Similarities Between Anne Frank And Eddie Hillesum

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Anne Frank and Eddie Hillesum are two female individuals that wrote diaries during the Holocaust, documenting their experiences. Anne Frank was a young, cheerful girl that knew everything was going to fine in the end. However, Hillesum had come to agreement with life and knew that the event wasn’t going to end, so she wanted to live her life to the fullest. Knowing this, there are a lot of similarities between the two diaries, but they are also differences between them. Comparing the two diaries written by Anne Frank and Etty Hillesum, we can notice some similarities between them, such as their personalities. For instance, Frank writes on June 24, “My bike was stolen during Easter vacation, and Father gave Mother’s bike to some Christian friends …show more content…

For instance, both of them write somewhat cheerful, despite the harsh conditions they are in. Both of them write with a tone of hope, positivity, and a wish to get out of woe. This can be shown in one of Frank’s entries that was written on July 11 which goes, “Not me, I liked it from the start; it sounds so reassuring, especially at night.” From this quote, you can tell that Frank is the only one who has hope in hiding from the Nazis. However, the rest of the “escapees” would disagree as they need time to adjust and are constantly worried they are going to get caught. On the other hand, Hillesum writes at 3:45 in the afternoon, “When I say: I have come to terms with life, I don’t mean I have lost hope.” This reveals that she also still has hope, which is very rare in a period like the …show more content…

Frank and Hillesum have a huge age difference at the time of them writing their diaries. Frank is only thirteen years old while Hillesum is around the age of 27. This makes a huge difference in their personalities since their perceptions of life are much different. For instance, Frank writes on July 8, “These were questions I wasn’t allowed to ask, but they still kept running through my mind.” Frank’s family initially doesn’t want her to know what was going on and what exactly they were doing. She didn’t know that they were going into hiding because she thought her sister was going to a concentration camp. Hillesum, on the other hand, writes on a Monday morning, “I know about everything and am no longer appalled by the latest reports. One way or another I know it all.” This implies that she knows exactly what is going, the Holocaust, Nazis, Jews trying to escape their deaths, and other information usually a thirteen year old wouldn’t know. This is much different than Frank because she doesn’t have a lot of the information that most adults know so when writing her diary, her entries appear more cheerful while Hillesum’s entries are a little more

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