"Who would ever think that so much went on in the soul of a young girl?".
This is the story of a 13 year old Jew who goes into hiding in Holland during the Second World War. For 25 months the Franks and the Van Daan families hide above an office where her father used to work. .
For her 13th birthday she receives her first diary and writes in it her thoughts and feelings as well as what's happening in her life. She makes it through these 2 years with hope and faith in God. She believes it's important to look positively on life and to have a religion to as a way to get through the tough times, something to believe in and a reason to go on. .
"People who have a religion should be glad, for not everyone has the gift of believing in heavenly things. You don't necessarily even have to be afraid of punishment after death; purgatory, hell and heaven are things that a lot of people can't accept, but still a religion, it doesn't matter which, keeps a person on the right path. It isn't the fear of God, but the upholding of one's own honour and conscience".
She loves her family although she tends to play favourites with her father over her mother. I think Anne was a bit unfair to her mother, who was doing her best for Anne but Anne rejected her. When Anne had a bad dream and woke up screaming her mum was the first to come and comfort her but she said she was alright, then asked for her father to say a prayer with her. Her mum was in tears. .
"I only look at her as a mother, and she just doesn't succeed in being that to me; I have to be my own mother. I've drawn myself apart from them all; I am my own skipper and later on I shall see where I come to land. All this comes about particularly because I have in my mind's eye an image of what a perfect mother and wife should be; and in her whom I must call 'Mother' I find no trace of that image.".
Many issues come up in this small house. She talks a lot about boys, family, religion, war, food, and many other things.