Understanding Anne Frank's the Diary of a Young Girl

by Kopf, Hedda Rosner

• ISBN13: 9780313296079
• ISBN10: 0313296073
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-08-30
• Publisher: Greenwood Pub Group
• More Book Details
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Summary

Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl is the most widely read text about the Holocaust, yet it reveals only one example of the tragic consequences of the Nazi policy to eliminate the Jews. This casebook enriches Anne Frank's remarkable personal account with a variety of historical documents that illuminate the political and social context of anti-Semitism in Germany and the Holocaust. It includes an account of the Frank family's life in Germany before emigrating to Holland; first-person accounts of Anne's last seven months in deportation and concentration camps; other Holocaust narratives in the form of memoirs, letters, and children's diaries; an excerpt from Zlata's Diary, the story of a young girl caught in the war in Bosnia which has been compared to Anne Frank's; official Nazi pronouncements on "The Final Solution" to the Jews; and newspaper reports and editorials of the horrific events occurring between 1939 and 1945. All of these materials will help the student to better understand the historical context of Anne's experience, and the teacher to select appropriate materials to sensitize students to this period in history. Documents and discussion materials are organized into chapters on the Frank family history, including a chronology; the Jews in Holland; children in the Holocaust and their rescuers; a narrative overview and chronology of anti-Semitism in modern Germany; the Holocaust; and other Holocaust stories. Kopf also addresses the psychological issues of adolescent development so dramatically illustrated in Anne's diary and looks at her writing as carefully crafted literature. Each chapter contains study questions, topics for research papers and class discussions, and lists of further reading for exploring the historical as well as the personal issues leading to and culminating in the Holocaust. This is an invaluable source for interdisciplinary, English, and world history classes.

Author Biography

HEDDA ROSNER KOPF teaches in the English department at Quinnipiac College in Hamden, Connecticut.

Table of Contents

Introduction	ix
1 The Diary as Literature	1	(10)
From Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo (1994)	11	(10)
2 Who Was Anne Frank?	21	(70)
3 The Frank Family History	39	(23)
Map: "Distant Deportations, July 1942"	62	(2)
From Miep Gies, with Alison Leslie Gold, Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family (1988)	64	(9)
From Etty Hillesum, Letters from Westerbork (1986)	73	(5)
From Willy Lindwer, The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank (1991)	78	(8)
Map: "Massacre, Deportation and Evacuation, September 1944"	86	(5)
4 The Jews in Holland	91	(18)
From Jacob Presser, The Destruction of the Dutch Jews (1969)	99	(2)
From Raul Hilberg, ed., Documents of Destruction: Germany and Jewry, 1933-1945 (1971)	101	(8)
5 Children in the Holocaust and Their Rescuers	109	(36)
From the Diary of Eva Heyman	114	(7)
From the Diary of Yitskhok Rudashevski	121	(4)
From Yehuda Nir, The Lost Childhood: A Memoir (1989)	125	(9)
From Gay Block and Malka Drucker, eds., Rescuers: Portraits of Moral Courage in the Holocaust (1992): Marion P. Van Binsbergen Pritchard	134	(3)
Arnold Douwes and Seine Otten	137	(8)
6 Anti-Semitism in Modern Germany	145	(52)
First Decree for Implementation of the Law Against the Overcrowding of German Schools, April 25, 1933	168	(2)
From the Nuremberg Laws: Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor, September 15, 1935	170	(2)
From George Mosse, Nazi Culture: Intellectual, Cultural and Social Life in the Third Reich (1966)	172	(4)
Coverage of Kristallnacht by the New York Times: "Nazis Smash, Loot and Burn Jewish Shops and Temples" (November 11, 1938)	176	(3)
"Nazis Defend Wave of Terror" (November 12, 1938)	179	(1)
Editorial: "Nazi Day of Terror a Threat to All Civilization" (November 12, 1938)	180	(3)
From Ellen Switzer, How Democracy Failed (1975)	183	(3)
From Stephan Talty, "The Method of a Neo-Nazi Mogul" (1996)	186	(11)
7 The Holocaust	197	(30)
From Minutes of the Wannsee Conference, January 20, 1942	209	(7)
From the New York Times: Editorial: "Refugee Ship" (June 8, 1939)	216	(2)
"War Will Change Life of American Families" (July 5, 1942)	218	(4)
Map: "Jews Murdered Between 1 September 1939 and 8 May 1945: An Estimate"	222	(5)
8 Other Holocaust Stories	227	(28)
Gustav Ranis	227	(8)
Anna Gelbman Rosner	235	(9)
A Daughter's Response	244	(6)
From The Auschwitz Album	250	(5)
Appendix: Anne Frank's Legacy	255	(9)
Glossary	259	(2)
Index	261