Nilesh Kashyap's Reviews > The Diary of a Young Girl
by

You have a lot of reasons I guess.
But for this review there is only one. I am writing this for my conscience.
Ever since I have rated this book, I always end up asking myself that, have I rated it with something it deserved or was it just out of sympathy (some call it pity vote)?
Reading other reviews (although most people just rate it and proceed) posed me with many other questions and also gave me idea of what people generally think about her and her diary.
So I’m going to start with-
DO WE DESERVE to review or even rate this
Yes it is a diary not a book. And aren’t diary meant to be something personal? Yes they are, but it was Anne's wish to get her diary published and she even went on to fictionalize the diary by changing names.
When I started this book I knew how it would end and who doesn’t! I had the least of the expectation, knowing that she was 13 years old but she just surprised me by the outlook she carried of life. She thought and wrote over few such things that didn’t occur to my mind until I read it but have applied throughout my life.
She at times made me laugh, at times made me feel sad. If she felt something, her writing definitely made me experience it and thus she overcame my expectation by large margin.
I have read in lot of review that her thoughts were way ahead of her age.
Of course they were, difficult conditions make you mature and responsible, but there were also other people living under the same roof and in same condition, the suffering had even effect on them. I remember the letter exchange between two sisters, at that point after reading Margot’s letter, for the first time I realised Anne was still child among them.
Some say she could visualize herself and her thoughts and actions from different perspective and thus realise her fault.
The thing with diary is that it is a lopsided view of the events. She would write her thoughts and what she wrote of others were her interpretation of them.....I have it in my mind but can’t put it in words and why should I! Does it matter what kind of girl was she? 'NO� from me.
Last thing that occur to me is that many people found it uninteresting and tiresome.
I liked it, it couldn’t get any better. I mean they were in hiding for their life in a same house for two years without even opening the window; they were not solving murder mystery. I remember that when I was halfway through the book, I would every now and then turn to the last diary entry and count the days that remained. I felt very sad and depressed and it would have been the last thing to occur to me that it was uninteresting; I was just taken by her wish to see the outside world again, feel the fresh wind and to go to school, but...
This is not a book to enjoy much; we read it to gain the insight of hardships that people had to go through during this holocaust. Through this book she give us best view of the worst of the world. No one has ever benefitted from war; all it gives is pain and misery.
All this being said there is nothing to review the book, but accept it as written account of the vices of the war.
The worst question that seemed to have been slapped across my face was: Would this book have meant the same if Anne had survived the holocaust and lived to become old? Would it have been famous as it is now?
Well she didn’t survived and with her ended answer to this question and no one can bring her back.
Reading Progress
Comments Showing 1-50 of 168 (168 new)


till the books are as fascinating and thought-provoking as this, I would be more than happy to complete the challenge..

It contains actual footage of Anne Frank and interviews with Holocaust survivors who knew her. It is a very beautiful and moving film.

It contains actual footage of Anne Frank and interviews with Holocaust survivors who knew her. It is a..."
Thanks Richard for letting me know about this documentary. I searched, but it is not available in India.

That's really too bad. This film is really top notch. If you are interested in other things on the Holocaust, you are welcome to take a look at my "Judaica" shelf. What are you going to read after you have finished War and Peace?

That's really too bad. This film is really top notch. If you are intere..."
Richard wrote: "Nilesh wrote: "Thanks Richard for letting me know about this documentary. I searched, but it is not available in India..."
That's really too bad. This film is really top notch. If you are intere..."
I want to read Schindler's Ark, someday. But after finishing War & Peace, I will read some more classics... books by Dickens, Jane Austen and Bronte sisters

That's really too bad. This film is really top notch. I..."
Schindler's List is an excellent book. I have read a lot of Dickens and Austen, and some novels by the Bronte sisters so I would be very happy to discuss these as you read them. Good luck finishing the Tolstoy!


Thanks Jeffrey! I have not read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo but heard a lot of positive reviews and I doubt that its success has to do anything with Steig Larsson's death.

Thanks Richard, and it took time to take this shape

Thanks Richard, and it took time to take this shape"
I can tell, but it was worth waiting for!

Thanks Richard, and it took time to take this shape"
I can tell, but it was worth waiting for!"
before writing this review I used to wonder why there are very few reviews, now I don't.

