Anne Frank

I believe that the Diary of Anne Frank is an exception to many of the examples in this article. The purpose of this work being preserved was to make sure that such a terrible point of human history would be preserved from the perspective of the victim, as history is so often told from that of the victor.

Otto Frank, her father, upon looking back at the publication of her “Secret Annex” said that he believes she would have been proud of the choice to share it with the public. The words are best said by the man himself: “The Anne that appeared before me was very different from the daughter I had lost. I had had no idea of the depth of her thoughts and feelings.”

First-hand accounts of historical events provide something deeply intimate and personal, such as the other diary in this list, but on a wildly different scale. Both entail suffering and misfortune that eventually lead to a muddy pre-death waft of time. The depth of emotion and palpability of such is a rare commodity so often looked over; human emotion is something that so often cannot be put into words. It is a phenomenon that cannot be easily explained and has layers upon layers in a way that such a piece of historical context is a gem, as terrible to say given context. Through her, we remember so much more than just one girl named Anne Frank.