While the lives of Patty Bergen and Anne Frank shared many similarities such as their relationships with their families and their love lives, Patty’s and Anne’s experiences with captivity could not have been any more different. World War Two had just started in the year of 1939, when the troubles of Anne and Patty began. It all started when Hitler got elected chancellor of Germany in 1933(Wikipedia).
World War Two lasted for six years, and ended in 1945. Hitler ordered the eradication of all Jewish people (Mainly in Germany). Over 6 million Jewish people were killed in the Holocaust. Jewish people were sent to concentration camps around the world, and captured Nazi’s were sent to POW camps everywhere (History.com).
In the movie Diary of Anne Frank, the main character, Anne (age 13), and her family were sent into hiding above a spice mill. Anne had her father, mother, and big sister Margot. They were in hiding with another family, the Van Daan’s, and also with Mr. Dussel. The Van Daan family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Van Daan, and their dear son Peter. At first, Patty and Peter despised each other, but they soon transformed those hard feelings of hatred into love. Unfortunately, their everlasting love affair got cut short, when the Nazis captured them and everyone but Mr. Frank died at a concentration camp (Diary of Anne Frank).
In Summer of My German Solider, Patty Bergen, age 12, lived with her mother, father, and little sister in a quiet suburb in Jenkinsville, Arkansas. Her father physically abused her, and her mother wished she was more girly and accomplished. Her life drastically changed when the import of captured Nazi soldiers came to the new POW camp in Jenkinsville. Anton was a 22 year old Nazi. When he escaped, she let him stay above her garage until he decided it was time to go back to his family in Germany. During his stay, they fell in love, despite their drastic age difference. In the end she was convicted of her crime of hiding Anton, and was sent to a reformatory school (Greene).
While both Patty and Anne dealt with captivity, their experiences could not have been more different. During the time that Patty dealt with the troubles of hiding someone else (Anton), Anne had to go through the experience of being hidden herself. Another difference is that while Anne was hiding for fear of death, Patty was hiding Anton out of love, and to keep Anton alive.
Also, both characters’ experiences involved hiding above a designated room n a secret hideaway; but Patty’s experience was above her garage and Anne’s above an old spice shop (Greene) (Diary of Anne Frank). Both Patty and Anne dealt with the risk of hiding, and both suffered the consequences; Patty at the reformatory school, and Anne at the concentration camp.
When the topic of captivity is discussed, Patty and Anne have more differences, but when talking about their relationships with family, they have more similarities. On one hand, we have Patty. Patty dislikes both her parents. Who can blame her, her father both physically and mentally abuses her, and her mother wishes she was unreasonably perfect. Patty also loves her grandparents. On the other hand, we have Anne.
Anne absolutely loves her father, but doesn’t have quite as strong of a relationship with her mother. Anne’s father amuses, while Patty’s father abuses. Both Patty and Anne’s mothers like their other sibling more. Another difference is that Patty has a younger sister, and Anne has an older sister. Also, in both cases, the sibling is generally favored among everyone. Plus both Patty and Anne seek approval from their parents. Even though Patty and Anne are both jealous of their sister, they still love their sibling (Greene) (Diary of Anne Frank).
The next topic is their love lives, which is very different from their family relationships. Both Patty and Anne fell in love with the person whom they shared their captivity experience. Anne fell in love with peter, the Van Daan’s 16 year old son (Diary of Anne Frank). Patty fell in love with Anton, a 22 year old man who was drafter into the war by Hitler (Greene). Anton didn’t like Hitler, or even support his cause.
While both Patty and Anne had an age difference in their relationships, Patty’s was much more prominent, at a difference of 10 whole years, versus Anne and Peter’s age gap of only three years. Another similarity is that both relationships only had a little time to progress. Unfortunately, both Anton and Peter die by the end of the story (Greene) (Diary of Anne Frank).
Clearly, while the lives of Patty Bergen and Anne Frank share many similarities on the topics of captivity, family relationships, and love, they could not be any more individual in some other areas. All these details together make up the two attention-grabbing stories of Patty Bergen and Anne Frank.
