The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (Prescribed by C.B.S.E. for Class X )

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

(Prescribed by C.B.S.E. for Class X )

Q1. What presents did Anne receive on Friday, June 12, on her thirteenth birthday? How did she feel surprised?

Ans.   On Friday, June 12, Anne was awake at six o'clock, since it was her birthday. But she was not allowed to get up at that hour, so she had to control her curiosity (deep interest) until quarter to seven.   When she was unable to control herself any longer, she went to the dining room, where Moortje (the cat) welcomed her by rubbing against her legs.           

After some time, she entered her parents’ room and then to the living room. She saw beautiful presents there. She had a bouquet of roses, some peonies (flowering plants) and a potted plant. From her parents, she got a blue blouse, a game, a bottle of grape juice, a puzzle, a jar of cold cream, 2.50 guilders (a gold or silver coin formerly used in the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria) and a gift certificate for two books.

She got another book as well, Camera Obscura (but Margot already has it, so She exchanged mine for something else), a platter of homemade cookies (which she made myself, of course, lots of candy and a strawberry tart (pie/pastry) from Mother.

Q2. Explain the line: "Paper has more patience than people." In context what does Anne Frank utter this line in her novel ‘The Diary of a Young Girl’.

Ans. Anne was a very sensitive girl with deep insight into human nature from her early age. She felt alone in spite of all she had. She had a plenty of thoughts and feelings to express, but she did not like to share them with her parents, sister and even with her friends. One day when she was feeling a little depressed (sad), she gave a deep thought to the saying ‘Paper has more patience than people’. She was sitting at home with her chin in her hands, feeling bored and listless (without energy and enthusiasm), wondering about staying or going out. She kept on thinking and found that she did not have any friend and, so, she decided to keep a diary. After that, she started pouring out her thoughts and feelings on to the pages of her diary. She knew this that the paper did not get bored and irritated at all. But human beings have no patience and they cannot listen to you more than a limited span of time.

Q3. Do you think Anne was alone in the world? Explain as to why she started writing a diary? Why did she give a human trait to the diary?

Ans. Anne was not alone as she had loving parents and a sixteen year old sister and thirty class mates at school. She had a crowd of admires, whose eyes wee not off her face and always tried to have a glimpse of her in the classroom. She had a family, loving aunts and a good home. Outwardly, she seemed to have everything, but not a true friend, except her diary. She was not able to share her personal thoughts with her friends and she blamed herself for that.

That wass why she started writing a diary. She decided to name it Kitty, her friend. In this way, she gave a human trait to it so that she might feel that she was sharing her thoughts and emotions with a human being.

Q4. What did Anne write about her and family when she began to write in her diary, Kitty?

Ans. She started telling about her parents. She wrote that her father was thirty-six and her mother twenty-five, when they got married.

Her sister, Margot was born in 1926 and she was born on June 12, 1929. She lived in Frankfurt until she was four. The Jews were being treated very badly in Germany at that time. Since they were Jewish, her father migrated to Holland in 1933.

  He became the Managing Director of the Dutch Opekta Company, which manufactured products used in making jam. Her mother, Edith Hollander Frank, went with him to Holland in September, while Margot and she were sent to Aachen to stay with their grandmother. Margot went to Holland in December and Anne went there in February. She studied at the Montessori nursery school and stayed there until she was six.

 In sixth grade, her teacher was Mrs. Kuperus, the principal. Both of them were in tears at the time of her farewell as she took admission in Jewish Lyceum.  She wrote that their relatives were suffering in Germany as Hitler’s anti Jews-laws were implemented in Germany.  Her two uncles (her mother’s brothers) fled (left) Germany and found safe refuge in North America. Her elderly grandmother came to live with them. She was seventy-three years old at the time.

After 1940, their good days were almost over. First there was war, then the capitulation (surrender) and after that the arrival of the Germans.

Q5. How was the freedom of the Jews curtailed by passing anti-Jews decree by German Government? Describe in detail.

Ans. The Jews’ freedom in Germany and in the occupied countries was severely (strictly) restricted by a series of anti-Jewish decrees (legal orders): Jews were required to wear a yellow star and they were required to use only bicycles as a means of transportation. The Jews were also forbidden to use street-cars and to ride in cars, even their own. They were required to do their shopping between 3 and 5 p.m.

 Jews were allowed only to go in Jewish-owned barbershops and beauty parlors. They were forbidden to be out on the streets between 8 p.m. and 6 p.m.

 They were forbidden to attend theaters, movies or any other forms of entertainment They were not allowed to use swimming pools, tennis courts, hockey fields or any other athletic fields, to go rowing, to take part in any athletic activity in public, to sit in their gardens or those of their friends after 8 p.m..

They were forbidden to visit Christians in their homes and allowed only to attend Jewish schools, etc. In this way, the Jews were given inhuman treatment in Germany and gradually it spread in the German-occupied countries like Holland also.