Anne Frank- The Whole Story

Anne Frank- The Whole Story is a movie about a young Jewish girl whose family is forced into hiding to avoid going to a concentration camp. The movie covers Anne’s journey from a normal life, to a life in hiding and complete secrecy, to a life in a concentration camp. The movie is based on Anne’s diary and a biography written about her, but it never uses quotes from the diary.

 

Theme One:  Coming Of Age

 

In Anne Frank- The Whole Story, Anne starts as an innocent child and grows into a girl who knows the challenges and horrors of the world. Anne starts out wanting to grow up because she thinks it is better to be older.  Towards the beginning of the film, other characters keep calling Anne a child. She immediately scolds them and says she is not a baby. Even though she doesn’t admit it, Anne is still innocent. This is shown when she asks her father to tell her a story called “The Two Paulas”. Her mom argues that the story is for little kids but her dad says that Anne is still a child. Then, Anne’s family has to go into hiding to escape from the Nazis. While she is in the “Secret Annex”, Anne is still mainly innocent because she hasn’t experienced the horrors of the concentration camps but she starts to lose the innocence when she can’t contact her friends and hears that they are probably dead. Anne fully comes of age when her family is taken to the concentration camp. She is separated from her parents, which are a child’s main source of protection, and forced to care for herself. She experiences starvation, death, pain, and cruelty because of the persecution of her religion. These horrors force Anne to grow up. When she realizes how much pain one has to deal with to be a grown up, she wants to go back to the innocent child who has dreams to do everything that she once was. Anne transforms from an innocent girl who wants to grow up to a girl who has experienced suffering and wants to be innocent again.

Theme Two: Positives and Negatives of Hope

In Anne Frank- The Whole Story, the positives and negatives of hope are shown. A negative is that the characters gain hope by hiding their emotions, but the positive is that the hope helps the characters stay alive for as long as they do. The characters often use objects, like Mrs. Van-Pels’ china tea set, to give themselves hope from the happiness that the object’s memories give them. The happiness is giving them hope, but they are receiving the hope by hiding their true emotions of pain and fear with that happiness. When they hide their true emotions, the characters are not being honest to themselves and others, which stops their relationships from growing closer. Anne’s hope is what helps her survive most of the war. There is a scene where Anne asks her sister, Margot, “What are you going to do when the war is over?” Anne says she wants to travel the world and Margot wants to become a nurse. The fact that they say, “What we will do,” instead of, “What we could do if we survive,” shows that they are certain and have 100 percent hope that they are going to survive the war.  When the girls are in Auschwitz, Margot becomes really sick. Anne tells her to remember what she wants to do when the war is over and Margot says that she can’t remember. This shows that Margot has given up hope that she will survive, but Anne tries to restore some of that hope by reminding her that she wants to be a nurse. Margot stares away when her sister tries to give her a little hope, which shows that she won’t even be encouraged. The next morning, Margot dies because she gave up her hope. Anne still remembers her dreams to travel, become a celebrity, or be an ice skater and her hope to do those activities when the war is over, help keep her alive longer than most girls survived in a concentration camp during WWII.

Theme Three: Hiding Emotions

 

In Anne Frank- The Whole Story, many of the characters replace their feelings of sadness and fear with fake feelings of happiness and anger. One example of this is Mrs. Van-Pels. She used her old belongings from times when she was always joyful to bring back her happiness to the hiding place. She brought her china tea set with her and all of her fancy clothes from her old house. During their time in the “Secret Annex”, the Van-Pels’ run out of money. In turn, Mr. Van-Pels sells all of Mrs. Van-Pels’ nice clothing except for one furry shirt. The shirt represents a piece of her happiness because she brought it with her from her old, happy life. Mrs. Van-Pels refuses to let him sell it and by doing so, she is refusing to let go of her fake joy and she is hiding her pain with her happy memories. Mrs. Van-Pels also conceals her fear with anger. When the Nazis come discover the hiding space and order the families to pack their bags, Mrs. Van-Pels yells at her son and husband to hurry and pack certain things. She also yells at them when she hears people walking downstairs. Mrs. Van-Pels is a great example of how people use anger and fake joy to replace the feelings of fear and pain.

According to the movie, what was the nature of life in London during WWII?

 

            Anne Frank- The Whole Story is not set in London; it is set partially in a hideout for Anne’s family and partially in concentration camps. In the hideout, or the “Secret Annex” as Anne called it, there are only a few rooms for eight people and a cat. The families have to live with a lot of secrecy so that they are not captured. They can’t flush the toilets, speak loud, or even walk with shoes on while there are workers in the building. However hard it would seem to be that silent, the families know that their lives depend on their silence and it helps them keep quiet.

What was your favorite scene? Why or why not?

 

            My favorite scene is when Anne and Hannah talk through the fence of Auschwitz. The scene is very touching because it clearly shows the fear and pain they are both suffering from. They talk about how they are alone and how they have no family. They can only talk to each other, but they are still separated by two fences. It is interesting to watch because there are shots shown of their heads looking through holes in the fences. Anne also ducks several times to avoid a searchlight and has to run from guards. This makes it seem more realistic because she didn’t go unnoticed. The scene portrays the hopelessness of the girls.

Do you recommend the film to others? Why or why not? What did you like about the film? What did you not like about the film?

 

            I would recommend this film to others. I liked how it went beyond Anne’s diary and into her life at the camps. It was able to show the differences between everyday life, life in hiding, and life in the concentration camps very vividly. Hannah Taylor Gordon, Anne, played the role wonderfully. She captured Anne’s innocence, joy, fear, and bravery all at once. I thought it was terrifying in the scene where they strip Anne, Mrs. Van-Pels, Anne’s mother, and Margot and then chop off their hair. The women allowed their hair to get cut off on camera in honor of the roles. I think that shows the true dedication of actresses that they are and it helps show the truth of what happened at Auschwitz without “Prettying it up”.  However, it would have been better if the movie had voice-overs of what Anne Frank actually wrote in her diary, but I found out that they didn’t have the legal rights to use the quotes. Overall this movie was very honest about the war and captured Anne’s life in an amazing way that showed her bravery, joy, and fear.