The Holocaust: History And Memory

The Jewish girl Anne Frank is one of most famous diarists in the 20th century, whose diary presents a true and vivid historical record on the Holocaust during their escape in their hiding place from 1941 to 1944. In her diary, she told the stories of her family in"Secret Annex", reflected on life in war, on growing up, and recorded the sufferings of the whole Annex family over the two years in concealment. In 1947, Anne Frank's diary was edited by her father, the only survivor of the eight Jews in Secret Annex, and then published by a Dutch publishing house. In 1952, the English version diary soon made the Secret Annex known by the whole world. In Addition, Anne Frank inspired a Broadway play that won the Pulitzer Prize and three Tony Awards in 1955-1956, as well as many other prizes in the following 50 years. In 1995, all of Anne Frank's diary entries were edited into the definitive edition, with 30% more added to the original. The new version diary not only offers historical documents for those historians on the Holocaust, but also attracts numerous literary scholars'academic attention, leaving a precious legacy on the research of history and memory about the Holocaust.From historical and literary perspectives, this thesis is trying to explore how the diary successfully represents a horrific history about racial intolerance and prejudice. The paper is divided into four parts as follows:Introduction: This part briefly introduces the content of the diary, historical background, and life of Anne Frank as a special author of this writing. Lastly, it gives a brief retrospect of literature review and the central argument of the whole thesis.Chapter One: A Representation of the Holocaust History in Anne's Diary. This chapter, based on the division of the Holocaust by historians'research, perceives a paralleled family history along with the Holocaust. Furthermore, it proposes that the psychological response to the war presented in the diary forcefully reflects the Nazi atrocity.Chapter Two: A literary analysis of the diary form in remembering the Holocaust. This chapter intends to explore features of the diary form in helping Anne's diary achieve worldwide fame.Conclusion: This part summarizes the diary's compelling force in reflecting the Holocaust, and gives an evaluation of diary form in promotion of personal memory and social remembrance for the Holocaust.