The climax in a work of literature is its highest point of tension. In the play The Diary of Anne Frank, the tension revolves around whether the Franks, the Van Daans, and Mr. Dussel, all Jews, can escape death at the hands of the Nazis as they hide out in Amsterdam during World War II. The Nazis have occupied the Netherlands and have been rounding up the Jewish population to deport them to concentration camps as part of their final solution (genocide) of the Jewish people. As time goes on, however, and it becomes clearer the Germans will lose the war, the group becomes increasingly hopeful that they will ride out the war, though the tension and uncertainty never leaves them.
This group has been holed up in the attic annex for two years when ominous signs raise the tension level very high. First, the office beneath them, usually...
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occupied, is empty for three days, with nobody coming to work. A phone then rings in the unoccupied office incessantly, with no one to answer, sending fear coursing through the hiding people. Finally, a car pulls up. The hideaways have been betrayed. The Gestapo arrives, banging on the annex door to arrest them.
After this frightening climax, the tension releases.
The play The Diary of Anne Frank was written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hacket. It does a good job of establishing the serious mood of hiding from the Nazis for 25 months of Anne's young life. The conflict, then, is person vs. society as Anne's goal is to survive World War II without being sent to a Nazi concentration camp. Every event builds upon the question of if the Franks, the Van Daans, and Mr. Dussel will come off conquerors by not getting caught. They must walk around in socks, not use the bathroom, and not talk during the day while people work downstairs. They suffer hunger, fatigue, and bickering amongst themselves, but the climax centers around the families getting captured by the Nazis because it was their ultimate goal to avoid this. Therefore, the climax is when the Nazis show up, pound on the door, yell orders, and ultimately capture the families hiding in the secret annex.
Right before the Nazis enter the annex, Mr. Frank says, "For the past two years we have lived in fear. Now we can live in hope" (Act IV). Anne writes one last passage in her diary, as follows:
"And so it seems our stay here is over. They are waiting for us now. They've allowed us five minutes to get our things. We can each take a bag of whatever it will hold of clothing. Nothing else. So, dear Diary, that means I must leave you behind. Goodbye for a while" (Act V).
The resolution to the play comes in Act V as Mr. Frank, Miep, and Mr. Kraler remember their time in the secret annex and those they have lost in the Nazi concentration camps. Of course the play ends with Anne's voice saying, "In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart."