July - This Month in Reading

For a combination of reasons, the main one being a very sad event, July was not a very productive reading month for me, with only 3 books read. I am still working on the foreign language books, however, and although I am still struggling a bit emotionally I do hope to have more entries in August.

Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife - Francine Prose

This book focuses on Anne's diary itself, and more specifically, how the diary came to become a bestselling classic. I had already read about this topic here and there in my reading, but I had no idea about the controversy surrounding the creation of the stage play based on the diary - that was all news to me, and it's a very strange and absorbing story. The author also talks about Anne as a writer, and about how her writing shows real development and talent during the time she kept her diary. I knew that Anne had made revisions to her own diary, with an eye toward possible publication after the war, but it was interesting to hear another writer talk about Anne's skill in doing so; how she handled characterization and details and showed talent.

One quibble - the author kept referring to the hiding place as "an attic." I realize that a lot of people use this term to describe the Achterhuis/Secret Annexe, but I'm a stickler for accuracy and it's simply not accurate. I wish she hadn't propagated the use of "attic" in this book.

All in all this is an interesting read and I enjoyed it.

Inside Anne Frank's House: An Illustrated Journey Through Anne's World

This large-format coffee-table type book briefly takes the reader through Anne's background and the time before her family went into hiding, and then provides a wealth of information and photographs of the hiding place itself, as well as photos of the people who hid in the Achterhuis/Secret Annexe. It also provides information and photos pertaining to what happened to the Franks, van Pelses (van Daans), and Dr. Pfeffer (Dr. Dussel) after the arrest, and their ultimate fates. It also has lots of photos of Anne's actual diary and of some of her other writings, such as the stories she also wrote, and gives information about how the diary came to be published, etc.

I can't remember how I came to own this book, and it's strange that I don't remember ever sitting down to actually read through the text and really peruse the photos before now. It's a beautiful accompaniment to reading the diary, and would add a lot of detail for anyone who has an interest in Anne or even the Holocaust generally. Highly recommended.

One note: I wasn't able to discover a specific author's name for this book, but the introduction was written by the Executive Director of the Anne Frank House, Hans Westra, and I believe this book was put together by people working for the House, if not for the Anne Frank Foundation.

July Reread - Anne Frank Remembered - Miep Gies with Alison Leslie Gold

This book was written by one of the brave people who helped hide the Frank family and the other 4 people who hid with them, as evidenced in the subtitle, "The Story of the Woman Who Helped Hide the Frank Family." This book lends an interesting perspective to the story for those who have read Anne's diary, as it tells the same story but from a different perspective. I liked learning more about Miep, and about her life before World War II, and how she met her husband Jan (called "Henk" in the original diary translations), how she came to work for Otto Frank, and etc. It was also fascinating to hear about what her life was like during the war - how much work actually went into  supporting the 8 people in hiding - making sure they had enough to eat, keeping them safe, trying to keep their spirits up. This book also illustrates just how awful the last year of the war was for everyone in Holland, especially the "hongerwinter" (the "hunger winter") when food was so scarce that many people literally starved to death before the Allies were able to liberate them.

Miep Gies is someone I really admire. She embodies many of the qualities I value in a person, such as courage, perseverance, self-reliance, intelligence, and the ability to problem solve and think on her feet, etc. I wish I could be even half the person she was in her lifetime. 

This book is an excellent accompaniment to Anne's diary, as supplemental reading. Highly recommended. 

June - This Month in Reading

With only 4 books completed in June, I had a slower reading month than I might have liked; however, this doesn't account for the fact that I'm reading a bunch of other books, including 2 in foreign (to me) languages, which is slower going than reading in English for me. I had originally planned to have my reading theme for June only, but I obviously overestimated my ability to read as much as I might have liked in a single month, so I am going to extend my theme to the entire summer (i.e., through the end of August). As you all know, I hate summer, so this will be something pleasant to focus on while I eagerly await the beginning of Fall (i.e., Sept. 1 as far as I am concerned).

For next month, I would like to have finished at least one of the foreign language books, as well as some other theme-related books.

How's your summer reading going?

June Reread - Anne Frank: A Portrait in Courage - Ernst Schnabel

Information was much harder to come by in general when I was a kid. Unlike today, when one can generally find out lots of information about most subjects after a few seconds of Googling, when I had devoured Anne's diary and wanted to learn more, I had to do lots of hands-on research to discover more background information. I enjoy research, but it was a bit more tedious and haphazard back then, and I discovered this little paperback, which had to be specially ordered from the bookstore for me, while performing such hit-or-miss research.

This book was originally published in Germany in 1958 and it was a wonderful find. It fills in a lot of information about Anne and her family and friends, and the brave people who helped them hide, including many first-person interviews that were very contemporary with the events of the war. One of the best parts for me was the inclusion of some of Anne's other writing - in addition to keeping her diary, she also wrote short stories and was working on a novel, and it was really gratifying for me to read these writings for the first time. Recommended.

Auschwitz - Laurence Rees

This book has been languishing on my TBR pile for ages, and as with so many of these books, I have no idea why that might have been. It takes the reader through the history of the collection of camps known as Auschwitz, as well as providing background information on the "final solution" and how that impacted the camps. The book is very thorough and well done, and provides details such as how the selection process was designed to reduce anxiety for the prisoners, and thereby make it easier for the perpetrators. If you have any interest in this subject, this is an amazing history and should really be required reading to possibly deter any kind of reoccurrence. Recommended.

Hidden Child of the Holocaust - Stacy Cretzmeyer

This is the true story of Ruth Kapp Hartz, a French woman who survived World War II despite being part of a Jewish family trapped in Vichy France. The writing is very immediate, and you can really get inside the head of a very young girl, and understand the confusion and fear of this time. This edition is evidently a Scholastic books offering, and I would have loved it when I was in school. Apparently it's actually something of an excerpt of a longer book by the same author; I'd like to track down a copy of that and read it too. The only "critique" I can offer is that I would have loved to see some photographs, but this isn't a real issue. Another good book, particularly for young people to learn about the Holocaust.

Anne Frank - A History for Today

I have been able to visit the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam twice, and I got this small book on the second visit. It's a good overview that weaves Anne's story with the history that surrounds it, explaining how the Holocaust came to be as well as providing photographs of Anne's family and friends, and the stories of other survivors. This book would be a good book to read in addition to the diary, particularly in a classroom setting.

June Reading Theme - Anne Frank/the Holocaust

For this June, I decided to have a reading theme, and I chose Anne Frank for many reasons. Most importantly, I have read her diary countless times beginning in childhood, when it had a profound effect on me and led to me reading about and studying the Holocaust. I realized I haven't re-read the diary in the past several years, so it seemed like a good time to revisit it. I chose June in particular because Anne was born in June (June 12, 1929 to be exact), so it seemed like a fitting way to remember her during her birth month.

Another reason I chose her as this month's theme was that it's long been my ambition to read her diary in the original Dutch, ever since I was able to purchase the Dutch version on a trip to Amsterdam during which I was lucky enough to visit the Anne Frank House, the actual "achterhuis" in which Anne and her family and 4 other people hid from the Nazis, many years ago. At the time I knew maybe 2 words in Dutch, but now thanks to a class and some confidence gained through the Language Freak Summer Challenge, I feel like I can muddle through the diary in Dutch. In addition, since I know it fairly well in general, that will help my comprehension. Yet another reason was that I also happen to have a copy of the diary in French (it was a gift that I am still very thankful for), but I never had enough confidence in my ability to read it to actually sit down and do so. Of course I regret my lack of self-discipline and self-confidence thus far, so I want to stop making excuses and realize this goal after having it in mind for a couple decades now (gulp).

So my reading plan is this: I will read an entry in Dutch, then read the same entry in French, and then read the same entry in English. Read-alongs seem to work very well in terms of comprehension. And this time, as I mentioned, I have my past history with this book, which will really help comprehension.

I know that people sometimes criticize those who uses Anne as a symbol of the Holocaust; they claim this takes away from the six million who were systematically murdered by the Nazis, and etc. I understand what these critics are saying, but as I mentioned before, reading about Anne led me to read about the Holocaust in general, and to read many stories of other people who were victims, or who helped the Jews, as well as histories of specific camps, etc. So while I do not claim to be a scholar on the subject, I like to think that I have a reasonable amount of knowledge. My reading list for this month includes books that are about the Holocaust and that don't center on Anne, too. If you know of a book that fits this theme that you would like to recommend to me, please leave a comment, I would love to hear from you!