Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
ADRIA VITALYA GEMILANG Student Number: 024214044
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
i
CRITICISM TO NAZISM AS SEEN IN FRANK’S THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL: ANNE FRANK
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
ADRIA VITALYA GEMILANG Student Number: 024214044
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
iv
Wherever you go, go with all your heart
v
vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to thank God for all His love and blessings. My whole
life experiences happen because of Him.
I would also like to thank Dewi Widyastuti, S.Pd., M.Hum for patiently
giving me advice during the completion of this thesis. I thank her very much for
reminding me to be careful in writing. I would also thank to Paulus Sarwoto, S.S.,
M.A for being my co-advisor. I really appreciate his suggestion because it has
improved my thesis.
I would like to thank my parents and my brother for their continuous support
and praying. I would like to say thank to Arix, Yuni, Elka, Wedha, Bagoes, Advent
for always reminding me to finish my study when I far away from college. I would
also like to say thank to Ria, Ajeng, Nina, Dyah, Shella, Ivce, Dimas, David, Danang,
Stefa, Wawan, Sigit, Bang Leo and all my friends in English Letters 2002 for being
my best friends since I study at Sanata Dharma University. I thank them for their
friendship and I hope we will always be friend. I want to give special thank to Cepta
for his love and support. He makes me learns the meaning of being patience and
calm. I also want to thank all secretariat members for their information and help
during my study.
Last but not least, I would like to thank everyone whose names are not
mentioned here, who has helped me finish this thesis. May God bless them all.
vii
1. Theory of Character and Characterizations ….….……… 10
2. Theory of Setting….. …...………... 11
3. The Relation between Literature and Society .…..……… 12
4. Theory of Nazism ………..……….. 13
C. Review on History of Nazi Occupation… ………. 15
1. The Suffering of the Jews before and during the Nazi Occupation 15
2. Netherlands under the Nazi Occupation in 1942-1944………….. 18
B. Frank’s Criticism toward Nazism as Seen from the Lives of the Characters ………. …. 38
1. The Discrimination ………... 40
viii
3. The Hunger ……….... 46
4. The Chaos ………. 48
5. The Mass Killing ………... 51
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION ………...……….. 55
BIBLIOGRAPHY ………. 58
APPENDIX ……… ……….. 60
ix ABSTRACT
ADRIA VITALYA GEMILANG (2007). Criticism to Nazism as Seen in Frank’s The Diary of A Young Girl: Anne Frank. Yogyakarta: Departement of English Letter, Faculty of Letter, Sanata Dharma University.
This thesis is analyzing a diary by Anne Frank. It tells the readers about the lives of the Jews during the Nazi occupation. The diary describes the experiences of the Jews in order to survive during Nazism. It tells how the Jews are discriminated and suffered by Nazism. Anne Frank describes their everyday life vividly and in honest way which brings the readers to understand their experiences without experience it.
There are two objectives to guide the analysis. The first objective is to find out the lives of the Jews who live under the Nazi regime, in this case, the characters in the diary. The second objective is to identify Frank’s criticism toward Nazism as seen from the lives of the characters.
In order to accomplish the objectives, the library research is used since many data and theories are collected from some books. In order to analyze the problems, the writer employs the sociocultural-historical approach. It is used to analyze the history of the Jews under the Nazi occupation, the relation to the diary, and to identify criticism toward Nazism.
x ABSTRAK
ADRIA VITALYA GEMILANG (2007). Criticism to Nazism as Seen in Frank’s The Diary of A Young Girl: Anne Frank. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Skripsi ini menganalisis sebuah buku harian yang ditulis oleh Anne Frank. Buku harian ini bercerita tentang kehidupan Yahudi saat penjajahan Nazi. Buku harian ini menggambarkan pengalaman-pengalaman orang Yahudi dalam mempertahankan hidup selama Nazi berkuasa. Buku harian tersebut menceritakan bagaimana Yahudi terdiskriminasi dan menderita karena paham Nazi. Anne Frank menggambarkan keseharian hidup mereka secara jelas dan jujur yang dapat membuat pembaca memahami pengalaman-pengalaman mereka tanpa mengalaminya.
Terdapat dua tujuan untuk memandu analisis. Tujuan pertama adalah untuk mengetahui kehidupan Yahudi yang hidup dibawah kekuasaan rezim Nazi, dalam kasus ini, tokoh-tokoh dalam buku harian. Tujuan kedua adalah untuk mengidentifikasikan kritik Frank terhadap paham Nazi seperti yang terlihat dari kehidupan tokoh-tokohnya.
Untuk mencapai tujuan dari analisis, metode kepustakaan digunakan karena banyak data dan teori didapat dari berbagai buku. Untuk menganalisa masalah, penulis menerapkan pendekatan sejarah sosial budaya. Pendekatan tersebut digunakan untuk menganalisa sejarah bangsa Yahudi saat penjajahan Nazi, hubungannya dengan buku harian, dan untuk mengidentifikasi kritik terhadap paham Nazi.
1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
History has a function to awaken human about the process of revolution and
society development in time dimension, which is to build perspective and historical
consciousness in discovering the past, the present, and the future. History has
recorded many events since the civilization began, from bad events to the good one.
According to Hudson, as stated in An Introduction to the Study of Literature,
literature is a vital record of what men have seen in life, what they have experienced,
what they have thought and felt about those aspects of it which have the most
immediate and permanent interest for all of us (1958: 10). Thus, we can understand
the history of certain time by reading literature, understanding the experience of
certain people without experience it.
Since the beginning of history, men have fought against other men. Any
struggle in which two large groups try to destroy or conquer each other is a war. War
has been going on somewhere in the world nearly all the time. One of the wars which
will never be forgotten is the Second World War. It killed more persons, cost more
money, damaged more property, affected more people, and probably caused more
changes than any other wars in history. The war began when Germany attacked
Poland on September 1, 1939. Under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, they attacked
people, who later called themselves as Nazis, believed that they were the super-men.
They were destined to rule the world. According to them, one of the obstacles which
prevent them from ruling the world was the Jews. To exterminate the Jews, they
conduct a massive killing for Jews which later people know as Holocaust. They found
that Holocaust was more effective and efficient to do rather than to selecting the
people which not related to Jews (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Holocaust#Etymology). The Holocaust resulted in the death of more than five million
Jews. Adolf Hitler as the Fuehrer succeeded conquering most of Europe nearly 5
years on his 12 years of dictatorship. After the fall of the Fuehrer, history has
recorded many version of the Second World War; one of them is a diary which was
written by a girl name Anne Frank.
