by Ho Lin
What was your life like and what did you care about the most when you were thirteen years old? Were you like me, enjoying basketball and the first taste of puppy love, worrying only about how many hours you’d be allowed to play video games on the weekend? Can you imagine what the life of a thirteen-year-old little girl who lived during the Second World War was like? Under the persecution of the Nazis, Anne Frank lived in a secret house isolated from the crowd, the sun, and normal life. All that occupied her young mind was whether she would be sent to a concentration camp and be forced to leave this world forever. Anne lived in such a difficult environment that her heart and mind matured at an unusual pace. The only thing we can be grateful for is that she left behind her a precious diary before she was sent to a concentration camp and died there. No matter what the outside world was like, Anne was still only a teenager at the time. She was perplexed about so many things, including love, friendship, and the future. She couldn’t open her mind to communicate what was in her heart to her family, and she couldn’t understand the mysterious and sometimes scary new feelings that were the result of her body changing—she was just hitting puberty at that time. The harsh circumstances forced her to make everything clear in an unusual way. Sinking into isolation, she chose to share all her happiness and worries with her one good friend: Caddie, her diary. However, what’s incredible is that we can easily discover from her diary that both her thinking and knowledge surpassed those of other children her age. Let’s briefly enter her depressing life, and then ascend to her innermost spiritual levels. Getting up early in the morning, Anne started each day following a strict routine which allowed no disruption for two years. Because their secret house was hidden behind a big bookcase in an office, Anne and the others living in that house literally had to live on tiptoe and converse in whispers so as to avoid detection by people outside the house. In the morning, Anne tidied the house and finished various chores. At around 12:30 p.m., some Jews would come into the house to give them news of the outside world. At 1:00, everyone with radios gathered to listen to BBC broadcasts so they could learn the latest news concerning the war. Then they would engage in causal chitchat, smiling to conceal their fear inside. Some warm-hearted Jews would bring them food bought with allocation tickets from the black market. However, they all knew better than to expect too much of such rations. Rotten vegetables were often all the family had to eat. Besides all these hardships, taking a shower or using the toilet was difficult as well—you can imagine how difficult it is to keep quiet doing that! The only positive thing for Anne was that she knew a good way to enrich her boring and austere life. She studied and practiced stenography and French whenever she had free time, which was not often. She was a smart girl, and thanks to true interest and diligent studying, Anne learned a lot very quickly. Her attitude is revealed in her diary: “Studying is a good way to forget everything. It’s the right track to be absorbed in my books.” It’s also praiseworthy that Anne had a healthy attitude, even a bright outlook, toward all the misfortune in her life. She was grateful for the secret house, because she knew she was blessed to even have such a shelter. Even though it was a longshot ever to live in peace again, she still held hope for the future. Her gratitude can be seen in her diary: “I imagine this secret house as the only blue sky among dark clouds. I hope the dark clouds will disappear soon. May God open a glorious road for us.” Her wise ideas also surmount the ideas girls her age usually have. Facing such a dangerous position, she believed, “Fortune may lose, the heart may be deceived; however, as long as we still live, look upward without fear, and are conscious of the purity in our minds, we still have a chance to seek happiness. a
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Authors
The Taida Student Journal has been active since 1995 with an ever-changing roster of student journalists at NTU. Click the above link to read about the authors Archives
May 2024
|