Anne

It has been 69 years.  A young girl, superficially popular but internally yearning for something more, found an outlet into which she could pour her inner-most thoughts and feelings.  It came in the form of a red-checkered diary whose first pages start with, "I hope I will be able to confide everything in you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support". 

From June 12th, 1942 until August 1st, 1944 Anne Frank kept a diary.  She held nothing back.  The girl who, throughout these 25 months of writing, mentioned so many times about her desire to become a professional writer has made an impact on me and millions of others.

May 1942

She and her family, along with 4 other people, went into hiding at 263 Prinsengracht in Amsterdam.  She nicknamed the place "Het Achterhuis" or "The Secret Annexe" in English. 

She had one voice, yet her story speaks for 6 million Jewish people and 5 million others - black people, Jehovah Witnesses, Gypsies, disabled people, homosexuals, priests and other Christian leaders, and of course anyone who tried to resist.  11 million people shared her fate.  Actually, some say that number is optimistically low.

She was 13 when she started the diary and was 15 as of her last entry, but her words are much more mature.  While reading, I marked some noteworthy quotes which I've included here:

November 8th, 1943 (day 490 of 757 days in hiding) -
"At night in bed I see myself alone in a dungeon, without Father or Mother.  Or I'm roaming the streets, or the Annexe is on fire, or they come in the middle of the night to take us away and I crawl under my bed in desperation." ... "I simply can't imagine the world will ever be normal again for us.  I do talk about 'after the war', but it's as if I were talking about a castle in the air, something that can never come true.  I see the eight of us surrounded by menacing black clouds.  The perfectly round spot on which we're standing is still safe, but the clouds are moving in on us, and the ring between us and the approaching danger is being pulled tighter and tighter.  We're surrounded by darkness and danger, and in our desperate search for a way out we keep bumping into each other.  We look at the fighting down below and the peace and beauty up above.  In the meantime, we've been cut off by the dark mass of clouds, so that we can go neither up nor down.  It looms before us like and impenetrable wall, trying to crush us, but not yet able to.  I can only cry out and implore, 'Oh, ring, ring, open wide and let us out!'"

December 24th, 1943 -
"I long to ride a bike, dance, whistle, look at the world, feel young and know that I'm free, and yet I can't let it show.  Just imagine what would happen if all eight of us were to feel sorry for ourselves or walk around with the discontent clearly visible on our faces.  Where would that get us?"

February 3rd, 1944 -
"I've reached the point where I hardly care whether I live or die.  The world will keep on turning without me, and I can't do anything to change events anyway.  I'll just let matters take their course and concentrate on studying and hope that everything will be all right in the end."

March 7th, 1944 (about feeling melancholy) -
"My advice is: 'Go outside, to the country, enjoy the sun and all nature has to offer.  Go outside and try to recapture the happiness within yourself; think of all the beauty in yourself and in everything around you and be happy.' ... 'beauty remains, even in misfortune.  If you just look for it, you discover more and more happiness and regain your balance.  A person who's happy will make others happy; a person who has courage and faith will never die in misery!'"

March 16th, 1944 -
"The nicest part is being able to write down all my thoughts and feelings; otherwise, I'd absolutely suffocate."

April 11th, 1944 -
"We must put our feelings aside; we must be brave and strong, bear discomfort without complaint, do whatever is in our power and trust in God.  One day this terrible war will be over.  The time will come when we'll be people again and not just Jews! ... In the eyes of the world, we're doomed, but if, after all this suffering, there are still Jews left, the Jewish people will be held up as an example.  Who knows, maybe our religion will teach the world and all the people in it about goodness, and that's the reason, the only reason, we have to suffer.  We can never be just Dutch, or just English, or whatever, we will always be Jews as well.  And we'll have to keep on being Jews, but then, we'll want to be."

May 3rd, 1944 -
"Why is England manufacturing bigger and better aeroplanes and bombs and at the same time churning out new houses for reconstruction?  Why are millions spent on the war each day, while not a penny is available for medical science, artists or the poor?  Why do people have to starve when mountains of food are rotting away in other parts of the world?  Oh, why are people so crazy?"

May 26th, 1944 -
"I've asked myself again and again whether it wouldn't have been better if we hadn't gone into hiding, if we were dead now and didn't have to go through this misery, especially so that the others could be spared the burden.  But we all shrink from this thought.  We still love life, we haven't yet forgotten the voice of nature, and we keep hoping, hoping for... everything.  Let something happen soon, even an air raid.  Nothing can be more crushing than this anxiety.  Let the end come, however cruel; at least then we'll know whether we are to be the victors or the vanquished."

July 15, 1944 -
"It's difficult times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality.  It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical.  Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart."

"It's utterly impossible for me to build my life on a foundation of chaos, suffering and death.  I see the world being transformed into a wilderness, I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too, I feel the suffering of millions.  And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too will end, that peace and tranquillity will return once more.  In the meantime, I must hold on to my ideals.  Perhaps the day will come when I'll be able to realize them!"

It all started with this diary.  After their capture, the diary was saved and remained unread until the end of the war.  Her father, Otto, eventually released it for publication with one wish: "We cannot change what happened any more.  The only thing we can do is to learn from the past and to realize what discrimination and persecution of innocent people means.  I believe it's everyone's responsibility to fight prejudice."