ANNE FRANK: FOREVER SIXTEEN (1929 to 1945)
“In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.” AF
I can’t believe that six years have passed since I started this blog, and I haven’t honored Anne Frank; a young woman who endured unthinkable hardship and instead of turning inward with a hardened soul, she turned despair into a beautiful piece of literature that has withstood the test of time.
What can I say about Anne that hasn’t been said before? For starters, with the possible exception of Sacajawea, she has more statues, sculptures, monuments, and mile markers erected in her likeness than any other woman (who are notoriously left out of the monument-making industry). It’s easy to see why she’s so beloved– her humanity and belief system that “right prevails over wrong” is a time-tested philosophy, upon which heroes are built. Her youth, spirit and gloriously rendered words are merely an added layer of polish. Who would ever think that so much insight and wisdom went on in the soul of a young girl, let alone one hidden in an attic during one of the most horrific times in the history of the world?
We all know the story of Ms. Frank, which has been well documented, so I won’t rehash it here. Put simply, Anne was born of Jewish faith and her crime was that she found herself directly in the path of Hitler’s wrath. For many people, she became the face of the Holocaust. When tragedy strikes, we look for a familiar face in the crowd, someone for whom we can relate. As school kids, most of us were exposed to her timeless memoir and now whenever we see her image or likeness, we stop and think about her story: the hidden attic, sliding bookcase, coming-of-age milestones, hunger, fear, and extreme survival conditions. At yet against all odds, she never lost hope.
“I don’t think of all the misery but of the beauty that remains.” Anne Frank
Even if all that remained was a sliver of light, a line of poetry, a really good sentence, the touch of a hand and a tiny taste of cake, Anne stayed positive. These small things stood between hope and hopelessness. What small things would be on your list if you found yourself at the edge of tomorrow?
Statues of Anne can be found in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Canada, Center for Jewish Americans, The WW11 Museum, New Orleans, Idaho and elsewhere. It’s never too late to pay you respects.
My last words are hard to write, given all that we know about Anne’s bravery and humanity. Remarkedly, she remained optimistic about her fate and continued to love mankind despite everything she endured at the hands of the Hitler’s regime. Sadly, her love wasn’t always reciprocated. Then or now. Just recently, some of her statues were victimized by vandals and haters who defaced her likenesses. To violate a young woman’s historical essence because she was a symbolic representation of everything they abhorred is disgraceful. Mankind, or should I say, Womenkind, we are better than this.
This blog is not just as a litany of magnificent women but more like an Irish cairn where every statue is a rock that your place upon the pile so that it grows higher, wider and more expansive. Let’s place Anne’s statue on top of all the other women who have graced our matriarchal landscape. The goals is to add layer upon layer of magnificent women till the end of time.
Women Rock! Never forget.
