The Diary of Anne Frank

by Anne Frank

“That’s what so difficult in this day and age: the moment we think of our ideals, our dreams, our beautiful future, horrible reality intervenes and destroys them. It’s a wonder I haven’t given up on them, they seem so absurd and unlikely to come true. And yet I hold onto them, in spite of everything, because I still believe in people’s inherent goodness.”–Anne Frank, 15 July 1944

If you’re looking for a more in-depth exploration of Anne Frank’s diary and her writing, in 2019 Bloomsbury published Anne Frank: The Collected Works, “the complete edition of Anne Frank’s works including previously unpublished letters and further writings.”

Recommendations from our site

“She’s just so lovely and writes about everything that happened so clearly. She was born in Frankfurt in 1929, but moved to Holland with her family when she was five, because things had already gotten so bad for Jews in Germany. Later on, as Holland too became unsafe for Jews, her father Otto tried to move the family to America, but was unable to get a visa. They survived two whole years in hiding but were discovered nine months before the end of the war. It’s just so sad.” Read more...

VE Day Books: Editors’ Picks

Sophie Roell,

“Anne Frank’s enthusiasm and her innocence and the blossoming of this tender, sensitive, inquisitive young woman in the most adverse of conditions speak to you so directly……. It’s both inspirational and agonising. Here is a person who cannot possibly be blamed for anything that was going on and yet she suffers both in hiding and then afterwards when she was murdered after the diaries end.” Read more...

Books that Changed the World

Amanda Craig, Journalist