I recently finished reading the Diary of Anne Frank. It is a compilation of letters written by a girl to her diary during the second world war. She was from a Jewish family and the entire family lived in a secret annex for about two years to hide from Nazi atrocities. She started writing this diary when she was 13 until the age of 15 after which the family was captured and sent to concentration camps. This book has touched me so deeply for a lot of reasons.
First, it makes me wonder how can an entire population be targeted based on their religious preference. It has been almost 70 years since Anne Frank died in a concentration camp but religion is still used as a tool to undermine one community or give power to another. Has the human race really progressed much in all these years? Do we really learn from the past? Or will history repeat itself?
Second, it makes me applaud the strength of character of all those families who were in hiding during those years. From the accounts, it seems like Anne belonged to a well to do family so they had enough means to arrange food, books, necessities (irrespective of the quality of all these things) for a prolonged period of two years. But they were still living in closed quarters with limited accessibility even to fresh air or morning light. How did they manage to keep themselves sane and hopeful is beyond my comprehension!
Third, it makes me look at my life and problems I think I have in a different light. It makes my problems so tiny that I feel like I have no business complaining about anything when I am living in a free country. I have a blessed life and have all the things that these people could only dream of. And it makes me scared of the consequences of countries bombing each other and people killing each other in the name of religion. The last thing this world needs is another war.
Lastly, it makes me proud of this lil 13 year old girl Anne whose thoughts matured so quickly over a period of 2 years. At such young age, she is a person to be looked up to. Such profound thoughts and such beautiful expression in words. She is an inspiration. Do you think Anne Frank would have been the same person had she not lived in those circumstances? Would she be just another teenager in a normal world? I wonder if I would ever get an answer to this question!! Any thoughts?
First, it makes me wonder how can an entire population be targeted based on their religious preference. It has been almost 70 years since Anne Frank died in a concentration camp but religion is still used as a tool to undermine one community or give power to another. Has the human race really progressed much in all these years? Do we really learn from the past? Or will history repeat itself?
Second, it makes me applaud the strength of character of all those families who were in hiding during those years. From the accounts, it seems like Anne belonged to a well to do family so they had enough means to arrange food, books, necessities (irrespective of the quality of all these things) for a prolonged period of two years. But they were still living in closed quarters with limited accessibility even to fresh air or morning light. How did they manage to keep themselves sane and hopeful is beyond my comprehension!
Third, it makes me look at my life and problems I think I have in a different light. It makes my problems so tiny that I feel like I have no business complaining about anything when I am living in a free country. I have a blessed life and have all the things that these people could only dream of. And it makes me scared of the consequences of countries bombing each other and people killing each other in the name of religion. The last thing this world needs is another war.
Lastly, it makes me proud of this lil 13 year old girl Anne whose thoughts matured so quickly over a period of 2 years. At such young age, she is a person to be looked up to. Such profound thoughts and such beautiful expression in words. She is an inspiration. Do you think Anne Frank would have been the same person had she not lived in those circumstances? Would she be just another teenager in a normal world? I wonder if I would ever get an answer to this question!! Any thoughts?
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