Anne Frank

Annelies Marie Frank (12 June 1929 – February/March 1945) was a young German-born Jewish diarist and aspiring writer, who died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

(1942 - 1944)

 * Composed from her 13th birthday on 12 June 1942, until 1 August 1944, just prior to her family's capture.




 * Het is voor iemand als ik een heel eigenaardige gewaarwording om in een dagboek te schrijven. Niet alleen dat ik nog nooit geschreven heb, maar het komt me zo voor, dat later noch ik, noch iemand anders in de ontboezemingen van een dertienjarig schoolmeisje belang zal stellen.
 * For someone like me, it is a very strange habit to write in a diary. Not only that I have never written before, but it strikes me that later neither I, nor anyone else, will care for the musings of a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl.
 * 20 June 1942


 * In de derde les werd het hem echter weer te bont. "Anne, als strafwerk voor praten, een opstel over het onderwerp 'Kwek, kwek, kwek, zei juffrouw Snaterbek'."
 * However, during the third class he'd finally had enough. "Anne Frank, as punishment for talking in class, write an essay entitled, Quack, Quack, Quack, Said Mistress Chatterback."
 * Writing a story about a teacher who is scolding her for being talkative in class. Variant translations: Quack, Quack, Quack, Said Miss Quackenbush. / Quack, Quack, Quack, Said Miss Natterbeak.
 * 21 June 1942


 * Maar één ding weet ik nu en dat is dit: je leert de mensen pas goed kennen, als je een keer echte ruzie met ze gemaakt hebt. Pas dan kan je hun karakter beoordelen!
 * I've learned one thing: you only really get to know a person after a fight. Only then can you judge their true character!
 * Variant translation: The only way to truly know a person is to argue with them. For when they argue in full swing, then they reveal their true character.
 * 28 September 1942


 * Fraai volk, de Duitsers. En daar behoorde ik ook eens toe!
 * Fine specimens of humanity, those Germans, and to think that I am actually one of them!
 * 9 October 1942


 * Als ik een boek lees, dat indruk op me maakt, moet ik in mezelf grondig orde scheppen, alvorens me onder de mensen te begeven, anders zou men van mij denken dat ik een wat rare geest had.
 * If I read a book that impresses me, I have to take myself firmly by the hand, before I mix with other people; otherwise they would think my mind rather queer.
 * 8 November 1943


 * Een mens kan eenzaam zijn ondanks de liefde van velen, want voor niemand is hij toch "de liefste".
 * You can be lonely even when you're loved by many people, since you're still not anybody's "one and only".
 * 29 December 1943


 * Ik sus mijn geweten nu maar met de gedachte, dat scheldwoorden beter op papier kunnen staan dan dat moeder ze moet meedragen in haar hart.
 * I soothe my conscience now with the thought that it is better for hard words to be on paper than that Mummy should carry them in her heart.
 * 2 January 1944


 * Wie zou weten, hoeveel er in een bakvisziel omgaat?
 * Who would ever think that so much went on in the soul of a young girl?
 * 12 January 1944


 * Ik laat het er op aankomen en doe niets anders dan leren en op een goed einde hopen.
 * I trust to luck and do nothing but work, hoping that all will end well.
 * 3 February 1944


 * Voor ieder die bang, eenzaam of ongelukkig is, is stellig het beste middel naar buiten te gaan, ergens waar hij helemaal alleen is, alleen met de hemel, de natuur en God. Want dan pas, dan alleen voelt men, dat alles is, zoals het zijn moet en dat God de mensen in de eenvoudige, maar mooie natuur gelukkig wil zien. Zolang dit bestaat en dat zal wel altijd zo zijn, weet ik, dat er in welke omstandigheden ook, een troost voor elk verdriet is. En ik geloof stellig, dat bij elke ellende de natuur veel ergs kan wegnemen.
 * The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.
 * 23 February 1944


 * Men kan zeggen, je moet je mond houden, maar geen oordeel hebben bestaat niet. Niemand kan een ander zijn oordeel verbieden, al is die ander nog zo jong.
 * People can tell you to keep your mouth shut, but it doesn't stop you having your own opinions. Even if people are still very young, they shouldn't be prevented from saying what they think.
 * 2 March 1944


