Learning about the Life of Anne Frank

Anne Frank is the face of the Holocaust for many people who have read her diary.  She was born on June 12th, 1929, so in participation with the June famous birthdays blog hop for iHomeschool Network I put together some ideas for introducing Anne Frank to your children.

Anne’s story puts a personal touch on the atrocities of the Holocaust.  Instead of just reading numbers that are almost too large to imagine, and hearing that even children died, your children are meeting one of those children.

A child who had the same hopes and dreams they do.

A child who lived in fear and hiding for two years.

A child whose story does not have a happy ending.

The sad ending may be the most difficult part to handle, but I think it is also what gives my children the truest connection to a story that should never be forgotten.  Fortunately there are wonderful books about Anne Frank’s life written for a wide range of ages.

The book titles are Amazon affiliate links, but I always give my honest opinion of products.

A Picture Book of Anne Frank by David A. Adler

This warmly illustrated picture book is a good introduction to Anne Frank’s story for elementary children.  The story also provides an overview of Hitler and the persecution of the Jews under his regime.  There is no sugar-coating of the atrocities, and there is a haunting painting of Anne and her sister frail near the end of their lives, but I believe the lack of real photographs keeps it easier to handle for young children.

Who Was Anne Frank? by Ann Abramson

This is a chapter book biography about Anne Frank written in 2007.  I did not enjoy the writing style of short choppy sentences or the pencil sketch illustrations, but I did appreciate much of the content.  This book provides a lot of information about the war and events happening throughout the region, and has more details than the other books I reviewed about restrictions placed on Jews.  The information on what happened after the Frank family was discovered hiding is less detailed and more cursory.

Anne Frank, Life in Hiding by Johanna Hurwitz

This chapter book biography written in 1988 has details about the actions of the Nazis and persecution of the Jews–personalized by telling what Anne went through during these events, from wearing a yellow star to going into hiding in the place she named The Secret Annex.  The illustrations are very detailed pencil drawings.  This book shares many more details on the difficulties Anne faced as an adolescent in hiding and her personal struggles.  It tells the story of Anne’s life after the Gestapo discovered the people in the Secret Annex and her family was sent to various concentration camps and about the publishing of her diary.

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

This is the book through which the world came to know Anne so well.  It is a lengthy book of her diary entries beginning on her thirteenth birthday, just before her family went into hiding, and ending just before their arrest by the Gestapo.  In her own voice you read the emotional difficulties that were on one hand typical of a girl becoming a young woman but on the other hand amplified by the incredible stress Anne was under and the pressures of life in hiding.  It is Anne’s actual diary entries, so your personal relationship with Anne is even deeper.  There are details about her often difficult relationships with the other occupants of the Secret Annex, including Peter, the young man she grew to love.  I would say it is best suited for middle schoolers and up–children in the age range Anne was when she wrote her diary.  The afterword shares the story of what happened to Anne after her arrest and how her diary came to be published.  Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, edited by Otto H. Frank and Mirjam Pressler, is the newer version that contains entries that had been cut from the previous editions.

These next two books were both done in cooperation with the Anne Frank house and are filled with many of the same photographs of Anne’s life before hiding, the Secret Annex and the others who hid there, the people that helped them hide, and Anne’s diary entries.

Anne Frank: Beyond the Diary, A Photographic Remembrance by Ruud van der Rol and Rian Verhoeven

The primary text for this book reads like a story and centers around Anne’s life and diary entries, while also telling the stories of the Holocaust and war.  The photographs of people wearing yellow stars, emaciated prisoners, “Jews Forbidden” signs, food rationing coupons, and even the document listing the Frank family’s transport to Auschwitz bring a haunting reality to the text.  The book shares information about the concentration camps and heart-wrenching photos including children that were sent to the gas chamber and starving prisoners.  The book wraps up by telling of Anne’s death, the end of the war, her father’s life after the war (he was the only survivor from the Secret Annex) and the publishing of her diary.

Anne Frank: Her life in Words and Pictures from the archives of The Anne Frank House

This newer version includes a collection of color photos of the Secret Annex when it was refurnished for a film, extra details about Anne’s life in the prison camps from witnesses there with her, and additional concentration camp photos (including dead bodies being piled).  This book is a smaller size than the previous book, and is set up more like a scrapbook.  There are a few pages of text now and then, but it reads less like a story and more of the information is found in large captions for the photos.  Brief information about Hitler, the Holocaust, Germany and the Netherlands is included in a glossary at the back of the book instead of along with the primary story.

For our homeschool we’ll be learning about Anne as we study World War II, and I will keep the study of her life simple.  My children will read the books suited to their ages, we’ll go through selected pictures from the photographic books, and they’ll each complete a notebook page.  (There are two free versions at Activity Village, just scroll down alphabetically to her last name.)  We will step into this amazing story as deeply as each of my children can handle it and let Anne’s story touch our hearts. 

Hop over to learn about other fascinating people born in June from the bloggers of iHomeschool Network.