How Diaries Have Influenced The Way We View The Holocaust Today

The Diary of Anne Frank and I Will Bear Witness are a must read for anyone who wishes to ascertain what daily life was like for Jews living in Nazi Germany. The non-fiction Diaries really help understand the insidious and incremental horror of what it meant to live under a totalitarian and racist regime whose every move was aimed at suffocating the life out of a group of people (the Jews) — not for anything they had done but simply because they existed. The collective entries by both the diarist slowly but inexorably draw the reader into the claustrophobic, increasingly threatening, and all-pervasive fear that the Nazi terror and the never ending promulgations and restrictions had on the life of each and every Jew living in Europe 1939- 1941.

The Diary of a Young Girl was written by a 13 year old girl during World War II and her diary has gone to change the world, by spreading awareness and showing the true colours and horrors of the war through the eyes of a child. After two years spent in hiding the family was betrayed and taken to auschwitz where only Anne’s father Otto Frank survived. After the War ended Otto Frank fulfilled Annes dream of becoming a famous writer and published her diary. In her diary Anne wrote about her emotions, thoughts and sometimes we as the audience got a close insight about the world outside the annex through what was said on the radio and from the messengers that the family had. “I see the eight of us in the Annex as if we were a patch of blue sky surrounded by menacing black clouds. . . . [They loom] before us like an impenetrable wall, trying to crush us, but not yet able to. I can only cry out and implore, “Oh ring, ring, open wide and let us out!” The use of metaphoric language shows how Anne was becoming depressed and worried about her family's chance of survival. She was tired of hiding and missed living a normal life and being on the outside. This shows how life during the war was inhumane, and so many were suffering. People lived in hiding because they were afraid of being taken to a concentration camp a place where millions of ordinary people were enslaved as part of the war effort, often starved, tortured and killed. “I sometimes wonder if anyone will ever understand what I mean, if anyone will ever overlook my ingratitude and not worry about whether or not I’m Jewish and merely see me as a teenager badly in need of some good, plain fun” In this passage, Anne reminds us that she is just a normal young girl who has been forced into extraordinary circumstances. She willingly makes sacrifices and deals with the restrictions of the annex without much complaint because she knows that she is more fortunate than her friends who have already been arrested and sent to concentration camps. Aside from wanting to return to the freedoms and comforts she had before the war, Anne simply wants to experience a normal childhood. She does not want to live in a world that places such significance on where she is from, what her religion is, or whether she behaves well with adults. She wants to be in a place where she does not have to worry whether she will live or whether her friends are suffering. The diary has such emotional impact because we see Anne not as a saint, but as a normal girl with real human feelings and imperfections who falls victim to the tragedy of the Holocaust.”I get cross, then sad, and finally end up turning my heart inside out, the bad part on the outside and the good part on the inside, and keep trying to find a way to become what I’d like to be and what I could be if . . . if only there were no other people in the world” This statement ends Anne Frank’s last diary entry, written on August 1, 1944. Anne does not intend to end her diary at this point: to her, it is just the end of a regular day of hiding in the annex. However, this turns out to be her last entry because the Nazis arrest her and her family just three days later. This shows how Anne was never allowed to reach her full potential and never got the chance to become the good person that she had in mind. This was the case with all the holacaust victims, all the 6 million never got to live their life to the fullest potential only because of their religion,personal identity and their personal features. Anne Frank’s Diary is a fantastic source of insight into the emotional journey that people encountered throughout the holocaust. It allows us to put our feet in their shoes and imagine what it would've been like.

The diaries published as I Will Bear Witness were compiled by Victor Klemperer from 1933 — until the end of the war in 1945. Klemperer, the son of a Jewish Rabbi, had been a university professor in Dresden before the war. He had chosen to be baptized a Christian and married Eva, a German Christian, which saved him from death. Victor lost his professorship under the National Socialist government and was forced to wear the star to identify his Jewish ancestry, although his wife Eva was spared this humiliation.The diaries offer a first-hand account of life during wartime for a marginalized couple that was not quite Jewish yet not quite fully German during an authoritarian regime that placed the blame for the economic suffering of Germany on the Jewish minority. Klemperer's book, is one of the most important first-person accounts of life in Nazi Germany from a Jewish perspective. He is one of the few Jewish witnesses of the entire Nazi period. This is because having a diary was considered life threatening as if you were caught with one you would have been arrested or even killed. “Their opinion: If at the cost of going backwards internally, he restores Germany’s power externally, then this cost is worthwhile. Conditions at home can always be made good later – politics is just not a clean business” This quote offers an explanation of the internal justification by those who supported Adolf Hitler and the Nazi government. Germany was crippled after the First World War. The country was humiliated by the War Guilt Clause of the Treaty of Versailles, and the reparations being made to France led to severe inflation. Eager to once again be an international player, the people of Germany saw Hitler's ideology as a way to end their struggles. People were desperate and Hitler was known to be as one of the best public speakers of all time. He had the ability to brainwash millions of people into his party. “Whoever is not a mortal enemy of the Nazis, cannot be my friend”. This quote shows how Klemperer grows more angry and embittered. The years pass and the Jews are increasingly ostracized, isolated, and subjected to punishing regulations. The restrictions on Jews, they were plentiful and never-ending. Midway through Volume One, Klemperer experienced the odd sensation that the Nazis seemed to be working literally around the clock to devise new and ever more soul-destroying ways to harm the Jews’ sense of self and position in society. The situation finally comes to a head, at which point he makes the decision to refuse to associate with any of his friends or colleagues who do not share his detestation of the Nazis. Klemperer insights us in his journey of interaction with people who believed what Hitler was doing was thought to be acceptable and admirable. Not everyone thought killing people based on their religion was inhuman as millions of people loved Hitler and thought what he was doing was brilliant. Through diaries like these we now know that this is absurd and racist as they share first hand experiences along with emotions and thoughts.

Diaries are very significant and should be treasured because sooner rather than later there will be no actual first hand victims alive to retell their stories. The horror of the war should never be forgotten and should stand as an example of something that should never be repeated again. Diaries offer a unique perspective on the events of the Holocaust as they convey the chaos and confusion of the time and the lack of reliable information. Both these diaries will be read and remembered eternally as they play a huge roll in showcasing a dark reality which happened in our history.