September 29, 2007

Anne Frank

She touched one of the deepest corners of my heart. I first heard about Anne Frank – The diary of a young girl’, more than a decade and a half ago and have ever since wanted to read this book, but for some reason or the other could not lay my hands on it. Finally I bought the book last February and was really excited about it and the next day I find out that I was expecting my baby. I was banned from reading anything that will make me even remotely sad. So it was another long wait and finally I read it these past days and it sure is one of the books that will leave a mark on me.

First of all I felt for the suffering she had to go through, but most of all I admired the way she handled it. I am amazed how a mere teenager that she was, adapted to the life changing events in her life. If I have taken something from this book, it’s the hope in life, the ability to live the best that you can in a given situation. For those of you who have not read this book and would like to read it, I do not want to give away too much. The book is a diary of a young Jewish girl who went into hiding with her family during the Holocaust in 1942. The book talks about her entire world in the small hiding place for 25 months. She writes about her day to day experiences, her innermost feelings and her hopes and fears for the future. This book is a must read!

While we are on this subject, I must mention that we visited the Holocaust museum in DC earlier this month. All I can say is anything visual has a deeper impact. We entered the museum only about half an hour before its closing time and so could not see everything. Children say it best, as what they say is straight from their heart, nothing more or nothing less. ‘Remember the Children – Daniel’s story’ is one exhibition in this museum which I will never forget.

Again while we are on this subject, if any of you have not watched the movie Life is Beautiful’, I recommend you to do so as soon as you get a chance.

There are many descriptions of the Holocaust in print, picture and video, all of them make you realize what the victims went through. But seeing it through the victim’s eyes is a whole other experience!

2 comments:

Shruthi said...

Yup.. one of my all-time favourite books! As for Life is Beautiful... sobbed through it.. lovely.

Harsha said...

I remember reading about her in Readers Digest. Also in my Primary school, I remember reading a lesson about her.

Life is Beautiful, is the touching movie.

Also, there is one more awesome movie - "The Pianist". Do not miss it too..