Anne Frank was a young Jewish girl whose diary records the two years that
her family spent in hiding to escape for the persecution of the German Nazis
(Webster, 1995: 432). Their family lived at Germany before staying at the
Netherlands. After Hitler won the election to be the Fuehrer, the political condition
threat their life, they moved to Amsterdam where Otto Frank received an offer to start
company. In there they found peace until the Germany invaded the Netherlands on
May 1940. The discrimination started, and the political policy of the Nazis forced his
two daughters transferred from their first school to the Jewish Lyceum
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Frank).
The reason why the diary is published, simply because Anne Frank heard a
3
said that when the war ended, he would create a public record of the Dutch people’s
oppression under German occupation. Anne started editing her writing, creating
pseudonyms for the members of the house hold and the helpers in the hiding place
(Frank, 1952: 205).
In the beginning she wrote the diary, it is just typical writing of a schoolgirl.
She describes herself, her family, her friend, her school life, boys she flirted with and
her favorite places. However, after the German have undertaken the Netherlands, her
diary described more closely on the relationship with the people who lived in the
hiding place, the ‘Secret Annex’, translated from Het Achterhuis. The Secret Annex
was a three-story space at the rear of the building that was entered from a landing
above her father’s office, the Opekta office. The Secret Annex was inhabited by eight
people. The situation in the Secret Annex grew tenser when eight people forced to
live under the same roof without any privacy and under the Nazi oppression. Reading
from her diary, the reader will know the hard times they should maintain in order to
live. Knowing how it feels to live as Jews under the Nazi regime.
Before the publication of the diary, Jan Romein wrote an article about the
diary, he mentioned that the diary stammered out in a child’s voice, embodies all the
hideousness of fascism, more so than all the evidence at Nuremberg put together. The
article attracted attention from publisher. After the publication of the diary in 1947,
many responses arise. One of the responses was a play based upon the diary, by
Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett premiered in New York City on October 5,
diary grew. Ilya Ehrenburg, a Soviet writer, commented on the diary; said one voice
speaks for six million, the voice not of a sage or a poet but of an ordinary little girl.
Nelson Mandela, after receiving a humanitarian award from the Anne Frank
Foundation in 1994, said that he likened her struggle against Nazism to his struggle
against Apartheid. He also said that these beliefs (Nazism and Apartheid) are patently
false, and because they were, and will always be challenged by the likes of Anne
Frank, they are bound to fail (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Frank).
Based on the statements above, the topic “Criticism to Nazism” is chosen. It is
worth discussing because from the topic, the reader will understand how the Nazis
treated the Jews, how they exploited and killed the Jews. Understanding how they try
to survive, understanding their experience without experiencing it, and also to awaken
our conscience about how single ambitious purpose to conquer the world could
destroy almost the entire race. Therefore, this study will further discuss about the life
of the Jews, in this case the characters in the diary and also Frank’s criticism toward
Nazism.
B. Problem Formulation
1. How are the lives of the characters depicted in Frank’s The Diary of a Young
Girl: Anne Frank as the effect of the Nazism?
2. What is Frank’s criticism toward Nazism in The Diary of a Young Girl:
5
C. Objectives of the Study
This thesis has two objectives. The first objective is to find out the lives of the
Jews who live under the Nazis’ regime, in this case, the characters in the diary.
Therefore, the study will be firstly focus on understanding the characters’ lives in the
diary. The findings of the first objective will help the writer to answer the second
objective, to identify Frank’s criticism toward Nazism as seen from the lives of the
characters.
D. Definition of Terms 1. Nazism
According to Nault in The World Book of Encyclopedia (1971: 382), Nazism
was the political and social doctrine of the German dictator Adolf Hitler and his
followers. Hitler and the Nazis ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945. Nazi stands for the
first word in the German name for the national Socialist German Workers’ Party
(Nationalsozialistiche Deutsche Arbeiterpartei).
Nazism was part of the dictatorial political movement called fascism. The
Nazi were extreme nationalists who believed in the superiority of the Germans and
other members of the so-called “Aryan Race”. In 1939, the Nazi government started
World War II by attacking Poland. It soon conquered most of Europe. Great Britain,
Russia, and the United States fought against the Nazis and finally defeated them.
2. Character and Characterization
According to Holman and Harmon (1986: 81), character is a brief descriptive
sketch of a personage who typifies some defines quality. The person is described not
as an individualized personality but as an example of some voice or virtue or type,
such as a busy body, a glutton, a fop, a bumpkin, a garrulous man, a happy milkmaid.
In the biography and the history, the author presents the characters of actual
persons. The creation of these imaginary persons so that they exists for the reader as
lifelike is called characterization (Holman and Harmon, 1986: 81).
3. Diary
According to Merriam-Webster in Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary
(1993: 320), diary is a record of events, transaction, or observations kept daily or at
frequent intervals; especially a daily record of personal activities, reflections, or
feelings. Written primarily for the writer’s use alone, the diary usually offers a
frankness not found in writing done for publication.
4. SS
According to Nault in The World Book of Encyclopedia (1971: 238), SS or
Schutzstaffel is the second private army, also known as the elite guard of Adolf
Hitler. Unlike the others armies at Nazi, the SS was a battle-ready army. Julius
Schresk formed SS in 1925 and last until 1945 after Germany lost in the Second
7 CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
The Diary of a Young Girl: Anne Frank tells us a lot about the daily life Jewish in
the Netherlands under the Nazis occupation. The diary since its publication has arisen
many criticism and responses. Eleanor Roosevelt writes in the introduction pages
from first American edition described the diary as “one of the wisest and most
moving commentaries on war and its impact on human beings that I have ever read”.
The biographer of Anne Frank said that she wrote “in a precise, confident,
economical style stunning in its honesty”. In June 1999, Time Magazine published a
special edition entitled TIME 100: Heroes & Icons of the 20th Century. This is a list
of the 20th century’s hundred most influential politicians, artist, innovators, scientists
and icons. Anne Frank was selected as one of the heroes and icons. The writer Roger
Rosenblatt, author of Children of War, wrote Anne Frank’s entry. In the article, he
describes her legacy:
The passions of the book ignites suggest that everyone owns Anne Frank, that she has risen above the Holocaust, Judaism, girlhood and even goodness and become a totemic figure of the modern world- the moral individual mind beset by the machinery of destruction, insisting on the right to live and question and hope for the future of human beings (1999: 32).
Sosnowski, the writer of The Tragedy of Children under Nazi Rule (1962: 167)
mentioned that the diary gives evidence of the immense burden of grim wartime
Webster (1995: 432) that the diary is precious in style and insight, and traces Anne
Frank have emotional growth amid adversity.