 * Dan denk ik niet aan al de ellende, maar aan het mooie dat nog overblijft. Hierin ligt voor een groot deel het verschil tussen moeder en mij. Haar raad voor zwaarmoedigheid is: "Denk aan al de ellende in de wereld en wees blij, dat jij die niet beleeft!" Mijn raad is: "Ga naar buiten, naar de velden, de natuur en de zon, ga naar buiten en probeer het geluk in jezelf te hervinden en in God. Denk aan al het mooie dat er in en om jezelf nog overblijft en wees gelukkig!"
 * At such moments I don't think about all the misery, but about the beauty that still remains. This is where Mother and I differ greatly. Her advice in the face of melancholy is: "Think about all the suffering in the world and be thankful you're not part of it." My advice is: "Go outside, to the country, enjoy the sun and all nature has to offer. Go outside and try to recapture the happiness within yourself; think of all the beauty in yourself and in everything around you and be happy."
 * 7 March 1944
 * Variant translations:
 * Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy. Think of all the beauty that is still left in and around you and be happy!


 * Onder "eet-periodes" versta ik periodes waarin men niets anders te eten krijgt dan een bepaald gerecht of een bepaalde groente. Een tijdlang hadden we niets anders te eten dan elke dag andijvie met zand, zonder zand, stamppot, los en in de vuurvaste schotel, toen was het spinazie, daarna volgden koolrabie, schorseneren, komkommers, tomaten, zuurkool enzovoort enzovoort.
 * A "food cycle" is a period in which we have only one particular dish or type of vegetable to eat. For a long time we ate nothing but endive. Endive with sand -, endive without sand, endive with mashed potatoes, endive-and-mashed potato casserole. Then it was spinach, followed by kohlrabi, salsify, cucumbers, tomatoes, sauerkraut, etc., etc.
 * 3 April 1944


 * Ik moet iets hebben naast man en kinderen waar ik me aan wijden kan! O ja, ik wil niet zoals de meeste mensen voor niets geleefd hebben. Ik wil van nut of plezier zijn voor de mensen, die om mij heen leven en die mij toch niet kennen.
 * I need to have something besides a husband and children to devote myself to! I don't want to have lived in vain like most people. I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I've never met.
 * 5 April 1944


 * Ik wil nog voortleven ook na mijn dood! En daarom ben ik God zo dankbaar, dat hij me bij mijn geboorte al een mogelijkheid heeft meegegeven om me te ontwikkelen en om te schrijven, dus om uit te drukken alles wat in me is.
 * I want to go on living even after my death! And that's why I'm so grateful to God for having given me this gift, which I can use to develop myself and to express all that's inside me!
 * 5 April 1944


 * Wees moedig! Laten we ons van onze taak bewust blijven en niet mopperen, er zal een uitkomst komen, God heeft ons volk nooit in de steek gelaten. Door alle eeuwen heen zijn er Joden blijven leven, door alle eeuwen heen moesten Joden lijden, maar door alle eeuwen heen zijn ze ook sterk geworden; de zwakken vallen, maar de sterken zullen overblijven en nooit ondergaan!
 * Be brave! Let's remember our duty and perform it without complaint. There will be a way out. God has never deserted our people. Through the ages Jews have had to suffer, but through the ages they've gone on living, and the centuries of suffering have only made them stronger. The weak shall fall and the strong shall survive and not be defeated!
 * 11 April 1944


 * Ik geloof nooit dat de oorlog de schuld is alleen van de grote mannen, van de regeerders en kapitalisten. O neen, de kleine man doet het net zo goed graag, anders zouden de volkeren er toch al lang tegen in opstand zijn gekomen! Er is nu eenmaal in de mensen een drang tot vernieling, een drang tot doodslaan, tot vermoorden en razen en zolang de gehele mensheid, zonder uitzondering, geen grote metamorphose heeft ondergaan, zal de oorlog woeden, zal alles wat opgebouwd, aangekweekt en gegroeid is, weer geschonden en vernietigd worden, waarna de mensheid opnieuw moet beginnen.
 * I don't believe that the big men, the politicians and the capitalists alone are guilty of the war. Oh, no, the little man is just as keen, otherwise the people of the world would have risen in revolt long ago! There is an urge and rage in people to destroy, to kill, to murder, and until all mankind, without exception, undergoes a great change, wars will be waged, everything that has been built up, cultivated and grown, will be destroyed and disfigured, after which mankind will have to begin all over again.
 * 3 May 1944


