REVISITING ANNE FRANK

Yesterday I watched the most touching documentary relating to Anne Frank. This particular television hour was primarily devoted to Anne’s diary, while, of course, revisiting her life story, and her ultimate death in the concentration camp called, Bergen-Belsen.

One of the highlights of the documentary features a woman named Anna, a childhood friend of Anne, and who, as the result of Otto’s marriage to her mother after the death of his wife, became by default Anne’s step-sister.

Miep Gies, one of the employees in Mr. Frank’s Amsterdam business, who helped hide the Frank family, is another featured participant in the film. After the best-known Jewish family of WWII was taken into custody, Miep found Anne’s diary, and hid it away; hoping to return it to her after the war. Of course, Anne, her sister, Margot and their mother succumbed to Adolph Hitler’s fiendish preoccupation with exterminating every Jew in occupied Europe.

Not long after the conclusion of the war Otto Frank was provided news of his wife’s passing, but continued to hope against hope that his daughters had somehow survived. Sadly, it was not to be, and shortly after he moved in with Miep and her family, his friend unlocked her desk drawer and brought out Anne’s old diary.

During the interview Miep shared Mr. Frank’s subsequent words and actions.

“I brought out the diary, and placed it in Otto’s hands. He received it with curiosity, but paused before he opened it. As he began to read the first paragraph, tears sprang to his eyes. Over the course of the next three weeks he devoured the book, but due to the overwhelming emotion it generated in him, he only managed a few pages at a time. Having finished Anne’s reminisces my dear friend smiled one of the saddest smiles I’ve ever seen, and remarked, 

‘I never knew my daughter!’”

During the course of his waning years, the family’s lone survivor of the death camps did his part to make sure the entire world knew her, and as a result Anne’s diary has been published in dozens of languages throughout the world.

We are all better for having known Anne; forever young, and with a forever relevant message to share with her world.

by William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from (Mc)Donald's Daily Diary. Vol. 33. Copyright pending