Besides all the praise for Anne Frank and the diary, like many other widely
discussed books, it also raises many negative criticisms since its publication. In the
mid 1970s Holocaust denier David Irving has been consistent in his assertion that the
diary is not genuine. In 1959, Otto Frank took a legal action in Lubeck against Lothar
Stielau, a school teacher and former Hitler Youth member who published a school
paper that described the diary as a forgery. The court examined the diary, and in 1960
found it to be genuine. In 1991, Robert Faurisson and Siegfried Verbeke produced a
booklet titled, The Diary of Anne Frank: A Critical Approach. It claimed that Otto
Frank wrote the diary based on assertions that the diary contained several
contradictions, that hiding in Actherhuis would have been impossible and also the
style of handwriting of Anne Frank were not the style of teenager
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Frank).
In 2000, a book was published by Hyman A. Enzer and Sandra Solotaroff
entitled Review of Anne Frank: Reflections on her Life and Legacy. The book is
arranged from thirty-one essays contain the following categories: history, biography,
authenticity, writer and rewriter, Anne Frank on stage and screen, memorializing the
Holocaust. All of the essays have been published and some have been abridged for
this collection. The life and writings of Anne Frank has inspired a diverse group of
artist and social commentators to refer to her in literature, popular music, television,
9
Based on the essays, there are two major points that can be drawn, the diary is
genuine and it becomes one of the symbols of the Holocaust. The writer agrees with
the points, and it becomes one of the reasons for choosing the topic for this thesis.
Besides, of those facts, the spirit of Anne Frank and her dreams inspires people who
read it. She never let herself dragged down by the condition in her surroundings.
According to the epilog in the Indonesian language version, it stated only three days
after Anne’s last entries, on August 4, 1944, the SS manage to discover their presence
in the Secret Annexe. Most of the inhabitants died in the concentration camp. Margot
and Anne Frank died only a few months before the Allies liberated the concentration
camp in Auschwitz. Otto Frank is the only person who managed to survive and then
decided to publish the diary (2003: 414). The publicity of the diary makes her words
in her diary become real. In her entries at April 4, 1944, she wrote that she want to go
on living after death, and her wish is becoming true by the publicity of the diary.
The diary becomes one of the significant documents of the Second World War
and contains critics toward the Nazis. To understand more thoroughly about their
experience and to reveal Anne Frank criticism to the Nazism, the writer will analyze
the lives of the characters in the diary. From understanding their lives, the writer can
understand how the live of Jews under the Nazis regime. Thus, it would reveal the
B. Review of Related Theories
1. Theory of Character and Characterization
Abrams in A Glossary Literary Terms (1981: 20) says that character can be
divided based on the importance. He categorizes characters into major character and
minor character. Major character can be called a central character. It is a character
that is relevant to every event in the story and usually the events cause some changes
either in him or in our attitude toward him. Meanwhile minor characters are
characters who appear in certain setting, and they are necessary to become the
background for the major characters. Their roles are less important than the major
character because they are not fully developed characters and their functions in a
story are only to support the development of the major characters.
Perrine (1974: 68) states that the characterization must also consider three
principles.
1. The character must be consistent in their behavior.
2. The character must be clearly motivated in whatever they do, especially when
there are many changes in their behavior.
3. They must be lifelike or plausible. They must be neither paragons of virtue nor
11
According to Abrams (1981: 21), characterization could be presented in two
ways.
1. Showing (also called the dramatic method), the author merely presents his
characters talking and acting and leaves the reader to infer what motives and
disposition lay behind what they say and do.
2. Telling, the author himself intervenes authoritative in order to describe, and often
to evaluate, the motives and dispositional qualities of his characters.
2. Theory of Setting
According to Holman and Harmon (1986: 465), there are four elements
making up a setting. They are:
1. The actual geographical location, its topography, scenery, and such physical
arrangements as the location of the windows and doors in a room.
2. The occupation and daily manner of living of the character.
3. The time or period in which the action takes place.
4. The general environment of the characters, for example, religious, mental, moral,
social and emotional conditions through which the people in the narrative move.
Setting according to Abrams (1981: 175), can be noticed in a limited sense
and in large sense. Setting seen in a limited sense means that the setting refers to the
general place, a particular physical location where the story occurs, and the historical
time showing when the story take place. In a large sense, the setting refers to the
characters live. Van De Laar and Schoonderwoed (1963: 172) say that the action of
the characters in the novel needs place and time as we do in real life. The settings
make the action full of varieties and support the action. Murphy (1972: 141) state that
setting has great effect upon the characters’ personalities, actions, and way of
thinking.
According to Stanton (1965: 18-19), setting is the background of the actions,
the real world where the characters occur. He states that setting can be the real
background; in this case place, can be the time of day or year, or it also can be the
climate on the historical period. Commonly, many literary works give their setting in
a descriptive passage, and this makes some readers have difficulties to understand it,
but it will be clearer and more specific in the second reading. In many stories, the
setting produces a definite emotional tone or mood that surrounds the characters; the
actual geographical location, its topography, scenery, and such.
3. The Relation between Literature and Society
According to Rene Wellek and Austen Warren (1965: 94) in their book
Theory of Literature, literature is a social creation that employs language as its
medium. Literature represents life or social reality. The most common approach to
the relation of literature and society is the study of works of literature as social
document and pictures of social reality. Literature as social document and pictures of
social reality has ability to record the features of society (1965: 95). The society in
13
conventions, beliefs and values, their legal institutions, religious and cultural, and
their physical environment (Langland, 1984: 6).
There are three classifications that can underline the relation between
literature and society. First, there is the sociology of the writer and the profession,
institution of literature, the whole question of the economic basis of literary
production, the social provenance and status of the writer, his social ideology, which
may find expression in extra-literary pronouncement and activities. Second, there is
the problem of the social content, the implications and social purpose of the work of
literature it selves. Lastly, there are the problems of the audience and actual social
influence of literature (Wellek and Warren, 1956: 95-96). The three classifications are
the concepts to question how far literature relates to society.
From the statement above, it could be stated that literature is a medium to
learn certain custom or tradition at a certain place or certain time. Also a source of
history for modern readers who interested in foreign society as a result from reading a
literary work such as drama, novel, short story, and poetry (Wellek and Warren,
1956: 102-104).
4. Theory of Nazism
Nazism believes that Germans, the Aryan, are the creator of the modern
civilization. Thus, they are superiors. Basically, Nazism is just another form of
Fascism. Fascism is a form of government which centers all power in a single party.
purity of a nation, so a plurality will look like treason. Some other countries, or some
other groups within the country, are usually picked out to serve as the enemy and
made to appear as the cause of all misfortunes. Hitler is a fascist. After their defeat in
the First World War, Germany suffers a great lost and humiliation from the winning
country. Germany must pay for the damage caused by the war. The consequence is
hyper-inflation which then resulted in poverty and unemployed people. After the
Weimar Republic failed to prevail over the crisis, in the late 1933 Hitler built the
most powerful and destructive regime in the history of modern world, the Nazi
(Nault,1971: 53).
