Introduction: From the Diary of Anne Frank - Class 10 PDF Download

Anne Frank – A Short Biography

About the Authoress

Anne Frank (12 June 1929—February/March 1945) was a German Jew. The twelve-year-old Jewish girl wrote ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ while in hiding with her family and four friends in Amsterdam during the Nazis’ occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. After two years in hiding the group was betrayed and transported to a concentration camp in Bergen where Anne and her elder sister Margot died of typhus in 1945. Her father, Otto, the only survivor of the group found her diary and got it published in English under  the name ‘The Diary of a Young Girl

INTRODUCTION

Anne Frank was a young Jewish girl. She lived with her parents in Germany. But Hitler’s Nazi Party was against the Jews. The Nazis were killing the Jews or forcing them to work in the concentration camps. The Frank family fled from Germany in 1933 and took shelters in the Netherlands. But in 1940, Germany attacked the Netherlands and captured it. Now the Nazis started arresting the Jews and sending them to the concentration camps. The Frank family went into hiding. They lived secretly in the upper floors of their business premises. They hid there for 25 months. Their non-Jewish friends gave them food.
Anne had started writing her diary before going into hiding. In August 1944, the Germans came to know of their hiding. They were arrested and sent to Germany. Anne, her sister, Margot and her mother soon died in a concentration camp. Her father survived and published part of Anne’s diary. In this diary, Anne gives a moving and tragic account of the difficulties faced by her family and the other Jews.
The part of the diary reproduced in this chapter is about the days when Anne was a schoolgirl and she and her family had not yet moved to the secret quarters.

The theme of the Story

`The Diary of Anne Frank’ and the given extract is one of the most authentic works describing the atrocities committed on the Jews during the Nazi’s occupation of the Netherlands in the 1940s. It also provides an intimate account of daily life that her small groups led in hiding in Amsterdam. Her frankness, honesty and sincerity of description of her parents, friends and teachers make her writing the most important document of the Holocaust period.

Word-Meanings

Musings = thoughts (विचार); depressed = sad (उदास), brooding = thinking (सोचना) ;probably = perhaps (शायद); prompted = encouraged (प्रोत्साहित किया). on the surface = apparently (बाहरी रूप से); fault = mistake (दोष), enhance = increase (बढ़ाना); jot down =write (लिखना)
Plunge = start (आरंभ करना); adorable = losing (प्रिय), emigrated = immigrated (विदेश जाना) ;plunked down = placed on (रखना); farewell = adieu (अलविदा); celebration = festivity (उत्सव);grandma=grandmother(दादी,नानी); solemn = serious (गंभीर); dedication = dedication (समर्पण)
Quaking in its books = full of fear (डरना); forthcoming = imminent (आने वाला); Silly = foolish (मूर्ख); pleading = lull of request (प्रार्थना करना); dummies = fools (मूर्ख); quarter = one-fourth (एक -चौथाई) ;unpredictable = that which cannot be guessed about (जिसके बारे में अनुमान न लग सके ) ; Rose heart = a feel discouraged (निरुत्साहित होना)  get along = deal with (व्यवहार करना); annoyed =angry (नाराज);  several= many (बहुत सारे) ; convincing = reasonable (तर्कसंगत); assigned = gave. crammed (सौंपना)
Inherited = got from family (विरासत में मिलना); trait = feature (गुण); chatterbox = talkative (बातूनी); roared = laughed loudly (जोर –से -हँसना); exhausted = finished (समाप्त करना); ingenuity= skill (कुशलता); proceeded = continued (जारी रहना); incorrigible = the one who cannot be improved (जो न सुधरे); ridiculous = mocking (हास्यास्पद); duck = a water bird (बत्तख); swan = a bird (हंस); ducklings = young ones of a duck (बत्तख का बच्चा); quack = sound of a duck (बत्तख की आवाज़); on the contrary = on the other hand (इसके विपरीत)