 * Ik ben vaak neerslachtig geweest, maar nooit wanhopig, ik beschouw dit onderduiken als een gevaarlijk avontuur, dat romantisch en interessant is. Ik beschouw elke ontbering als een amusement in mijn dagboek. Ik heb me nu eenmaal voorgenomen, dat ik een ander leven zal leiden dan andere meisjes en later een ander leven dan gewone huisvrouwen. Dit is het goede begin van het interessante en daarom, daarom alleen moet ik in de meest gevaarlijke ogenblikken lachen om het humoristische van de situatie.
 * I have often been downcast, but never in despair; I regard our hiding as a dangerous adventure, romantic and interesting at the same time. In my diary I treat all the privations as amusing. I have made up my mind now to lead a different life from other girls and, later on, different from ordinary housewives. My start has been so very full of interest, and that is the sole reason why I have to laugh at the humorous side of the most dangerous moments.
 * 3 May 1944


 * [Ik vind], dat er nog altijd iets moois overblijft, aan de natuur, de zonneschijn, de vrijheid, aan jezelf, daar heb je wat aan. Kijk daarnaar, dan vind je jezelf weer en God, dan word je evenwichtig. En wie gelukkig is, zal ook anderen gelukkig maken, wie moed en vertrouwen heeft, zal nooit in de ellende ondergaan!
 * I've found that there is always some beauty left — in nature, sunshine, freedom, in yourself; these can all help you. Look at these things, then you find yourself again, and God, and then you regain your balance. A person who's happy will make others happy; a person who has courage and faith will never die in misery!
 * 7 May 1944


 * En begint er nog tijdens dat gevecht al tweedracht te komen, is toch de Jood weer minder dan de ander? O het is treurig, heel erg treurig, dat weer voor de zoveelste maal de oude wijsheid bevestigd is: "Wat één Christen doet, moet hijzelf verantwoorden, wat één Jood doet, valt op alle Joden terug."
 * Is discord going to show itself while we are still fighting, is the Jew once again worth less than another? Oh, it is sad, very sad, that once more, for the umpteenth time, the old truth is confirmed: "What one Christian does is his own responsibility, what one Jew does is thrown back at all Jews."
 * 22 May 1944


 * Ik geloof dat het inzicht, dat het de plicht van de vrouw is dat zij kinderen krijgt, zich in de loop van de volgende eeuw wel zal veranderen en plaats zal maken voor waardering en bewondering voor haar, die zonder mopperen en grote woorden de lasten op haar schouders neemt!
 * I believe that in the course of the next century the notion that it's a woman's duty to have children will change and make way for the respect and admiration of all women, who bear their burdens without complaint or a lot of pompous words!
 * 13 June 1944


 * Luiheid mag aantrekkelijk schijnen, werken geeft bevrediging.
 * Laziness may look inviting, but only work gives you true satisfaction.
 * Variant translation: Laziness may appear attractive but work gives satisfaction.
 * 6 July 1944


 * Wij leven allen, maar weten niet waarom en waarvoor, wij leven allen met het doel gelukkig te worden, we leven allen verschillend en toch gelijk.
 * We're all alive, but we don't know why or what for; we're all searching for happiness; we're all leading lives that are different and yet the same.
 * 6 July 1944
 * Variant translation: We all live with the objective of being happy, our lives are all different and yet the same.