According to Hugh Purcell (2004: 39), the blue print of the Nazism is an
autobiography and Hitler’s political statement, Mein Kampf. Hitler wrote the book
when he was in Landsberg jail after his unsuccessful attempt to revolt for the Weimar
Republic. In the Mein Kampf, Hitler directed the fear and the hatred to the Jews. Also,
he stated his beliefs and his ideas for Germany’s future, including his plan to conquer
much of Europe. Hitler wrote that the Germans were the highest species of humanity
on earth. They would stay pure by avoiding marriage to Jews and Slavs. Hitler
blamed the Jews for all evils of the world. (Nault, 1971: 238)
Hitler made the Germans believe that the Jews are corruptor and communist
who make them suffer. In short, the Jews are the cause of all their suffering. Nazism
also believes that to built their union of all Germans in a Greater Germany, they must
15
C. Review on History of Nazi Occupation
1. The Suffering of the Jews before and during the Nazi Occupation
Actually, the Jews are an evicted nation and forced to survive. According to
Nault in The World Book of Encyclopedia (1971: 101-102) in A.D. 70 the Roman
captured Jerusalem and from then until the State of Israel was established in 1948, the
Jews had no independent state. After the Romans destroyed their homeland, the Jews
moved to all parts of the Roman Empire. Later, many of them moved into France and
Germany, then to England, central Europe, Poland, and Russia.
The Jews in Europe suffered hundreds of years of persecution and
discrimination. During the late 1400’s in Spain, the Jews were persecuted and then in
1492, they were expelled from Spain. A number of Jews became Christians in order
to remain in their homes. Many of them continued to practice Judaism secretly.
Nevertheless, most Jews moved to other parts of the world, such as the Netherlands
where they found haven. By the mid 1800s, many countries had accepted the Jews as
free and equal citizens. The Jews also began to make valuable contributions to the
cultures of the countries in which they lived (Nault, 1971: 101-102).
According to Nault (1971: 511), during the 1930s, Hitler and the Nazis made
the anti- Semitism as an important part of their program. The Second World War
became the mass killing for the Jews. Anti-Semitism is a set of negative and
sometimes hostile beliefs and prejudices regarding Jews. The term is inaccurate,
because the word “Semites” properly refers to persons who speak Semitic language,
distrust based on religions differences. It has lasted for hundreds of years, and has
resulted in many forms of persecution, including the “pogroms” of Eastern Europe
and Nazi Germany’s massive extermination of Jews during the Second World War.
Anti-Semitism has also led to segregated living arrangements, called Ghettos, in
many European cities. They exist in a less obvious form in many American cities. It
is generally held that certain schools, clubs, and employers discriminate against the
Jews. Government and private organizations have tried to correct alleged abuses.
However, this is different, because many form of anti-Semitism are subtle.
According to Johnson in A History of the Jews, in order to reach his ambition
for the Great Germany, Hitler used Anti Semitism as the part of his propaganda.
According to him, to achieve a purpose need a good motivation. Just as stated in his
book, Mein Kampf, he blamed the Jews for the difficulties and evils existed in
German. He accused them for their conspiracy throughout the world.
After he found his way for his ambition to build the Great Germany, he made
a program to gradually destroy Jewish culture and eventually eliminate all trace of the
Jews themselves. He creates the Holocaust. According to Johnson in A History of the
Jews, the Holocaust program is a program that has an aim to discriminate, exploite
and then eventually kill the Jews. The first step swept happened on October 2, 1940.
Hitler started the forced labor program. The lack of manpower in Germany made the
occupied countries sources of slave labor. One of the countries was the Netherlands.
Around a quarter of a million were recruited from this country. This was the first part
17
enslaved from dawn until dusk, seven days a weeks, dressed in rags and fed on bread,
watery soup, potatoes and sometimes meat scraps. There is no doubt at all that forced
labor was a form of murder and regarded as such by the Nazis, they called it
‘destruction through work’. Yet, starving and working the Jews to death was not
quick enough for Hitler. He determined to do the mass killing. He established the
concentration camps. The concentration camps were the fixed centers of the mobile
killing unit. There were 1,634 concentration camps, their satellites, and more than
900 labor camps. Enormous numbers of Jews died there, by starvation and overwork,
or by execution for trivial offences or often no reason at all. These camps were
deliberately planned or extended for mass slaughter on an industrial scale. In these
camps, there were gas chambers. The gas chamber was called a shower room, and the
victims, taken in groups of twenty or thirty, were told they were to have a shower.
They were sealed in, and then the doctor on duty gassed them.
Johnson in A History of the Jews also stated that there are characteristic of the
Holocaust program: SS involvement, euphemism, deception. After Hitler succeeds to
do the Holocaust program in German, he planned to internationalization. The killing
of large numbers of Jews continued throughout Europe. He regarded the war as his
license for Holocaust. No Jews was too young to die. All women arriving at the death
camps were shaved to the skin, the hair being packed up and sent to Germany. If a
breast-fed baby was a nuisance during the shaving, a guard simply smashed its head
Auschwitz was one of the most infamous Nazi concentration camps during
the Second World War. It was opened in June 1940, in the town of Auschwitz in
Poland, about 30 miles from Krakow. In June 1941, it became an extermination
center when four huge gas chambers were installed. Rudolf Hess, who directed the
camp for more than three years, testified at the Nuremberg trials that more than 2,5
million persons were executed at Auschwitz and 500,000 starved to death. Most of
the victims were Jews from German’s controlled countries (Nault, 1971: 868).
2. The Netherlands under the Nazi Occupation in 1942-1944
The Netherlands had maintained her freedom during the First World War,
while many of their neighbors fell to the Germans during the war. When it comes to
the era of the Second World War, they remain neutral as what they did in the First
World War which made them survive. However, their neutral position did not prevent
them from being occupied by the Nazi German. On May 10, 1940, German troops
invaded the Netherlands and brought war, which became the beginning of German
occupation of the Netherlands. The Netherlands fell to the Germans after only five
days of fighting (Ojong, 2003: 19).
According to Woolf in http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/netherlands.html,at
that time, approximately 140,000 Jews resided in the Netherlands. By the time of the
war ended, the Nazis had deported 107,000 Jews out of the Netherlands. Only 5000
survived to return home following the war and 30,000 managed to survive in hiding.
