So, I’ve recently started reading “A Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank and I’m really sad about it.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m loving the book, it’s really comforting for me.

For those of you who don’t know, Anne Frank was a Jewish girl born in Frankfurt, Germany. She moved to the Netherlands in 1933, and lived in Amsterdam. She diarized her time in hiding during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, which began on May 30th, 1940.

She was in hiding from July 6th, 1942, to August 4th, 1944, where she was arrested by German officers and taken to Auschwitz, and then her and her older sister Margot were transported to Bergen-Belsen; their mother, Edith, was left behind and died of starvation on January 6th, 1945.

Anne was in hiding with the Van Pels family (who are known as the Van Daans in her diary) and a dentist, Fritz Pfeffer (also known as Alfred Dussel in her diary).

Long story short, Anne died of Typhus Fever in Bergen Belsen at the age of 15, in February.

Out of the eight people in hiding, only Otto Frank, Anne’s father, survived the war. He published Anne’s diary in 1947. He died of old age in 1980.

I’ve done a lot of research on the Franks, and Anne has my heart. As a 15 year old girl myself, I idolize her so much. I want her alive. I know it’s impossible for her to be living, but I’ve cried over her many times. She’s inspired me so much. I want to give her the biggest hug; give everyone in that hiding space a hug. The fact that she’s been dead for nearly 77 years is almost too much for me. A person born in 1929 should’ve lived past 1945; but she didn’t because some guy woke up one day and thought to incite genocide.

I love this book though. It’s really good and I hope it’s being taught everywhere because people need to learn what the horrors of war can really bring, what it can do to someone, and what it could change.

Edit: I also want to let you all know that I’ve been reading and upvoting all of your lovely and informative comments. I’m taking a lot of notes.