the Dutch Jews of all rights after the invasion of Holland, so that bit by bit, you can see just how circumstances were ripe for the arrest and transportation - and elimination - of The Undesirables. Brrr! -
I was disappointed because it seemed that most of the book was about Otto Frank and other adults and their business issues. Also somewhat disconcerting was the way the author skipped around in time. On the same page one reads about things said or occurring in 1942 and 1944, for
example.
I was interested in the way Anne expresses typical teenaged angst and coming of age behaviors even though in such horrific and even blizzare circumstances. Her writings (not just her diary) leads us to believe that she might have been a major force in writing, had she survived. I had forgotten how close to rescue she really was at the time she and her sister died. Her time in the camps before her death was truly horrible and even unimaginable. Her biographer brought it to life for me and I was barely able to read through that part. I can not believe that there are still people who say the holocaust never happened. At the end of the book all Anne's family members and friends are listed with their own mini stories of survival or demise. Important reading for our time lest we ever begin to forget. -
Okay so it took me a little time to get into this book but once I did... I found Anne to be wise beyond her years and really enjoyed reading her ideas of the world. For someone who experienced so little, she interrupted a lot.
The insight into Anne's life is something I won't forget in a hurry and it made me actually feel appreciative of what I have.
The ending is of course extremely sad and I had to begin a new book straight away to decipher these feelings but I'm really glad I read this.
I've rated this book 3 stars because I did enjoy it and appreciated the insight into a different world and understanding the hardship of the lifestyle that so many had to live through at the time, perhaps expected, the reading was dry and diary format, for me can be difficult to read at the best of times. I liked it, I learnt from it and I appreciated it. -
This book gives a great deal of information about the family and friends and what happened to all of them after the war. It's very thorough and detailed. There is another one written by one of their family friends that I think would also be an interesting perspective. The writing was engaging and held my interest. I liked how the author interspersed Anne's writings throughout. One of the reasons that I enjoyed reading this is that we'll be staying very near to the Anne Frank Museum for a few days quite soon.
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remember and pray that it doesn't happen again
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Review coming soon.
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I first read Anne Frank’s diary (which should be required reading for everyone) many years ago, and re-read it in the 80’s after visiting the house in Amsterdam where she and her family spent two and half years hiding in the Secret Annex . I’ve picked up the Diary again for the third time now that I’ve just finished this thoughtfully written yet deeply disturbing book based on information gleaned from letters, documents, personal interviews with family members and others who knew the Franks before and after they were arrested, as well as recently discovered diary pages that had not been previously published. The book isn’t just about Anne, although it’s interesting to read about her early childhood in Frankfurt, her education in Dutch schools after the family relocated to Amsterdam and the fun she had with her many friends there. An index in the back of the book provides a short synopsis of what happened to many of those whose paths crossed Anne’s in the course of her short life, most of whom also perished at the hands of the Nazis. Muller also includes information about the rest of Anne’s immediate and extended family and provides additional details about what life was like once the Franks went into hiding and the many risks Jan and Miep Gies took to supply them with what was necessary for their survival.
Much of this book is very difficult to read because of what we find out about what happened to the Franks after their hiding place was discovered the morning of August 4, 1944. Although the Americans had already broken through German lines and were on their way to liberating France, the nightmare was far from over for Anne and her family who had been in hiding for over two years. They were taken to the transit camp at Westerbork and in September, around the same time that Belgium was liberated, they were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. It’s especially sobering to learn that Anne was on the last transit train to leave Holland for Auschwitz. Muller draws on interviews with those who survived the harrowing experiences Anne endured in the cattle cars and the camps: At Auschwitz she was housed along with 1000 other women in a lice and rat infested barracks originally intended to be a stable for 52 horses. After 8 weeks (and with Russian troops only 60 miles away) Anne, her mother and sister were transferred to Bergen Belsen which was so overcrowded that a tent had to be hastily erected to house the hundreds of new arrivals. It provided only minimal shelter, no sanitation and sporadically dispensed water and thin soup until other provisions could be found for the prisoners. Conditions weren’t much better for Anne after she was moved to an even more crowded barracks where she managed to survive throughout a winter of sub-zero temperatures. But sometime between the end of February and mid-March her endurance ran out and she died of the typhus epidemic that had also claimed her sister’s life. Although we know from the outset that Anne’s story has a brutally tragic ending, it’s even more difficult to read knowing that Bergen-Belsen was the first of the German death camps to be liberated by the British who arrived within two weeks of Anne’s death.