19
represents the largest percentage of Jews which killed from a particular country with
the exception of Poland. There are several factors that made the Netherlands severe a
lot of life loss. Seeing from its geographical factor, the geography of the Netherlands
provided no place to run and a few place to hide. First, countries bordering on the
Netherlands were under the German’s control. Second, the west and North borders of
the Netherlands consist of North Sea coastline. Safe passage through German
patrolled waters was highly dangerous. Seeing from its culture, the Netherlands’
society was stratified largely based on religion. It is uncommon that Jews have close
relationship with the Christians. Thus, it made the Jews difficult to find a place to
hide. Sixty thousand Jews were deported to Auschwitz, only 972 survived.
Thirty-four thousand Jews were deported to Sorbibor, only 2 lived to return to the
Netherlands. There was a reason how the Dutch themselves remain survived and only
the Jews who were killed and exploited. Hitler considered the Dutch to be superior
Germanic breeding. As a result, the Dutch people could be certified as almost 100%
Aryan. Hitler’s purpose was to make the Netherlands a part of Germany following the
war. In 1943, mass strike broke out in response to deportations and conscription of
Dutch labor into Germany. Then in 1944, the railroad workers strike, and it was
supported by a secret underground organization that provides food and money for
those in hiding.
According to Sosnowski in The Tragedy of Children Under Nazi Rule (1962:
106), during the Nazis occupation in the Netherlands, the Nazis also declared food
Germans’ food supply. The German food supply policy in the occupied territories
was also a mean to exterminate the occupied nations. At a briefing of Reich
Commissioners in the occupied territories, in 1942, Goering said that he would not
care if people in the occupied nations were dying of hunger as long as not one single
German starved. Goering specially referred to the Netherlands that it was not the
Germans’ task to feed a nation which internally alienated itself from the Nazis. The
word ‘to feed’ sounded as the German was feeding the occupied countries with their
sources, whereas actually the German was being feed by their occupied nations. The
policy systematically plundered all food resources of these countries, which made it
difficult for them to feed their own population. The Nazis also arranged the food
rations for the occupied countries. In the Netherlands, the Nazis applied exact
measures of all the basic nutrient content of food rations. The measures such as, the
children and pregnant women would receive different amount of vitamins from the
others, and there were different amount of supplies for winter and spring.
Many believed that the war would end soon. Unfortunately, the Nazis
occupation lasted for five years with devastating consequence for all of the
Netherlands including the Hunger Winter of 1945
(http//www.webster.edu/~woolflm/Netherlands.html).
The following chronology of events shows how the German occupation
government imposed its will upon the Jews population of the Netherlands. In May
21
year, the discrimination toward the Jews started. It involved economic, politic and the
most their nationality. The following years, 1941, the Nazis declared a new rule.
There would be punishment for the Jews who broke the rule. The punishment was 5
years in prison or confiscation of property or both. There was also a ghetto in
Amsterdam established after an incident that involved an attack on old Jewish quarter
by groups of Dutch Nazi sympathizers. On March, the discrimination toward Jews
developed into alienation. Jews can no longer travel without a special permit from
The Jewish Council, cannot participate in the stock exchange, cannot hold cultural
posts, or enter public parks. The public places include the public and vocational
schools. The Jewish children must study at Jews’ schools. In this year, the Nazis
stripped all Jews’ civil rights. Then it had gotten worse on 1942, the Nazis not only
stripped their civil rights, they also stripped their human rights, and eventually the
Jews must work as forced labor (http://www.humboldt.edu/~rescuers/book/Strobos/
Conditions. Holland.html).
In the educational policies, the Nazis applied different policy for each of their
occupied countries. In the West, the Nazis principally permitted education at all
levels. The situation in Poland, the Netherlands, and the other East European
countries was quite different. All academic schools were closed and secondary
education was restricted to certain categories only. A great number of school
buildings were requisitioned by Nazis. The University of Leyden was closed
countries, textbooks were revised. The principle applied here held that knowledge
was potentially dangerous and that it should consequently be reduced to the
minimum. To sum up, the Nazis’ educational plans were purely destructive in
character, especially in the occupied territories of central and eastern Europe. Their
aim quite simply was to reduce these nations to the level of primitive tribes
(Sosnowski, 1962: 153-154).
The Holocaust began with the establishment of two concentration camps in
Holland, Westerbork and Vught, from which Jews are shipped to other camps,
primarily Auschwitz on July, 1942. Finally on May 1945, Holland was liberated by
the Canadian army (http://www.humboldt.edu/~rescuers/book/Strobos/ Conditions.
Holland.html).
D. Theoretical Framework
To answer the problems which are formulated in the problem formulation,
several theories are needed, such as theory of character and characterization, setting,
relation between literature and society, and also theory of Nazism.
The theory of character and characterization is needed to discuss the lives of
the characters in the diary. With the theory, the writer will be able to describe the
lives of Jews, in this case the characters in the diary. To make the study more
relevant, the theory of setting is also needed. The theory is used because the
23
regime. Then, the answers will be significant to find out about the effect of Nazism
toward the Jews.
To discuss the topic further, the writer needs information about the Nazi itself.
Thus the theory of Nazism and the review of histories, which are the history of the
Jews and the Netherlands under the Nazi occupation, will be applied to understand
about the system applied by the Nazis which later causes a lot of suffering for human
race, especially the Jews.
In discussing the diary as a means to criticize Nazism, the explanation about
the relation between literature and society is elaborate to give deeper understanding
how the diary reflected the real condition at that time, as the record of actual event. It
is relevant to the function of the literature itself, as a medium to reveal the criticism of
24 CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
This thesis discusses a diary written by Anne Frank under the Nazis
occupation in the Netherlands. It was written during the Second World War; she
started writing the diary on Sunday, 14 June, 1942 and ended a few days before she
was captured by the Nazis on Tuesday, 1 August, 1944. It was first published in 1947
under the title Het Achterhuis, then in 1986; the Netherlands State Institute for War
Documentation in Amsterdam published the critical edition of the diary. It includes
comparison from all known versions, both edited and unedited. It also includes
discussion asserting its authentication, as well as additional historical information
relating to the family and the diary itself. With the publication of The Diary of Anne
Frank: The Critical Edition in 1986, the Netherlands Institute for War
Documentation verified the authenticity of the diaries. The writer uses the translated
edition which was published in 1952, by Doubleday & Company, Inc, America under
the title Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. It is translated from Dutch by B.M.
Mooyaart, with an introduction by Eleanor Roosevelt. The book contains 283 pages.
