Many Americans are at least somewhat familiar with the story of Anne Frank, perhaps the best known victim of the Nazi German Holocaust against European Jews. Anne was born in Germany in 1929. A year after Adolph Hitler rose to power in 1933 her family fled to the Netherlands to escape Nazi persecution of German citizens of Jewish descent. After conquering western Poland in conjunction with the Soviet Union conquering eastern Poland in the fall of 1939, Nazi Germany turned its attention west and overran and occupied the Netherlands, in May of 1940. The Frank family was once again in the hands of the virulently anti-Semitic Nazis.
Before the Nazi occupation, the Netherlands had a Jewish population of about 150,000, about a fifth of those Jewish refugees from Germany or German-controlled territories. By May of 1942 Jews in the Netherlands were required to wear a Star of David on their clothing so they `would be easily recognizable. With an increasing fear of being arrested for being Jewish, the Frank family and a small group of other Jews went into hiding in a secret apartment they called the annex at her father Otto’s business on July 6, 1942. A select few of Otto’s trusted non-Jewish employees would help the Frank family survive there while in hiding. For a while, at least.
On August 4, 1944, the Frank family’s secret hiding place was stormed by uniformed German police and Anne and the others hiding there were arrested. A month later the Frank family would be sent to the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp in Occupied Poland. At Auschwitz, the men and women were separated and those unable to work, including children under 15, were sent directly to the gas chambers. Anne had turned 15 three months earlier. She would have her head shaved, stripped naked to be sprayed with a disinfectant, tattooed with an identification number, and forced into hard labor.
In late October Anne was transferred along with her sister and some other women to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in northern Germany. Due to cramped, unsanitary living conditions and the inmates being overworked and underfed, the mortality rates at the camps were extremely high. Anne would die at Bergen-Belsen in February or March of 1945, likely due to one of the many infectious diseases that ran rampant through the prison’s inmates. The British would liberate the camp on April 15, 1945, less than two months after Anne’s death.
Anne’s life has inspired millions of people who have read her writings and learned of her life. But how?
We know so much about Anne Frank’s life for a number of reasons. Anne was given an autograph book as a present on her thirteenth birthday. While in hiding she used this book as a diary to record her thoughts and observations. Anne wrote of her ordeal.
After Anne was arrested a woman named Miep Gies, one of the Frank family’s non-Jewish protectors, collected her diary and some other papers strewn upon the floor of the annex with the intention of returning the papers to Anne when she returned at the end of the war. Gies was an Austrian born orphan who had been raised by a Dutch family. Anne’s writings were preserved by Gies.
After the war, Anne of course did not return to the Netherlands. Instead of returning Anne’s writings to her, Gies gave the diary and other papers to Anne’s father Otto, who survived the war and did return to the Netherlands. Out of love for his daughter and a wish to share her life with others, Otto Frank worked to get Anne’s writings published. Anne’s writings were originally published in 1947 in Dutch and over time would be translated to over 70 languages and read by millions worldwide. Anne’s writings were shared by her loved ones.
Anne, even in death, has inspired millions. But again, how?
First, Anne had the means to write down her thoughts. She had the ability to read and write and something to write with and write on. Sounds simple enough, but having the means to write is a prerequisite to writing.
Second, Anne made the effort and took the time to record her thoughts. Even during what must have been a very harrowing and at times hopeless situation, living in hiding amidst a European wide conflagration, she persisted. Anne exercised faith that her words had meaning and value.
Third, Anne was fortunate enough that someone, in this case Miep Gies, showed basic human kindness to Anne and collected her papers instead of leaving them to be lost, or even destroying the papers herself. Many important writings throughout the centuries have been lost by simple neglect or disinterest, or destroyed by recklessness or out of malice. The oldest existent copies of the Old Testament are in Greek, not Hebrew. The ancient Library of Alexandria, that great storehouse of ancient history and wisdom, burned along with tens of thousands of ancient texts. What has been preserved throughout the centuries for future generations is a mere fraction of what has been created. In Anne’s case, Miep Gies had her own reasons why she might have wanted to destroy Anne’s writings. Anne’s writings chronicled her secret life in the annex as well as the fact outsiders, which included Gies, were helping those hiding there. To hide her own culpability from the Nazis searching for Jews and those helping them, Gies could well have destroyed the papers for fear of them coming into the hands of the authorities.
Fourth, Anne was fortunate that her father survived his confinement in the concentration camp and then recognized the worth of Anne’s writings and went to the effort to prepare them for publication and work to find a publisher. Much written material of historical or artistic value is not shared simply due to those who possess it not recognizing its historical or literary value. Otto Frank and the others who worked to get Anne’s work published recognized its worth, and acted on this realization. Attics, drawers, libraries, and countless other places hold works of historical or literary significance, but lack someone to recognize the value of these works. This is humanity’s lose.
Finally, Anne’s work was read. Again, our libraries, and even bookshelves in our own homes or digital equivalents on our electronic devices, are often full of published written works of great value that do not enrich humanity simply because they are not read. How many homes contain copies of the Old and New Testaments, which are treasure troves of knowledge, but which are never read? If a book is never opened no matter what revelations or inspirations the work contains for a prospective reader the writings are of very limited value, except perhaps to be saved for the next generation. The written word is not self-executing. Words need to be read for their value to be accessed.
Anne Frank’s writings are perhaps so poignant in part because of the long odds against her writings ever being created in the first place and then being available to be read. At so many points along the journey the simple act of writing could have been interrupted and once written the writings could have very easily been lost to all of humanity. In the past and even today, how many other worthy insights have never been committed to paper? How many other writings of equal or even greater historical or literary value have been lost, or are waiting to be discovered?