Some people feel it’s too depressing to read books like this one. But I think it’s important to keep in mind that reading is meant to educate us as well as entertain us. To read about the horrors that claimed the lives of over six million Jews is to be reminded that we must not let ourselves become indifferent about what happened to the men, women and children who died so brutally in the death camps. And we need to be reminded that similar atrocities are happening today in places throughout the world where genocide is still being allowed to happen. -
Anne Frank chỉ là một cô bé Do Thái là nạn nhân của Đức Quốc Xã trong cuộc thảm sát Holocaust cướp đi mạng sống của hơn 6 triệu dân Do Thái. Họ giờ đây là những kẻ lưu vong khắp các nơi trên thế giới, dần tìm về vùng đất Jerusalem xây dựng lại quê hương. Quyển nhật ký bìa mềm nhỏ xíu này nằm gọn trong tay ta nhưng chứa đựng những câu từ hết sức hồn nhiên, đau đớn và xúc động. Nhật Ký Anne Frank cùng với The Book Thief và The Reader là một trong những cuốn sách hay nhất nói về sự tàn ác của Đức Quốc Xã trong thế chiến thứ hai. Người Do Thái giờ đây xứng đáng được yêu thương và vinh danh như một trong những dân tộc thông minh và có những đóng góp to lớn nhất cho thế giới.
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Outstanding book! I would definitely recommend this one. Questions still remain to this day on who betrayed the residents of the secret annex.
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One might think that if you have read Anne Frank's diary, you would know everything there is to know about Anne, but you would be wrong. Melissa Muller does an incredible job of fleshing out Anne's diary with writings, photos, and historical records from the time.
One of the things that always saddens me the most about Anne Frank is how close the family came to survival. At the time their annex was raided, the allied invasion had started. If the family could only have remained hidden a little longer, or survived for a little longer in the concentration camps, then none of us would probably ever have heard of Anne Frank.
One of Melissa Muller's most successful feats in this biography is to remind us that Anne was a teen-ager, in the most turbulent period of her life. At a time when she should have been free to test against her boundaries, to rebel against her parents,to grow into a separate person, she was confined into a small space with her parents and with another family and a middle aged man. She couldn't even rebel openly against her parents, against the restrictions, because the annex residents had to be as quiet as possible lest someone from outside become aware of their presence. Inexplicably, when the middle aged dentist moves into the annex, Anne is the one who has to room with him. Thinking back to my own teen-aged years, I can only imagine how horrible that must have been for Anne.
Muller does an excellent job of letting us see what else was going on during Anne's short life. Whereas previous books i have read have been slightly critical of Otto Frank for not getting his family out of Holland before the war started, Muller makes it clear that Otto tried to get his family to another country, to Switzerland, South America or the US, but was thwarted on all sides by cumbersome Visa requirements and financial restrictions.
It struck me when I read this book how little we have learned from the lessons of the Holocaust. We decry the murder of 5 million Jews, but ignore the modern day holocausts that are occurring in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Central America. We shake our heads at the barriers that were put in place to keep the Jews from emigrating to other countries, but we do nothing to ease the barriers we have in place today to keep people from immigrating to the US.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in World War II, in Anne Frank, or, for that matter, for anyone who has a stake in the immigration issues that exist today. -
I bought this book at the Ann Frank House in Amsterdam. The house was the single most moving "monument" I've ever visited. Heartbreaking, yet filled with hope because of the great risk so many people took in helping hide the Frank family. It was a reminder that although the world is filled with great evil, it is also filled with great kindness and compassion.
Melissa Muller did an excellent job of portraying Ann as a real teenager, and not as the Jewish martyr that so many authors tend to do. She was a real, flawed, human being, with hopes, dreams, ambitions and flaws.
The real hero of this biography was Otto Frank; Ann's father. The choices he made were heartbreaking, but necessary to keep his family together. In a time when father's tended to be distant, Otto was highly involved in his children's lives, and loved them beyond anything else. He was a wonderfully strong man who gave his entire soul to try and save his family, which he ultimately could not do.
The author also did an excellent job of painting a picture of what life was like during WWII Amsterdam. It's difficult to imagine such a liberal, progressive city being occupied by the Nazis. Ms. Muller helped explain how it was able to happen.
A well researched, thoughful and honest tribute to Ann Frank and her family. -
Muller wrote a good bio of Anne, with a few reservations. Another more recent biographer discovered who actually betrayed the family to the Nazis which is info Muller didn't have available. This one does a more honest job on Anne's personailty. She is presented as a bit of a brat, which a relative who knew her (Buddy Elias) had called her as well. Anne was spoiled, but not simply for being the youngest. Her health was poor and she might have had a heart condition. They were just very fortunate that no one, especially Anne, did have any serious illnesses while in hiding. However, the book felt rather remote and not as though the author had emotionally connected with the group as people. She did give Edith a more sympathetic portrayal than Anne did. I think most adults can guess that Edith was portrayed as difficult and uncaring by a teenager who likely would have had a different opinion if she had been given more years to grow up and see her mother in a more adult light. I did like the encyclopedia like summary at the end of what came of all the people mentioned in the book. It was also fascinating to hear that perhaps there was a real person named Kitty who hung onto her anonymity after the war and never came forward to claim the fame that would have been hers if she had spoken up.