It the beginning of her writing, the diary only tells about the lives of typical
school girls, and then it tells a lot about the lives of her family along with their friends
25
they must overcome everyday in order to survive. The diary contains her thoughts
and expressions when she was living under extraordinary conditions.
Anne Frank mentioned many characters in the diary. The characters can be
divided into two groups. The first group consists of eight people who live in the
Secret Annexe, they are the Franks, the Van Daans and Mr. Dussel. The second is the
protectors. The protectors consist of friends who helped during their hiding in the
Secret Annexe.
B. Approach of the Study
The diary deals with the condition of the Second World War, and told about
the Jew has daily life under the occupation of Nazi. Concerning the fact, the writer
believes that it will appropriate to analyze the diary using the sociocultural-historical
approach.
According to Rohrberger and Woods, sociocultural-historical approach inserts
the real condition of social and history that influences the author in making this
novel, because the work itself cannot be separated from the social milieu and
historical when the work is created (1971: 9-10). Thus, sociocultural-historical
approach is an approach that locates the real work in reference to the civilization that
produces it. Sociocultural-historical approach is applied here to answer the problem
C. Method of the Study
The method of the study which the writer applied was a library research.
In library research, the data were collected from books and other writings which
needed to support the topic of the study as the materials. This study uses the
sociocultural-historical approach to analyze the topic.
Beside the primary data of the study, which of course is the diary itself,
the writer needed the secondary data to answer the problem formulation. They were:
A Glossary of Literary Terms (Abrams, 1981), Aspects of the Novel (Forster, 1974),
Reading and Writing about Literature (Rohrberger and Woods, 1971), A handbook to
Literature (Holman and Harmon, 1996), Theory of Literature (Wellek and Warren,
1956), The World Book Encyclopedia (Field Enterprises Educational Corporation,
1971), Literature: Structure, Sound and Sense (Perrine, 1971), Society in The Novel
(Langland, 1984), An Introduction to Fiction (Stanton, 1965), An Approach to
English Literature (Van de Laar, 1957), A History of the Jews (Johnson, 1987),
Fascism (Purcell, 2004), The Tragedy of Children under Nazi Rule (Sosnowski,
1962). However, to get more about the author, the work, and any information related
to Nazism, the writer has browsed many websites. Some data were taken by
considering their relevance, validity, accuracy, and appropriateness. Those sources
helped the writer to get a better understanding of the theories, and then applied it to
the study.
There were some steps the writer has done in doing the research. The first step
27
appropriate topic to discuss. The second step was finding problem and formulating
research questions to guide the study. The next step was collecting the supporting
sources for the research. Then, the writer conducted the analysis by answering the
research questions using the knowledge that was gained from the relevant source. The
28 CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
In this chapter, the writer will analyze the chosen topic by answering the
problem formulation mentioned in the previous chapter. This chapter will be divided
into two major parts of discussion. The first part will discuss the lives of the
characters in the diary, which later will be useful to identify the effect of Nazism. The
second part will discuss about Frank’s criticism to Nazism as seen from the lives of
the characters.
A. The Lives of the Characters in the Diary
As mentioned above, this part will discuss the everyday lives of the
characters who live in the Secret Annexe. This discussion will be useful to identify
the effects of Nazism toward the Jews seen from their experiences in everyday life.
Before going into the discussion about their lives, there is a brief explanation about
the members of the Secret Annexe and the Secret Annexe itself. It is needed in order
to have a complete comprehension about their situation.
There are eight people who live in the Secret Annexe, they are the Franks, the
Van Daans and Mr. Dussel. They have lived prosperous life before they go into
hiding. Otto Frank is a good husband and a good father. He is the one who realizes
that their life is in jeopardy and decides to go into hiding. His wife, Edith Frank, is an
29
daughters, Margot and Anne. Margot is 14 years old, she is three years older than
Anne. Both of them are bright students. Margot is always the brightest student, and
Anne never has any difficulties in her studies at school. Mr. and Mrs. Van Daan are
the friends of the family. They have a son named Peter. Peter is 16 years old, two
years older than Margot. Peter is an awkward and shy boy. The last member of the
Secret Annexe is Albert Dussel. Dussel is a dentist in the town, whose wife is already
out of town before the Nazism reach the Netherlands.
However, their lives drastically change after the Nazis reach the Netherlands.
They are forced to leave their comfortable lives to survive. They leave their home
before the Nazis take them to the concentration camp for forced labor. Otto Frank
decides to find a hiding place after receiving a notice from the SS for one of his
daughters, Margot. He realizes that their life is in jeopardy. With the help of his
friend in the office, he finds an ideal place of hiding, which latter is called the Secret
Annexe. They plan their escape to the Secret Annexe carefully. Because they are
banned to use the public transportation, they walk from their home. They carry their
stuff with school and grocery bags, and they wear some of their clothes doubles to
avoid using traveling bags, because they are also forbidden to use it. Even though
they walk in the pouring rain, no one gives them a lift because of the yellow star
badge. The Secret Annexe is located in the same building where Otto Frank works,
the Opekta office. The exact location of the Secret Annexe is at the third floor of the
The right-hand door leads to our “Secret Annexe”. No one would ever guess that there would be so many rooms hidden behind the plain gray door. There’s a little step in front of the door and then you are inside. (p. 28)
According to Holman and Harmon (1986: 465), one of the elements which
making up setting is the actual geographical location. It included the topography,
scenery, and such physical arrangements. Therefore, the writer considered that it is
important to describe the Secret Annexe in details.
There are four rooms and two lavatories in the Secret Annexe. After they
manage the arrangement of the rooms, they have bedrooms for everyone, a room is
generally used for two people. The bedroom is also used as a study room, kitchen,
and living room. Even though they have two lavatories in the Secret Annexe, they
only use the first lavatory in the first floor occasionally. They use the second floor
lavatory frequently. Although the lavatory in the second floor is narrower than in the
first floor, they use it more often. They cannot use the lavatory in the first floor in the
working hours. Besides all these room, they still have an attic. It is the place where
Anne usually muses or talks to Peter. Because the Opekta Office is located between
offices which still operate every day, they must not make any noise. To prevent
suspicion to the Secret Annexe, they make several rules. Anne call it “Secret Annexe
Rules”. These are several rules which is written related to the security system in the
Secret Annexe.
31
Use of language: Speak softly at all times, by order! All civilized languages are permitted, therefore no German! (p.63)
The Franks move to the Secret Annexe on July 5, 1942. The Van Daans comes a few
days after, on July 13, 1942. The last to arrive is Albert Dussel, he starts to stay at the
Secret Annexe on November 17, 1942, four months after the Franks.
