Haunting and precocious insights
\u201cI have one outstanding trait in my character, which must strike anyone who knows me for any length of time, and that is my knowledge of myself. I can watch myself and my actions, just like an outsider. The Anne of every day I can face entirely without prejudice, without making excuses for her, and watch what\u2019s good and what\u2019s bad about her. This \u2019self-consciousness\u2019 haunts me, and every time I open my mouth I know as soon as I\u2019ve spoken whether \u2019that ought to have been different\u2019 or \u2019that was right as it was.\u2019 There are so many things about myself that I condemn; I couldn\u2019t begin to name them all. I understand more and more how true Daddy\u2019s words were when he said: \u2019All children must look after their own upbringing.\u2019 Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person\u2019s character lies in their own hands.\u201d
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank is as haunting as her insights were precocious. As Jews in Nazi occupied Holland, Anne and her parents and sister Margot, fled their home in Amsterdam to escape capture. From 1942-1944 they occupied rooms in an old office building, which they called \u2019The Secret Annexe\u2019. Anne\u2019s diary details daily life within the confines of their safe house. The diary was left behind and found by the office cleaner. After being interned in two concentration camps, Anne and her sister Margot were finally sent to Bergen-Belsen where they both died. Anne was just 15 years old. Only Otto Frank, the girls\u2019 father, survived, and the diary was returned to him.
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