In January 2003 on a college trip to Amsterdam, i and other friends went into the Anne Frank Huis on the last day. This is the famous place where she and her family went into hiding. i found it strange to actually walk up those hidden stairs and see things such as the heights of the two girls still preserved on the walls in pencil. i found the whole experience to be the most moving place i've ever been to.
seeing Anne Frank: the Whole Story on tv a few months after i just had to see it. It is a film which does everything right, its doesn't hide behind any barriers and shows the truth as it really was. We all know about Anne Frank's life during the time she wrote in her diary and in the 'hiding period' and it does show this, but what it also shows is afterwards - after they were found out and taken away. It shows just how Jews were treated and is unbelievable such terrible things occured in only the 20th century - a century most of us were born in, and yet similar regimes in the world today still treat humans like this.
You see the Frank and Van Pels' family split up by their sex, stripped naked and the women having their hair cut short and sleeping in cramped conditions, starving and forced to dig...presumably mass graves in which they would be buried. We can only imagine what was going through her mind as Anne didn't take her diary with her to the Camp. To be told your father is already in the gas chambers is not what any 16 year old girl should ever be told.
All in all i cant find any fault with the film, it gives her diary and the whole story justice and is nice to see the helper's of Otto's factory to be shown quite frequently and involving them. It is also supported by a strong cast, especially Ben Kingsley as the father who survives the concentration camp to learn after the war that his wife and two daughters are dead.
Perhaps the most moving aspect i found were the actual words at the end telling you statistics and what happened to the individuals (including the factory workers/helpers) and it leaves you with something really strong which really makes you think "One and a half million children were murdered in the genocide the Nazi's called 'The Final Solution'. Anne Frank's story is only one of them"
seeing Anne Frank: the Whole Story on tv a few months after i just had to see it. It is a film which does everything right, its doesn't hide behind any barriers and shows the truth as it really was. We all know about Anne Frank's life during the time she wrote in her diary and in the 'hiding period' and it does show this, but what it also shows is afterwards - after they were found out and taken away. It shows just how Jews were treated and is unbelievable such terrible things occured in only the 20th century - a century most of us were born in, and yet similar regimes in the world today still treat humans like this.
You see the Frank and Van Pels' family split up by their sex, stripped naked and the women having their hair cut short and sleeping in cramped conditions, starving and forced to dig...presumably mass graves in which they would be buried. We can only imagine what was going through her mind as Anne didn't take her diary with her to the Camp. To be told your father is already in the gas chambers is not what any 16 year old girl should ever be told.
All in all i cant find any fault with the film, it gives her diary and the whole story justice and is nice to see the helper's of Otto's factory to be shown quite frequently and involving them. It is also supported by a strong cast, especially Ben Kingsley as the father who survives the concentration camp to learn after the war that his wife and two daughters are dead.
Perhaps the most moving aspect i found were the actual words at the end telling you statistics and what happened to the individuals (including the factory workers/helpers) and it leaves you with something really strong which really makes you think "One and a half million children were murdered in the genocide the Nazi's called 'The Final Solution'. Anne Frank's story is only one of them"