 * Dat is het moeilijke in deze tijd: idealen, dromen, mooie verwachtingen komen nog niet bij ons op of ze worden door de gruwelijke werkelijkheid getroffen en zo totaal verwoest. Het is een groot wonder, dat ik niet al mijn verwachtingen heb opgegeven, want ze lijken absurd en onuitvoerbaar. Toch houd ik ze vast, ondanks alles, omdat ik nog steeds aan de innerlijke goedheid van den mens geloof. Het is me ten enenmale onmogelijk alles op te bouwen op de basis van dood, ellende en verwarring. Ik zie hoe de wereld langzaam steeds meer in een woestijn herschapen wordt, ik hoor steeds harder de aanrollende donder, die ook ons zal doden, ik voel het leed van millioenen mensen mee en toch, als ik naar de hemel kijk, denk ik, dat alles zich weer ten goede zal wenden, dat ook deze hardheid zal ophouden, dat er weer rust en vrede in de wereldorde zal komen. Intussen moet ik mijn denkbeelden hoog en droog houden, in de tijden die komen zijn ze misschien toch nog uit te voeren.
 * It's difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart. It's utterly impossible for me to build my life on a foundation of chaos, suffering and death. I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness, I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too, I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more. In the meantime, I must hold on to my ideals. Perhaps the day will come when I'll be able to realize them!
 * 15 July 1944; Variant translations:
 * It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.
 * I keep my ideals, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.
 * I simply can't build my hopes on a foundation of confusion, misery, and death...and yet...I think...this cruelty will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.


 * Ouders kunnen alleen raad of goede aanwijzingen meegeven, de uiteindelijke vorming van iemands karakter ligt in zijn eigen hand.
 * Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.
 * 15 July 1944


 * Vergeef me, ik heb niet voor niets de naam een bundeltje tegenspraak te zijn!
 * Forgive me, Kitty, they don't call me a bundle of contradictions for nothing!
 * 21 July 1944

Tales from the Secret Annex



 * We all know that a good example is more effective than advice. So set a good example, and it won't take long for others to follow.
 * "Give!" (26 March 1944)
 * Variant translation: People will always follow a good example; be the one to set a good example, then it won't be long before the others follow.


 * How wonderful it is that no one has to wait, but can start right now to gradually change the world! How wonderful it is that everyone, great and small, can immediately help bring about justice by giving of themselves! [...] You can always — always — give something, even if it's a simple act of kindness!
 * "Give!" (26 March 1944)
 * Variant translation: How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before beginning to improve the world! [...] You can always, always give something, even if it is only kindness!

Disputed

 * Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!
 * As quoted in Networking the Kingdom: A Practical Strategy for Maximum Church Growth (1990) by O. J. Bryson, p. 187; this is the earliest source yet found for this attribution.


 * Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.
 * As quoted in 7 Laws of Human Nature: The Oneness of Universal Love (2017) by Conrad Spainhower and other self-help books and quotation sites.


 * No one has ever become poor by giving.
 * Attributed to Anne Frank in various self-help books but always without citation.

Quotes about Frank

 * Alphabetized by author


 * Anne Frank is each of us, and beyond what each of us is and will be. Her diary does not contain photographs of trains pulling into the last smoke-filled station. She dared to speak of springtime's light, and the body of a girl becoming a woman. I like Anne Frank because she was no more nor less than ourselves, a schoolgirl. She spoke of awakening to excitement, of the rain in Europe. Even so, there was something more in Anne, beyond that first innocence, as if she were submerged in transparencies.
 * Marjorie Agosín The Alphabet in My Hands: A Writing Life (2000) translated from the Spanish by Nancy Abraham Hall, Chapter Seven


 * (Have you related to any other stories of children or adolescents, of young people growing up?) There was The Catcher in the Rye, the Diary of Ann Frank... Yes, actually I have, definitely.
 * Tsitsi Dangarembga in Talking with African Writers by Jane Wilkinson


 * Anne Frank's legacy is still very much alive and it can address us fully, especially at a time when the map of the world is changing and when dark passions are awakening within people.
 * Vaclav Havel, as quoted in "Anne's words still strengthen spirits" by Joyce Apsel in The St. Petersburg Times (26 January 2000)


