“We’re so fortunate here, away from the turmoil. We
wouldn’t have to give a moment’s thought to all this suffering if it weren’t
for the fact that we’re so worried about those we hold dear, whom we can no
longer help. I feel wicked sleeping in a warm bed, while somewhere out there my
dearest friends are dropping from exhaustion or being knocked to the ground.
I get frightened
myself when I think of close friends who are now at the mercy of the cruelest
monsters ever to stalk the earth.
And all because they’re
Jews.”
Page 68-69
Entry: Thursday, November 19, 1942
This passage reflects Anne Frank’s survivor’s remorse.
While Jewish individuals are being captured and sent to concentration camps,
she is “fortunate” to be able to hide so that she can avoid the same fate. Anne
is aware of the war and what is happening to her friends, whom she cannot save
and she is “frightened” for. She wishes that she could, but there is only so
much that her and her family can do. She is making the best of her life,
because in the very least she has a warm bed to sleep in and is not suffering
as so many are. Though her living conditions are not preferred, she is still
grateful that she is safe, but feels remorseful for the treatment and the
result, “dropping from exhaustion or being knocked to the ground,” of her
fellow Jewish believers.
Her journal is a sense of comfort for her, as she
releases her innermost feelings of turmoil and frustration. When speaking of
“the cruelest monsters to ever stalk the earth,” she is revealing her
understanding of a grave and demeaning circumstance. She speaks of how Jewish
people are taken from their homes and sent off to camps to be slaughtered (pg.
92) later on in the book. These descriptions that Anne offers during WWII
depicts the main concern of the book. Therefore, her guilt towards being safe,
but also being unable to help her friends, represents the theme of her journal.
Since she is writing from her perspective while in the Secret Annex, this is
just one of the many passages throughout the book that reflect her knowledge of
the war and the circumstances that Hitler has put the Jewish population in.
This situation is certainly that of nightmares, and
Anne tries to cope with this fact by writing about her experiences while in
hiding. Writing helps her pass the time, because while hiding offers her a
longer life than her counterparts, she is undoubtedly bored while waiting for
the war to pass. The images Anne offers us give insight into how she thought
and just how cruel the Holocaust was.
I like that you draw attention to this passage, because it is one of the moments when Anne is very aware of her family's privilege. We've talked about in class how Holden does not seem aware of how privileged his life is, but Anne does see how her family's class status and connections preserve her from the worst of the Holocaust, at least temporarily. Another text that explores this tension is Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis. It speaks to the wide grasp of the atrocities of the Holocaust that even the Frank's with all of their connections end up being destroyed. I would like to see more of a connection in your argument between this theme of survivor's guilt and the larger significance of the diary/novel. In other words, why is it important to include this theme of survivor's guilt or awareness of one's own privilege?
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