89 pages • 2 hours read
Frances Goodrich, Albert HackettA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Because of the popularity of the play, Anne Frank and her diary have become one of the most widely recognized symbols of the Holocaust, especially in the United States. Think about how you learn history from popular culture, and how that shapes your perceptions of history and the larger structures it represents. For instance, the musical Hamilton gives a particular understanding of historical events and people that might affect how viewers feel about national identity in the United States.
What did you learn about the Holocaust and World War II from the play? What questions did the play raise about history that it didn’t answer? Consider the play as an adaptation of a personal document, an example of what the Dutch Minister of Education was requesting on the radio. What purpose do personal documents serve in constructing narratives of history? What purposes don’t they serve?
Teaching Suggestion: You might divide students into small groups to discuss how the play teaches history, encouraging them to make a list of historical events and references. It may be useful to assign sections of the play to each group. Then, a group leader can add each list to the white board. You can use this as a starting point for a class discussion about the play’s depiction of and relationship to history.
7th-8th Grade Historical Fiction
View Collection
9th-12th Grade Historical Fiction
View Collection
Coming-of-Age Journeys
View Collection
Dramatic Plays
View Collection
European History
View Collection
Fear
View Collection
Good & Evil
View Collection
International Holocaust Remembrance Day
View Collection
Memorial Day Reads
View Collection
Military Reads
View Collection
Pulitzer Prize Fiction Awardees &...
View Collection
The Future
View Collection
World War II
View Collection