 * Here's how much people love dead Jews: Anne Frank's diary, first published in Dutch in 1947 via her surviving father, Otto Frank, has been translated into seventy languages and has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, and the Anne Frank House now hosts well over a million visitors each year
 * Dara Horn "Everyones (Second) Favorite Dead Jew" in People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present (2021)


 * Of the multitude who throughout history have spoken for human dignity in times of great suffering and loss, no voice is more compelling than that of Anne Frank.
 * John F. Kennedy, as quoted in "Anne's words still strengthen spirits" by Joyce Apsel in The St. Petersburg Times (26 January 2000)


 * One single Anne Frank moves us more than the countless others who suffered just as she did, but whose faces have remained in the shadows. Perhaps it is better that way: If we were capable of taking in the suffering of all those people, we would not be able to live.
 * Primo Levi, as quoted in "Anne's words still strengthen spirits" by Joyce Apsel in The St. Petersburg Times (26 January 2000)


 * Some of us read Anne Frank's diary on Robben Island and derived much encouragement of it.
 * Nelson Mandela, as quoted in "Anne's words still strengthen spirits" by Joyce Apsel in The St. Petersburg Times (26 January 2000)

Article on The Diary of a Young Girl (2013)

 * “Anne Frank's diary isn't pornographic – it just reveals an uncomfortable truth”, by Emer O'Toole, The Guardian (2 May 2013)


 * Gail Horalek, the mother of a 7th-grade child in Michigan in the US, has made international headlines by complaining that the unabridged version of Anne Frank's diary is pornographic and should not be taught at her daughter's school. At issue for Horalek is a section detailing Anne's exploration of her own genitalia, material originally omitted by Anne's father, Otto Frank, when he prepared the manuscript for publication in the late 40s I had to look up what age kids are in the 7th grade. They're 12 to 13! They're only about a year younger than Anne was when she wrote of her vagina: "There are little folds of skin all over the place, you can hardly find it. The little hole underneath is so terribly small that I simply can't imagine how a man can get in there, let alone how a whole baby can get out!" There cannot be a 13-year-old girl on the planet who hasn't had a root around and arrived at this exact stage of bafflement.


 * Horalek is, of course, wrong to call the passages pornographic. Pornography is material intended to arouse sexual excitement, and I very much doubt that was Anne's intention when she wrote to her imaginary confidant Kitty about her journeys of self-discovery.


 * Anne is going through puberty, and she describes her changed vagina in honest detail, saying, "until I was 11 or 12, I didn't realise there was a second set of labia on the inside, since you couldn't see them. What's even funnier is that I thought urine came out of the clitoris." (Oh Anne, we've all been there.) She continues: "In the upper part, between the outer labia, there's a fold of skin that, on second thought, looks like a kind of blister. That's the clitoris." It's beautiful, visceral writing, and it's describing something that most young women experience. And yet I can understand that the junior Ms Horalek would have squirmed and wished herself elsewhere when this was read in class. We live in a society in which young women are taught to be ashamed of the changes that their bodies undergo at puberty – to be secretive about them, and even to pretend that they don't exist. Breasts, the minute they bud, are strapped into harnesses, and the nipples disguised from view. Period paraphernalia must be discreet, with advertisers routinely boasting that their tampons look enough like sweets to circumvent the social horror of discovery. For my generation, removal of post-pubescent hair on the legs and underarms was mandatory. For Ms Horalek's generation, it is mandatory for pubic hair too. Anne writes: "When you're standing up, all you see from the front is hair. Between your legs there are two soft, cushiony things, also covered with hair, which press together when you're standing, so you can't see what's inside." How must reading this feel for pubescent girls who've already internalised the message that they must spend the rest of their lives maintaining the illusion that their body hair doesn't exist.


 * Dealing with this discomfort only involves censoring Anne Frank's diary if you're quite, quite odd. For the rest of us, the answer might be a little more free-flowing boob, some brazen Mooncup sterilisation, hairy legs sprinting through the summer grasses and, to use a pun that is intended as the highest compliment, Frankness about masturbation, sexuality and our bodies. Because it isn't just the Horaleks of this world who teach girls to be shameful rather than celebratory.