The Legacy of Anne Frank
“It’s an odd idea for someone like me to keep a diary: not only because I have never done so before, but because it seems to me that neither I, nor for that matter anyone else, will be interested in the unbosoming of a thirteen year old schoolgirl.” is how the second entry of a young girl’s diary began. It has definitely not turned out to be true.
Since its publication has become the symbol of the plight and murder of over six million Jews during the Holocaust. This was the diary of Anne Frank. In it she described two years of relationships, conflicts, laughs, arguments, and rules. But why do we know who she is over the millions of other equally significant kids and adults that died during the Holocaust? Why does she live on? Morrie Schwarts once said “Love is how you stay alive even after you are gone”, and that is why Anne Frank lives on now, even after her death because of her father’s love for her, her love for writing, and her love for life and the simple things of it. “However touching and sincere the expressions of sympathy I receive may be, I always reply that it is not enough to think of Anne with pity or admiration.
Her diary should be a source of inspiration toward the realization of the ideals and hopes she expressed in it”. Anne’s father was one of the main reasons Anne still lives on. He is the one who published her diary, in which she eloquently described two years of feelings and experiences, with the help of Miep Gies and Elli Vossen, who handed him the diary, filled with Anne’s stories and sketches, when he came back from the concentration camp and visited the secret annex. He was the only of the secret annex members to survive the concentration camps and live long enough to publish the diary. Miep and Elli were employees of Mr.
Frank and protected the group hiding in the secret annex and brought them food and supplies. At first it was only published as a memorial to his family the copies were privately circulated. Later, a Dutch university professor told him to formally publish it, and it was published in Amsterdam. Now it has been published and translated all over the world. “I would not ask if conditions here would not force me to do all I can in time to be able to avoid worse, perhaps you remember that we have two girls. It is for the sake of the children mainly that we have to care for.
Our own fate is of less importance.” Otto Frank desperately tried to get his family out of Europe when he saw that things were taking a turn for the worst and Hitler was gaining power. He asked all his connections to help him get visas to America for his family, but alas he was still denied because of the strict regulations put in place within the American government. No amount of money or any connections could get him and his family to a safe place. So, he moved them from Germany to Holland when he saw things were taking a turn for worst, and Hitler was gaining power. He took them into hiding.
They hid above his office building with four others. Mr. Frank and Anne shared many interests. This intensified their relationship all the more because they had more to talk about. They both loved reading and discussed many different books. Anne believed she loved her father more than anybody else in her family because they were so close and talked very often.
Her father was her main human confidant for most of her life because she felt closest to him. Next, Anne’s love of writing also is a reason why she lives on, because without it there would be no diary. She received her diary for her thirteenth birthday from her parents. She named it kitty. She thought she was not the type of person to keep a diary and that nobody would be interested. Writing was Anne’s outlet when she didn’t know who else to tell about her problems.
In it she wrote about how even though she appeared tough, bubbly, and talkative on the outside, she was actually soft and sensitive on the inside. Her talking was just a cover up so she wouldn’t have to open up herself for teasing. Even when she tried to be serious, everybody laughed. Kitty was the only one she could trust not to make fun of her because she needed someone to tell her secrets to, talk to, and confide in. Anne loved to read, as well. She read any book she could get her hands on.
Miep brought her books from the library every week. It kept her entertained while they were in hiding, along with her writing. It kept her from getting bored even though she was a teenager trapped in an attic, not allowed to see her friends. The knowledge she gained from reading definitely made her have more to write about. Her reading definitely made her a better writer because it bettered and made her writing style more interesting to read, by adding more depth and vocabulary to her writing.
Also, Anne didn’t just write about her life in her diary. She wrote poems, creative stories, and short stories, including fairy tales. She wrote a poem for her father on his birthday. She wrote short stories as well. She had a lot of ideas in her head. If she had not died so soon she could have written about all these ideas and the world would have so many more amazing writings and works of literature by Anne, to read and spin our imaginations.
Nonetheless, she still lives on in our hearts because of the works she did create, the exciting story of her amazing and courageous life, her diary. Finally, Anne Frank lives on because of her love for life. She loved the simple things in her life. She eloquently and vividly described all these things in her diary as well. It is part of makes her so interesting.
They are the moments that seem to make her life worth living to her. Anne’s special moments were relatable, which is why anyone that reads her diary can understand her and realize she was just a person like all of the rest of the world. It was not fair that she had to die so young and no matter the age of the reader her story touches our hearts. Which is why, once her diary is read by anyone, she lives on in their hearts forever. As has been said before, Anne was a talkative and bubbly girl. She spoke her mind with no formality and she did not lie just to be polite.
For this many thought she was a rude and insolent young girl who did not listen to anybody, like Mrs. Van Daan. They thought she was loud and insufferable. Everybody was irritated by her constant chatter, but her family defended her. Anne also enjoyed and appreciated nature very much. She loved sitting by the window and reading.
She loved soaking in the sunlight and basking in the moon’s incandescent glow. She loved writing by the open window with light streaming through it on to her diary during the day, though she could rarely do this without arousing suspicion. In the secret annex, the windows had to be closed most of the day. This was because the Franks did not want the neighbors to be suspicious of them hiding in the attic. She looked forward everyday to when she could open the window in the attic. Anne wanted to see the trees and greenery she loved every day.
Before she and her family had to go into hiding, she highly enjoyed going out with her friends and riding bikes with all of them, surrounded by the plants, trees and greenery. Anne was not one of those people who liked to be alone in peace and quiet very often. She loved life and liked to be surrounded with people she loved, such as her friends and family. Anne was a bubbly young teenage girl who liked doing the things all teenagers like to do. She enjoyed spending time with her friends. She enjoyed flirting with boys, and she enjoyed going out with boys.
Anne also worried about school related things like passing and getting in trouble for being a chatter box in class while the teacher is trying to teach. All of these things about Anne Frank made her so relatable that she is remembered and close to the hearts of everybody who knows her story. In conclusion, Anne Frank lives on because of her father’s love for her, her love for writing, and her love for life and the simple things of it. Mr. Frank once said, “Her diary should be a source of inspiration toward the realization of the ideals and hopes she expressed in it.” She died just three months before the end of the second world war and holocaust, just a few months before all the Jews were released, in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
She died in March of 1945 at the age of sixteen. She died soon after her sister, Margot, somehow knowing she had died, of typhoid and malnutrition, same as her sister. Her mother was separated from them and died before both. Mr. Frank was the only one to survive and he lived on to find out that his wife and daughters had died, ending his hope for their survival.
He also lived on to remarry and live in his nineties. He died in 1980 of lung cancer. Anne’s diary will always be read and continue to inspire people many years from now because her father had the courage and loved her enough to make her diary available to the masses. What would our world be like if Anne was still alive? What other great masterpieces of writing would we have from her to inspire us and make us think?