During their hiding in the Secret Annexe, there are many difficulties and
threats that they should overcome every day. However, most of their difficulties are
solved because of the presence of their protectors. The protectors are Mr. Kraler,
Koophius, Miep, and Elli Vossen who is actually Mr. Frank’s friend at the office. Just
like what a word “protector” means, they protect their existence from the Nazis. They
supply all the daily needs and information about the outside world for the Secret
Annexe’s occupant. Consequently, their food supply, and their daily needs are
dependent on them. There are many times when everything going well. Yet,
sometimes the situations become complicated and dangerous.
In her entries on July 11, 1942, Anne write that Secret Annexe is an ideal
hiding place and she thinks that it is the most comfortable hiding place in the whole
Netherlands. At the early months, they have enough food supply as Anne stated even
though with a high price.
There are no regular conditions for the food supplies since there are many
problems related. The first problem comes when Diptheria infects one of their helpers
for six weeks in November 17, 1943. A few months after that Anne mentions about
how they must reduce their consumption on butter and meat. Anne even calls the
difficult situation which is related to the food as the food cycles.
In the twenty-one months that we’ve spent here we have been through a good many “food cycles”-you’ll understand what that means in a minute. When I talk of “food cycles” I mean periods in which one has nothing else to eat but one particular dish or kind of vegetable. We had nothing but endive for a long time, day in, day out, endive with sand, endive without sand, stew with endive, boiled or en casserole; then it was spinach, and after that followed kohlrabi, salsify, cucumbers, tomatoes, sauerkraut, etc., etc. (p.209)
Besides the food price, the other needs also rises. Just like what happens at
war, limited stock of daily needs, foods. Even if they are available, the prices are
unbelievably high.There are no standard for the price of the goods.
Elli has bought new skirts for Margot and me at Bijenkorf’s. The material is rotten, just like sacking, and they cost 24.00 florins and 7.50 florins respectively. What a difference compared with before the war! (p. 48)
A pair of rush sandals costing 6.50 florins lasted me just one week, after which they are out of action. (p.82)
-grapes f.5.00 per kilo, gooseberries f. 0.70 per pound, one peach f.0.50. one kilo melon f.1.50. (p.102)
The price is even higher and unbelievable just like Anne mentions in her entries on
May 6, 1944.
33
At the same date, she also describes the chaos that happens in Amsterdam. All people
do whatever it takes to have food, even cheating or, robbing. There is also news about
the police who search and accept report for missing people every day.
Living in the hiding also made them unable to have sufficient medical
treatment. Even though there is Mr. Dussel as a dentist, he still cannot help if there is
another medical situation, which needs medication or general practitioner. There are
several cases when one of them is sick and he/she just drinks codeine or any other
traditional way. One of them is when Anne has a bad flu.
It makes me dizzy to think all of the cures that were tried on me. Sweating, compresses, wet cloths on my chest, dry cloths on my chest, hot drinks, gargling, throat painting, lying still, cushion for extra warmth, hot-water bottles, lemon squashes, and, in addition, the thermometer every two hours! (p. 134)
Their mental condition is also unstable. They are depressed when they hear
the bad news from the radio, the coming of air raids, the coming of the burglars, and
the presence of the people who are not aware of their presence in the Secret Annexe.
There are several attempts from the burglars, but there are only two that really
make them afraid. One happens on March 1, 1944. Several things are missing. Even
though they do not confront with the burglars, they are worried about the possibility
that their existence can be discovered. The burglars manage to steal without
damaging the lock. Anne states in her entries that she is afraid of the possibilities of a
betrayer in the office, someone who might have a skeleton key.
The second happens only a month after the first burglary, on April 9, 1944.
motionless for almost a day. They remain quiet, even after the burglar is gone. They
are worried that the burglar will come back, or even worse the Nazis. The Nazis
might come back because the burglary involves two eyewitnesses. They cannot go to
anywhere else, including to the lavatory, and the only thing that can be used to
replace it is Peter’s tin wastepaper basket.
…...we trembled with fear, and we had to go to the lavatory. The buckets were in the attic, so all we had was Peter’s tin wastepaper basket.(p.216)
They are laying in the floor a whole night and breathing a stinky air from the tin
basket. They start to talk to each other only after half past three in the morning.
Because they cannot predict what will happen next, they discuss about the possible
action if the Nazis discover the Secret Annexe. They plan to destroy the radio and
Anne’s diary. Because of the burglary, they think about the worse condition that
might happen to them. It makes them worried that anytime the Nazis will come and
then drag them to the concentration camp.
We talked about escaping and being questioned by the Gestapo, about ringing up, and being brave. (p.217)
They are also depressed when the air raids start. The dilemma between to go
outside or to stay inside the Secret Annexe gives the same level of danger. They will
be killed or reported if they are seen by the Nazis, but their lives are also threatened if
they stay inside the Secret Annexe because at any time a bomb can fall down into the
building.
Anne’s optimism about their future keep changing, it depends on the
35
January 13, 1943 about the news of the latest situations. This news makes her
pessimistic about a better life after the war.
It is terrible outside. Day and night, more of those poor miserable people are being dragged off, with nothing but a rucksack and a little money. On the way, they are deprived even of these possession. Families are torn apart, the men, women, and children all being separated. Children coming home from school find that their parents have disappeared. Women return from shopping to find their homes shut up and their families gone. (p.74)
There is the time when she feels that her lives will end up in the hiding, no
possibility to live normally again.
I have now reached the stage that I don’t care much whether I live or die. The world will still keep on turning without me; what is going to happen will happen, and anyway it’s no good trying to resist. (p. 164)
However, there is also the time when Anne mentions that she is optimistic
about her future or their life, thankful for everything they have.
And in the evening, when I lie in bed and end my prayers with the words, “I thank you, God, for all that is good and dear and beautiful,” I am filled with the joy. Then I think about ”the good” of going into hiding, of my health and with my whole being of the “dearness” of Peter, of that which is still embryonic and impressionable and which we neither of us dare to name or touch, of that which will come sometime; love, the future, happiness, and of “the beauty” which exist in the world; the world, nature, beauty and all, all that exquisite and fine. (p. 184)
Even though they are still able to continue their study in the Secret Annexe by
joining long distance courses or from books from the help of their protectors, they
still need to be socially connected to other people directly. The difficult condition,
which is impossible to interact with the outside world in normal society, makes them
sometimes forget to laugh or to have decent conversations with each other. It makes
offended. The pressures of the condition in the Secret Annexe sometimes make the
occupant behave improperly, especially for the adult.
Murphy (1972: 141) states that setting has great effects upon characters’
personalities, actions, and way of thinking. Thus, the atmosphere in the Secret
Annexe is influenced by the setting. Since the Secret Annexe has limited space, all
inhabitants are easily be offended and depressed.
Anne mentions in her entries that sometimes they are arguing about trivial
matters. One of the cases is between Mr. and Mrs Van Daan. Mr. Van Daan wants to
sell his wife’s fur coat for some food supplies. Apparently, Mrs. Van Daan disagrees
with her husband. She wants to keep the money to buy a new coat after the war. His
or her decision is not mentioned, but the process of arguing makes everyone tense.
The yells and screams, stamping and abuse- you can’t possibly imagine it! It was frightening. My family stood at the bottom of the stairs, holding their breath, ready if necessary to drag them apart! All this shouting and weeping and nervous tension are so unsettling and such a strain, that in the evening I drop into my bed crying, thanking heaven that I sometimes have an half an our to myself. (p.125)
Yet, besides the dispute, there is also the time when she mentions the behavior of Mr.
Dussel. At the first time he arrives, Anne assumes that Mr. Dussel is a very nice
person, then she agrees to share her room. However, after she knows him better, she
understands that the personality of Dussel is far different from what she thinks at the
first time. Actually, Mr. Dussel is an intolerable person. Anne is bothered with Dussel
routine in the morning, he always does everything noisy while Anne is sleeping. It
37
noises. He is not giving permission to Anne to use the table, which they share every
day in certain time, for extra hours while he is asleep. The permission is finally given
to Anne after Mr. Frank talks to him.
Finally, Dussel had to give in after all, and I had the opportunity of working undisturbed until five o’clock for two afternoons a week. Dussel looked down his nose very much, didn’t speak to me for two days and still had to go and sit at the table from five till half past-frightfully childish. (p. 100)
The event also shows that Mr. Dussel, an adult, is childish. The case is not too much
inflicting him, he becomes foolish when he is supposed to be wise.
Even though suffers and pressures happen during their lives in the Secret
Annexe, Anne is always optimistic that better time would come. She believes that the
war would end soon enough to allow her going back to school and to live normally.
The inhabitants also become more and more optimistic after they hear an attempt to
kill Hitler even though it fails on July 21, 1944.
Now I’m getting really hopeful, now things are going well at last. Yes, really, they’re going well! Super news! An attempt has been made on Hitler’s life and not even by Jewish communists or English capitalists this time, but by a proud German general, and what‘s more, he’s a count, and still quite young. The Fuhrer’s life was saved by divine Providence and, unfortunately, he managed to get off with just a few scratches and burns. (p.279)
It is tragic that everything ends differently from what they expect. Only three
days after Anne’s last entries, on August 4, 1944, the Schutzstaffel (SS) manage to
discover their presence in the Secret Annexe. Most of the inhabitants die in the
concentration camp. Margot and Anne Frank die only a few months before the Allies
liberate the concentration camp. Otto Frank is the only person who manages to
All of the descriptions above show how far the Nazi affect the Jews in the
Netherlands, especially the people who live in the Secret Annexe. Even though Anne
always mentions that their conditions are better than other Jews in the Netherlands,
they still experience the difficulties and pressures of living under the Nazi’s regime.
They suffer and eventually lose their lives only because of their race, Jews. Their
being as Jews during the Nazism makes their lives threatened. They lose their
freedom, become alienated, lose their legal rights, feel depressed and the worse, lose
their life. After discussing how the inhabitants of the Secret Annexe manage to
survive day by day, it could be stated that Nazism affects their entire lives. The Jews
suffers mentally and physically during the reign of the Nazis. The Holocaust
programs, whose main purpose is to erase the Jews, succeed in achieving its goal. In
the end of the war, it is recorded that more than 6 million Jews are killed.
B. Frank’s Criticism toward Nazism as Seen from the Lives of the Characters After discussing the lives of the characters, this part will discuss the criticism
to Nazism. The first part describes how the Nazis have affected their lives. The Nazis
succeed in destroying the life of the eight people in the Secret Annexe. All of them
are decent and good people. They have comfortable lives, good families and jobs.
However, the reign of Nazism, which already reaches the Netherlands, turns their
lives drastically. Their peaceful lives turn into difficult and dangerous. Even though
Anne still mentions about their optimism of the future, the unstable condition changes
39
about the restored political situation after the attempt to kill Hitler on July 21, 1944
makes them optimistic in the last months in the Secret Annexe. However, what
happens later is far beyond their expectation. The Nazis discover their hiding. After
the Allies win the war, what is left from the Secret Annexe is only the diary that
records all their experiences during their hiding. Otto Frank who survives the
Holocaust decides to publish the book. The rest of his family dies in the concentration
camp.
Through the description of the lives of the characters in her diary, it could be
seen Anne Frank’s criticism toward Nazism. Even though Anne Frank is only a
young girl, she is able to present her criticism toward Nazism through her entries in
the diary. Although she is not in the capacity to criticize as sophisticated as George
Orwell criticizes dictatorship in Animal Farm or Voltaire criticizes philosophical
optimism in Candide, Anne Frank is able to present her criticism in simple and
understandable way.
In her diary, Anne Frank expresses her judgment toward Nazism in order to
indicate its faults. The writer reveals Frank’s criticism by analyzing her comments on
the description of her everyday lives in her entries. Her entries are not merely
expressions of her feelings, but also her criticism, since she consciously prepares her
diary for public. She edits her own writings and adds a few comments. So that after
the war ended, she could give it to the Dutch government as a public record. The
1. The Discrimination
The discrimination exists in every aspects of their life. After Nazism reaches
the Netherlands, Hitler sets rules that discriminate the Jews and then eventually
alienate them from their nation, to evict them. One of the rules that the Jews are
obliged is to wear a yellow star badge. Hitler states a rule that they must wear a badge
for showing their identity. It is one of the steps of the Holocaust program. The badge
is meant to alienate the Jews from their nation. In her diary, Anne mentions an event
related to the yellow star badge. On her entries on July 9, 1942, Anne tells the process
of their family moving from their home to the Secret Annexe. Because of the rules
from the Nazis that discriminate the Jews, they are not allowed to use the public
transport. Therefore, they walk in the pouring rain, and no one who sees them offers a
lift. Everyone else is afraid to help because of the yellow star badge. Helping them
will endanger their lives. From the event, the effect of the yellow star badge is clearly
described.
According to Johnson, from September 1941, all Jews aged six or over have
to wear a Star of David, black with Yellow background, as large as the palm of the
hand, with the word Jude in the middle. This is an identification system, which makes
it much easier to detect Jews breaking the countless regulations, turns the entire
German nation into a police force and participation in the persecution, and
demoralizes the Jews themselves (1987: 489).
In the Netherlands, the Jews must wear the yellow star badge if they are in the