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I just finished reading the updated version of this book, published in 2013. Additional material has been added, given the reader a deeper understanding of Anne's family, going back a few generations.
A must read for those who appreciate the important of reading Holocaust literature. -
Read this one (in English) long ago. This is one of those that I think all should read...up close and personal and knowing history's fate for her made a dent in my soul.
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Anne Frank is a girl like any other normal teenage girl but one who constantly tries to improve herself by looking at any situation that she had been without bias... I really liked the way she thinks and also related myself to her a lot in many situations.... I just loved her...And apart from Anne, the constant hope that people have even in the war time adversities is the best and common human trait...there are many people in the world who long to lead a normal life...while people with normal life don't realise the value...
Anne must have been so proud of herself that she's actually actually living even after her death as she hoped for...
Cheers Anne -
In all of her post-war fame, I think it is difficult not to generalize Anne Frank’s experiences to some extent, and to unintentionally hold her in the mind as more of an abstract symbol than as an actual person. Especially in light of World War II’s utterly incomprehensible and brutal nature, it’s almost impossible for most people to contemplate the individual personality and uniqueness of a young girl in the midst of so much chaos.
But Müller’s portrayal of Anne Frank and accompanying narrative challenge readers to consider Anne as a whole, complex and ever-changing human being rather than a simplified symbol of survival and perseverance. In doing so, Müller not only honors the true memory of Anne Frank, but simultaneously recognizes and values the individual lives and experiences of ALL World War II victims.
In this account, Anne Frank is a complicated, growing teenage girl with contradictions and imperfections all her own. She has a profound sense of self-awareness (which, of course, is one of the reasons her writing is so appealing) but she is also moody, physically frail, and— as so many teenagers are— prone to moments of cruelty toward those around her.
When all is said and done, Anne Frank’s story is an extraordinary one. This biography prompts not only an inner exploration of the human capacity for good and evil, as all war accounts do, but also a contemplation of more basic concepts; finding and outgrowing friends, living with and learning to love a complex family, growing up in and contending with a world full of seemingly endless contradictions. And, indeed, adjusting to the inherent and inevitable contradictions within ourselves.
In a beautiful literary duet that spans several generations, Müller and Frank together explore both the horror and magnificence of life itself. -
The most difficult chapter I’ve ever read.
Anne Frank: The Biography Is a modern, detailed look at the life of a young girl away from her pen, but also of her tragic end.
As one might expect, a 400-page biography of a 15 year-old girl is going to include a lot of additional material, but everything Melissa Müller included is important and relevant.
Terrifically researched and beautifully assembled from sometimes conflicting sources, The Biography presents background on the Frank Family, the origins and beginning of the war, and mini-biographies of many of the supporting-and opposing-characters in the life of its primary subject.
The epilogue reveals what became of several of Anne’s friends, extended family, protectors, and tormenters. The book is thick with her father’s business ventures and their workings, but otherwise is a very personal story.
It is an excellent supplement to Anne’s diary, but I advise the faint of heart to skip chapter 10, “The Last Train.” These pages place the reader behind the barbed wire of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, and at Anne’s side as everything is taken from her. The retelling of her fate is a relentless insult to the conscience and injury to the soul.
The bright light in Anne’s story is that she became what she wanted to be: A famous writer, and a difference-maker. My hope is that God granted her a glimpse of her future legacy as she left the cruelties of this world behind. -
So much more than just the Anne Frank narrative, Müller's updated biography tells a broad story not just limited to the Franks, although this family and the other residents of the Secret Annex are the focal point. It also encompasses the events, policies, and mania of Nazi Germany and occupied Europe that ultimately resulted in the Holocaust. By looking at it through the experiences of the Franks, their helpers, extended family and friends, it puts a tragedy of incomprehensible proportions into a deeper context.
Müeller's work is exhaustively researched and richly detailed without reading like a history text. She describes the lives of her subjects before, during, and after the war in a way that is sympathetic, thorough, fair, balanced, and ultimately compelling. Millions have read Anne's diary; the biography provides a heartbreaking and poignant depth both to her life and to the human toll of the Holocaust as a whole.
I couldn't recommend this book more seriously. For those who wish to delve further into Anne's life and family, I found my understanding to be greatly enriched. For those seeking a perspective on the Holocaust beyond photos of Auschwitz and staggering statistics, I found a lens on the darkest side of humanity and the brightest light of hope.
