I raced against time... but I lost.

Quote of the Day

"What is freedom? It means not being slave to any circumstance, to any restraint, to any chance." - Seneca

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yesterday, did a lot of housework which include vacuuming and mopping the floor of the house... It's a boring task but has to be done or else scolding will be received.

After noon, went to City Link Mall's MPH Bookstore with my sis, Ting. Looked up and down for a desired book that would catch my attention. My sis was faster. It was this music theory book for saxophone and clarinet that unintentionally caught her attention. I got myself,"The Diary Of A Young Girl, Anne Frank". It is the definitive edition edited by Otto H. Frank (Father of Anne Frank) and Mirjam Pressler. What is so special about this edition is its previously unpublished material that is not presented in previous editions known as versions (a) and (b). I read the foreword of the book and it says Anne's first, unedited diary is referred as version (a): The Critical Edition (1989) and version (b) is the one being edited before publishing. In fulfilling Anne's wish of publishing her diary, her father, Otto Frank, selected material from versions (a) and (b), edited them into a shorter version later referred as version (c). Readers all over the world known this as The Diary of a Young Girl. The reason why Anne wanted her diary to be published is because one day in 1944, Gerrit Bolkestein, a member of the Dutch government in exile, announced in a radio broadcast from London that after the war he hoped to collect eyewitness accounts of the suffering of the Dutch people under the German occupation, which could be made available to the public. As an example, he specially mentioned letters and diaries. Impressed by this speech, Anne Frank decided that when the war was over she would publish a book based on the text, omitting passages she didn't think were interesting enough and adding others from memory. Quoted from an entry from her diary on Saturday, June 20, 1942, " Our lives were not without anxiety, since our relatives in Germany were suffering under Hitler's anti-Jewish laws.", "Our freedom was severely restricted by a series of anti-Jewish decrees: Jews were required to wear a yellow star; Jews were forbidden to use streetcars; Jews were required to do their shopping between 3 and 5 pm; Jews were forbidden to be out on the streets between 8 pm and 6 am...." and the list goes on and on. Just imagine at a tender age of 13, war is going on outside, your race is being discriminated and there are so many restrictions yet life goes on. How will you deal with this kind of situation? Hard to say, unless you, yourself undergo it real in life. Having the bad habit of sneaking to read a little from the back...I found out miserly that Margot (elder sis of Anne) and Anne were transported from Auschwitz at the end of October 1944 and brought to Bergen-Belsen, a concentration camp near Hannover (Germany). The typhus epidemic that broke out in the winter of 1944-45, as a result of the horrendous hygienic conditions, killed thousands of prisoners, including Margot and, a few days later, Anne. She must have died in the late Feb or early March. The bodies of both girls were probably dumped in Bergen-Belsen's mass graves....

Really a good book to learn about the historical events in the part of a civilian's life. Hope this sneak preview will satisfy readers out there who are fickle-minded whether to purchase the book or not...

Not forgetting, we also got down to Carrefour since we were at City Hall already. Little unnoticeable changes here and there. Once again, all the staff and workers had a new fresh outlook of attire...this time round a blue tee. Cool colour.

Getting a little long-winded for the day. I will end here. Good day!