Exclusive Book & Movie Reviews: Anne Frank's World Anne Frank in the World: 1929-1945, compiled by the Anne Frank House, Random House; 2001; $20.99
by Alden Oreck
In Anne Frank in the World: 1929-1945, the Anne Frank House has produced a compendium of photographs telling her heroic story. This unique work, designed for younger audiences (grades 7 and up), puts pictures to the life of perhaps the most famous Holocaust victim. Although Anne Frank perished at age 15 in 1945 in a Nazi concentration camp, her memory, her short and tragic life, remain with us through her legendary diary and the photographs of this book which not only capture proud family portraits of the Franks, but also more somber scenes of the rise of Nazism and its terrible effects.
By looking at the photographs, Anne appeared to have a happy childhood, with scenes of her on the beach and playing with friends. However, darkness lingered on the horizon. In 1933, Hitler became absolute ruler of Germany and began instituting oppressive measures against Jews. Anne Frank in the World: 1929-1945 shows pictures of burning synagogues, Jewish shopkeepers sweeping up after Kristallnacht and Jewish World War One veterans proudly display their war medals as they face discrimination amid signs and posters of anti-Jewish propaganda.
Anne Frank in the World: 1929-1945 gives haunting scenes of Nazis rounding up and deporting Jews, sending them to concentration camps. In 1942, Anne Frank and her family hid in what they called the Secret Annex in Amsterdam, until their discovery by an SS agent in 1944. The Nazis split up the Frank family, sending Anne and her sister Margot to disease ridden Bergen-Belsen, where, tragically, they both died within a year.
Anne Frank in the World: 1929-1945 tells the unforgettable story of Anne Frank and the events surrounding her life through more than 225 photographs revealing what she saw as a young woman growing up in the 1930s and 40s in Europe amidst Nazism. The book concludes with daunting pictures of contemporary hate organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and other hate groups, reminding us that intolerance still plagues us.