Jews As The Victims Of Fascism As Reflected In Anne Frank’s Novel “The Diary Of Young Girl”

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study
Literature is the expression of society as speech is the expression of man
(Levin, 1983 : 56). It means that literature is the medium of expression of whatever
happens in the society. It becomes a picture of one’s life, his success or failure and
his experiences in his lifetime. Broadly, literature is the picture of a social condition
of a country and even telling a history. Specifically, Zeraffa (1973 : 40) states, “the
novel was born and established itself as a genre on account of, and to account for,
historical and social phenomena. Therefore, the novel tries to reveal the condition of
a society and history, in a given time. The statement supported by Levin (1983 : 62)
states that : “the relation between literature and society is reciprocal literature which
is not only the effect of social causes but also the cause of social effect” .
Literary work has some functions in life such as the entertainment and as
social documents. That because the common approach to the relation of literature
and society is the study of literary work as social document, as assumed pictures of
social reality. Rene Wellek and Austin Warren in “Theory of literature” mentioned,
“literature was primarily a treasury of costumes and customs, a
source book for the history of civilization, especially of chivalry
and its decline. As a social document, literature can be made to

yield the outlines of social history” (103 ).
One of the novel that shows social phenomenon is “The Diary of Young Girl“
by Anne Frank. It is based on the true story of Anne Frank. The novel is diary which
is written in Dutch language which was kept by Anne Frank while she was in hiding

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for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation in the Netherlands. Anne
wrote her activity and her feeling inside her diary. She wrote her situation about Jews
live in that period.
The novel is about Anne frank’s diary, which tells her daily activities. It is
started from her feeling as a child of a Jewish family to the political condition in that
period. They had to run away and went into the hiding place because the Nazi had
started to capture and imprisoned all Jews. That what makes Anne father brought her
family to the hiding in the secret pavilion. Secret pavilion was an office building in
the central Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Anne’s father and his friend as the owner
of that building made a secret room behindthe building for them for living and
hiding. In that secret pavilion Anne wrote in her diary about her condition. She also
wrote why they should receive different treatment from other people who are not
Jews. Anne and her family hide in the secret pavilion for almost two years, along

with another family with three members and a doctor. There were a total of eight
Jews hide in there.
On August 4, 1944 the gestapo penetrated into the Frank’s hiding place. On
september Anne and her family among the last shipment of a thousand Jews left
Holland. While the train arrived in German, on the platform men and woman were
separated. It was the last Anne with her sister and her mother see her father. They
were treated like prisoners and should work twelve hours a day. In October 1944
Anne, her sister, and their mother were selected to be moved to Belsen in German.
They were seperated from each other. They were died in their respecting camps soon
afterwards, Anne was died because of thypoid fever. After the war ended Otto Frank
Anne’s father returned to Amsterdam. Otto was the only member of that family who
still survived. He got Anne diary from his friends in that pavilion.

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In the novel “The Diary of Young Girl” there is fascism ideology will be
analyzed in this thesis. Fascism is a form of radical authoritarian nationalism that
came to prominence in early 20th century Europe. Once in power of Adolf Hitler
turned Germany into a fascist state. Fascist was originally used to describe the
government of Benito Mussolini in Italy. Mussolini's fascist one party state

emphasized patriotism, national unity, hatred of communism, admiration of military
values and unquestioning obedience. Hitler was deeply influenced by Mussolini's
Italy and his Germany shared many of the same characteristics. Hitler and the Nazis
blamed the decline in Germany’s power on Jews and radicals and preached the
supermacy of the so called German Aryan race. Hitler declared aryas is the master
race creators of all civilization and fitted by nature to rule the world.
Jews and fascist are the topics that are very interesting to be discussed. Both
of them are the most remembered in the history of German. There are some literary
works such as a novel tells a story about it. Most of that novel takes from true story
by experience of Jews people in that time. It is because world war left dark story
about Jews people in the world. Some of that story came from true story of the Jews
people that run and hiding. And how they struggle to be a life and being normal
people.
Readers may wonder why Jews are persecuted by Nazi. From that question
why the title of this paper was made. This paper is the analysis why Jews as the
victim of the fascism. Hitler’s most virulent racial attacks were directed againts the
Jews. Despite the many distinguished contributions Jews had made to German life
over the centuries, Hitler’s propaganda described them as an alien, inferior race.
They were the orginators of all those doctrines hostile to Nazi aims communism,
facifism, internationalism, christianity. In Hitler’s view, as long as Jews remained in


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German, they were a constant source of ideological infection and a threat to German
racial purity.
By this background, historical approach is suitable approach to analyzing this
paper. Historical approach is one of the method to analyze literary work in which the
author and the reader comprehend the message of the literary work by remembering
the moment or historic moment a long with the literary work written.This analysis is
analyzed based on the event that happened in the past where connected with problem
in this study. First, find out about history of fascism. And then, find impact of
fascism toward Jews. This is connected with German under Adolf Hitler and Nazi
occupation. Collect all the data about the fascism, and then connect that data between
fascism and the Jews.
The problem in the novel is one of social problem in that time. This is what
studying in sociology of literature. Literature is not just a study about literay work. In
literature there is sociology of literature. By studying sociology literature someone
can identify the problem in society. Literature is the reflection of society itself. Some
literary work such as novel, drama, poetry are inspire from real life. Sometime not
just inspire but some of that literary work cames from true story such as this novel.

By analyze the literary work can take knowledge about the problem in society.
Generally, a literary work expresses and reflects human problems. Literature
basically talks about life. The discussion about literature can portray the artistic
values. However, studying about it, frequently gives such a description of human
experience. As a means of the social creation, literature usually reveals the situation
or the problems that occur in social life. Thus, literature can be defined as a term
used to describe written or spoken material or the attempt to describe human
experience by means of the written word. (Usrotun Sa’idah, 2008: 1)

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Sociology of literature derived from the sociology and literature. Literature is
a reflection of society. Through literature, the author reveals the problems of life.
Literary works are influenced by the society and at the same time able to make an
impact on society. Sociology can be defined as the science or systematic knowledge
about the life of human group in relation to other human beings is generally called
society. The sociology literature is a subfield of the sociology of culture. It studies
the social production of literature and its social implication.

1.2Problem of the Study

The focus of this proposal is to analyze of fascism against Jews in “The Diary
of Young Girl” by anne frank. Therefore, the questions are addressed in this thesis
are:
1. What is the ideology of fascism reflected in Anne Frank’s “The Diary of Young
Girl”?
2. What are the impacts of fascism toward Jews in Anne Frank’s “The Diary of Young
Girl”?

1.3 Objective of the Study
1. To identify the ideology of fascism in Anne Frank’s“The Diary of Young Girl”.
2. To identify the impacts of fascism toward Jews in Anne Frank’s “The Diary of
Young Girl”.
1.4 Scope of the Study

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In doing analysis, scope is needed to determine the limitation of the problem
that will be discussed. The scope of the analysis the novel “The Diary of Young
Girl”is limited on the impact of facsism toward Jews under Nazi occupation.
1.5 Significance of the Study

The significance of the analysing of Anne Frank’s novel “The Diary of Young
Girl”, is to reveal the tragedy of human life. To show the readers about unbearable
suffering because of fascism ideology by the Nazi 's authority and this tragedy is
expected not to recur in the history of mankind.
This paper is made to answer why Jews as the victim of fascism and the
ideology of fascism. The readers are expected know about the fascism and the
condition of Jews under Nazi occupation. By reading this thesis, we may improve
our horizon and the knowledge of the students about social condition in the past.
Expecting to make people understand with social problem in other people
experience.

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