Not quite!
Wikipedia entry on Krupp
World War I
Krupp produced most of the artillery of the Imperial German Army, including its heavy siege guns: The 1914 420 mm Big Bertha, the 1916 Lange Max, and the seven Paris Guns in 1917 and 1918. In addition, Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft built German warships and submarines in Kiel.
World War II
Krupp received its first order for 135 Panzer I tanks in 1933, and during WWII made tanks, artillery, naval guns, armor plate, munitions and other armaments for the German military. Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft shipyard launched the German cruiser Prinz Eugen, as well as many of Germany's U-boats (130 between 1934 and 1945) using preassembled parts supplied by other Krupp factories in a process similar to the construction of the US liberty ships.
In the 1930s, Krupp developed two 800 mm railway guns, the Schwerer Gustav and the Dora. These guns were the largest artillery pieces ever fielded by an army during wartime, and weighed almost 1,344 tons. They could fire a 7-ton shell over a distance of 37 kilometers. More crucial to the operations of the German military was Krupp's development of the famed 88 mm anti-aircraft cannon which found use as a notoriously effective anti-tank gun.
In an address to the Hitler Youth, Adolf Hitler stated "In our eyes, the German boy of the future must be slim and slender, as fast as a greyhound, tough as leather and hard as Krupp steel" (�... der deutsche Junge der Zukunft muß schlank und rank sein, flink wie Windhunde, zäh wie Leder und hart wie Kruppstahl.")
Krupp Industries employed workers conscripted by the Nazi regime from across Europe. These workers were initially paid, but as Nazi fortunes declined they were kept as slave workers.[citation needed] They were abused, beaten, and starved by the thousands, as detailed in the book The Arms of Krupp.
Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build all the bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks

Not quite!
Wikipedia entry on Krupp
World War I
Krupp produced most of the artillery of the Imperial German Army, including its heavy siege guns: T..."
Thanks Paul, for this piece of information.
But there is something I would like to point out.
Manufacturing of artillery is a continuous process because they are required to guard for peace of the country and many other internal need.
From the same page of wikipedia- "The company began to make steel cannons in the 1840s� especially for the Russian, Turkish, and Prussian armies. Low non-military demand and government subsidies meant that the company specialized more and more in weapons: by the late 1880s the manufacture of armaments represented around 50% of Krupp's total output."
World War I in 1914 just catalysed the need of artilleries but everything didn't go well. Here is another para from same page- "After Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, the Krupp works became
the center for German
rearmament. In 1943, by a
special order from Hitler, the
company reverted to a sole-
proprietorship, with Gustav and Bertha's eldest son Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach (1907�67) as proprietor. After Germany's defeat, Gustav was senile and incapable of standing trial, and the Nuremberg Military
Tribunal convicted Alfried as a war criminal in the Krupp Trial for "plunder" and for his
company's use of slave labor. It sentenced him to 12 years in prison and ordered him to sell 75% of his holdings.In 1951, as the Cold War developed and no buyer came forward, the authorities released him, and in 1953 he resumed control of the firm."
But if I may say simply- just add number of dead from both wars. Done! now imagine their family's sorrow and now if you can (because I just can't) compare that with one family's (Krupp) happiness (profit). Does that count as benefit?


Oddly enough, George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara argues, fairly convincingly, that the answer is 'yes'. Shaw was a strange guy.

That's a very practical approach and they are definitely right too that if they would have not than someone else would have (whether they are conscience-stricken or not that is another thing), but again I ask- does it TO YOU seem a benefit from war?

I also agree, but when question is who benefitted from war, they are not at war rather a country is. They are just bussinessman doing bussiness at a perfectly right time.

Krupp's benefit compared to World's loss, in physics the former would become negligible


Thanks for recommending, I will have a look at it.


Excellent point.
Great review."
Thanks Lyndz!

Thanks Teresa, I will have a look at those.


Really? Is this that good? Did you use this? May I know where?
Seriously! I'm flattered.


I think in her case it's a bit different since she wrote about being a writer and wanting publication.
Francine Prose in Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife makes the case that Anne's book is not truly a diary (Anne herself wanted her book to be called 'Het Achterhuis,'meaning "The House Behind."), but a memoir, and that it is the work of a true writer.


I completely agree, though I do believe it has literary merit.

Based on your reviews, I would have to disagree with that!

But, on a serious note, I never tried to see this as a work of literature, rather as a experience.

Perfect way to put it. It captured me as a child for that very reason, I'm sure. And now, as an adult, I am even more impressed by it.


I read this book years ago, and loved it...of course it truly saddened me that it happened, but we can't change the past, only learn from it.

I read this book years ago, and loved it...of course it truly saddened me that it happened, but we can't change the past, only learn from it.


I'm one of THOUSANDS, let me reiterate THOUSANDS of people making comments on other people's reviews...I made commentary to 5 people on the same book/topic...and that's a troll?
As I said, someone who has a photo of a child killer...getting emotional over Ann Frank.
Do you admire NAMBLA too?