Posted on 08/04/2014 11:19:57 PM PDT by Leaning Right
I suppose that in the greater scheme of things, this anniversary doesn't mean much. But I decided to post it anyway. Anne Frank is someone worth remembering.
Interesting. The person who helped to hide Anne Frank and her family was Roman Catholic.
Thank you for posting this. I read up on Miep Gies via your link and furthered my education a bit.
I visited to museum several years ago and was surprised to learn that it was Anne’s plan to publish her diary aftef the war. She had planned to profit off her situation. Very sad.
She was like 13 when she started and 15 when it came to a sudden halt and you think it’s sad that the child wanted to publish it?
(I doubt you mean it that way, but it could be taken that way)
I fail to see how publishing a book about your experiences in the war and accepting royalties is a sad thing. Even concentration camp survivors have the right to publish accounts or write articles for money as some did. I do not look down upon Elie Wiesel for making money from book publishing even if he has some political ideas that are out there.
Anne’s last entry was written on Tuesday 1 August 1944. It reads:
Dearest Kitty,
“A bundle of contradictions” was the end of my previous letter and is the beginning of this one. Can you please tell me exactly what “a bundle of contradictions” is? What does “contradiction” mean? Like so many words, it can be interpreted in two ways: a contradiction imposed from without and one imposed from within.
The former means not accepting other people’s opinions, always knowing best, having the last word; in short, all those unpleasant traits for which I’m known. The latter, for which I’m not known, is my own secret.
As I’ve told you many times, I’m split in two. One side contains my exuberant cheerfulness, my flippancy, my joy in life and, above all, my ability to appreciate the lighter side of things. By that I mean not finding anything wrong with flirtations, a kiss, an embrace, an off-colour joke. This side of me is usually lying in wait to ambush the other one, which is much purer, deeper and finer. No one knows Anne’s better side, and that’s why most people can’t stand me.
Oh, I can be an amusing clown for an afternoon, but after that everyone’s had enough of me to last a month. Actually, I’m what a romantic movie is to a profound thinker – a mere diversion, a comic interlude, something that is soon forgotten: not bad, but not particularly good either.
I hate having to tell you this, but why shouldn’t I admit it when I know it’s true? My lighter, more superficial side will always steal a march on the deeper side and therefore always win. You can’t imagine how often I’ve tried to push away this Anne, which is only half of what is known as Anne-to beat her down, hide her. But it doesn’t work, and I know why.
I’m afraid that people who know me as I usually am will discover I have another side, a better and finer side. I’m afraid they’ll mock me, think I’m ridiculous and sentimental and not take me seriously. I’m used to not being taken seriously, but only the “light-hearted” Anne is used to it and can put up with it; the “deeper” Anne is too weak. If I force the good Anne into the spotlight for even fifteen minutes, she shuts up like a clam the moment she’s called upon to speak, and lets Anne number one do the talking. Before I realize it, she’s disappeared.
So the nice Anne is never seen in company. She’s never made a single appearance, though she almost always takes the stage when I’m alone. I know exactly how I’d like to be, how I am… on the inside. But unfortunately I’m only like that with myself. And perhaps that’s why-no, I’m sure that’s the reason why I think of myself as happy on the inside and other people think I’m happy on the outside. I’m guided by the pure Anne within, but on the outside I’m nothing but a frolicsome little goat tugging at its tether.
As I’ve told you, what I say is not what I feel, which is why I have a reputation for being boy-crazy as well as a flirt, a smart aleck and a reader of romances. The happy-go-lucky Anne laughs, gives a flippant reply, shrugs her shoulders and pretends she doesn’t give a darn. The quiet Anne reacts in just the opposite way. If I’m being completely honest, I’ll have to admit that it does matter to me, that I’m trying very hard to change myself, but that I I’m always up against a more powerful enemy.
A voice within me is sobbing, “You see, that’s what’s become of you. You’re surrounded by negative opinions, dismayed looks and mocking faces, people, who dislike you, and all because you don’t listen to the advice of your own better half.”
Believe me, I’d like to listen, but it doesn’t work, because if I’m quiet and serious, everyone thinks I’m putting on a new act and I have to save myself with a joke, and then I’m not even talking about my own family, who assume I must be sick, stuff me with aspirins and sedatives, feel my neck and forehead to see if I have a temperature, ask about my bowel movements and berate me for being in a bad mood, until I just can’t keep it up anymore, because when everybody starts hovering over me, I get cross, then sad, and finally end up turning my heart inside g out, the bad part on the outside and the good part on the inside, and keep trying to find a way to become what I’d like to be and what I could be if… if only there were no other people in the world.
Yours, Anne M. Frank
So do you find autobiographies morally reprehensible in general, or is it something about a young teenage girl hiding from the Nazis and trying to figure out what she is going to do for money after the war in order to keep from being destitute and help her family survive that has you disgusted?
What insight about herself from such a young girl.
She was murdered by the Nazis only a few weeks before the British liberated her concentration camp.
And a remarkable writer. She stands as the symbol of what the world lost because of the Nazis. Multiply her by 6 million.
Wow, are you Occupy?
bmp
It’s good to remember her as an example of the evil that has happened and will happen again if we let our guard down.
I see a great deal of virtue in a plan to publish her diary. It has in fact been influential, and she was intelligent enough to know it would be. While antisemitism is rising again, especially among big government types, she may fairly be credited with putting a human face on its victims and delaying that form of evil. It’s been 70 years, which is not long enough but better than we might have done without her. Keeping a diary and having the foresight to know it should be published is a sign of virtue and worthy of admiration.
I am grateful that Anne's diary was published so we could all know her. I just wish that she and many. many others would have lived.
“I suppose that in the greater scheme of things, this anniversary doesn’t mean much.”
Doesn’t mean much? In the “greater scheme of things”, to Never Forget matters greatly. Anne Frank and others live as long as they are not forgotten.
As one who forgot the day, I “Thank You” for the reminder.
He hasn’t replied. I think his comment may have been simply poorly written. Not sure, of course.
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