The Diary of Anne Frank Anne Frank Quotes

Anne Frank

Quote 19

It’s sweltering. Everyone is huffing and puffing, and in this heat I have to walk everywhere. Only now do I realize how pleasant a streetcar is, but we Jews are no longer allowed to make use of this luxury; our own two feet are good enough for us [. . .] The only mode of transportation left to us is the ferry. The ferryman at Josef Israëlkade took us across when we asked him to. It’s not the fault of the Dutch that we Jews are having such a bad time. (6/24/1942.1-2)

In this passage, we see that the identity being imposed upon Anne by the Nazis is not, in Anne's view, reinforced by the Dutch people. She understands that Holland is being occupied by Nazi forces and under Nazi control, but that the Dutch as a people don’t seem to buy in to Nazi propaganda, and are not to blame.

Anne Frank

Quote 20

Fine specimens of humanity, those Germans, and to think I’m actually one of them! No, that’s not true, Hitler took away our nationality long ago. (10/9/1942.6)

National identity is confusing. How much our identities are influenced by the nation we live in or are born in is different for each person. While the Nazi party was in power, proper German identity meant hating Jewish people. Most people don’t want to hate other people. Identity crises were rampant among “Germans” and “Jews.”

Anne Frank

Quote 21

Rauter, some German bigwig, recently gave a speech. "All Jews must be out of the German-occupied territories before July 1. The province of Utrecht will be cleansed of Jew [as if they were cockroaches] between April 1 and May 1, and the provinces of North and South Holland between May 1 and June 1." These poor people are being shipped off to filthy slaughterhouses like a herd of sick and neglected cattle. (3/27/1943.3)

Anne understands that many Jewish people were being forced to experience the identity the Nazis so brutally carved out for them. The final sentence of the quote is interesting because it shows that Anne believes such treatment unjust for both people and animals.