I used to know what Anne Frank stood for but the reputation of the teenage diarist has evolved to the point where she might no longer mean anything at all.
Unfortunately, Anne Frank no longer belongs to the Jews. She is a symbol who can morph into any cause. Like the Holocaust itself, and even the word "genocide" these days, appropriating our pain, or making it universal, is a new form of antisemitism. The thing is, I'm not entirely certain Anne Frank would have objected. She was nothing if not a creative thinker and an optimist. Had she lived through the Holocaust, would she have come out of it still believing that "people are really good at heart"? We'll never know.
I'm not a Jew. However, I have never understood this us-vs-them mentality that continues. I've read her Diary twice and have visited her house. But a thought occurred to me. It is a troubling thought--not only because I dare think it at all--but because I fear a hostile response. As a Catholic, I have come up against sacrosanct writing with serious doubts and been shouted down, rebuked, and even lost friends over it.
And then I think of the good this work has done. How it sealed an entire mindset in the immediate post-war guiltscape that engendered "Never again!"
Of course "Never again!" This is such an important--even crucial--slogan that defines humanity and how we're better than that. We must be! (Even invoking the sentiment of "How could we have ever!")
But some did. And, worse, it seems that even those who know history are doomed to repeat it anyway. Maybe even soon.
So, back to Anne Frank. I have to admit I find it a bit mysterious that the Nazis secured the Frank living quarters after their removal and, their being propaganda hounds, it seems unlikely that they'd miss a diary lying on the floor. An actual journal. As I understand it, that is where her uncle found it some time later. Perhaps so. I also know that heartstrings are a terrible thing to waste, especially after the size of the heartbreak that comes with genocide. The holocaust was such a scourge on our legacy that anything probably was fair in hedging the bets against it happening ever again. But...
Could the diary have been fabricated? The world was reeling from the holocaust and politics of homelands and other safeguards were in the works. The timing was perfect.
Now I know her diary has been carefully and expertly studied, even forensically. Hand-writing experts have probably weighed in as to its authenticity; I don't know. I only read it and didn't study it or the extended history around it. But I have thought about it immensely and on many levels. I'm a boomer, so when I was growing up, WWII and the holocaust were still fresh sensibilities. But if it had been fabricated, or at the least altered in such a way to push the humanism that begs "Never again!", would that have been a bad thing? That's not politics.
Not to me.
"Never again" is not a political promise. It's a human mandate.
Do I really think Anne Frank's diary was fabricated? Well, actually, no. So before I get responses of "Ridiculous!", "Idiot!", or "Antisemitic!", know that I DO believe it to be because of the authentic coming-of-age angst strewn throughout. It would be too genius to fabricate such authenticity. Yet, it's also a human voice that is heard loud and clear. It is the truth, no matter what the source, right? And its young-girl innocence only heightens the messages between the lines.
"Suffer the children," Christ allegedly said. (There I go again!) Why? Because innocence is what we're born with and it's a great gift. It invites wonder, another great gift. If a young girl cannot understand what happened to her, how can any deity? How can our humanity?
Unfortunately, Anne Frank no longer belongs to the Jews. She is a symbol who can morph into any cause. Like the Holocaust itself, and even the word "genocide" these days, appropriating our pain, or making it universal, is a new form of antisemitism. The thing is, I'm not entirely certain Anne Frank would have objected. She was nothing if not a creative thinker and an optimist. Had she lived through the Holocaust, would she have come out of it still believing that "people are really good at heart"? We'll never know.
So true. We'll never know.
I'm not a Jew. However, I have never understood this us-vs-them mentality that continues. I've read her Diary twice and have visited her house. But a thought occurred to me. It is a troubling thought--not only because I dare think it at all--but because I fear a hostile response. As a Catholic, I have come up against sacrosanct writing with serious doubts and been shouted down, rebuked, and even lost friends over it.
And then I think of the good this work has done. How it sealed an entire mindset in the immediate post-war guiltscape that engendered "Never again!"
Of course "Never again!" This is such an important--even crucial--slogan that defines humanity and how we're better than that. We must be! (Even invoking the sentiment of "How could we have ever!")
But some did. And, worse, it seems that even those who know history are doomed to repeat it anyway. Maybe even soon.
So, back to Anne Frank. I have to admit I find it a bit mysterious that the Nazis secured the Frank living quarters after their removal and, their being propaganda hounds, it seems unlikely that they'd miss a diary lying on the floor. An actual journal. As I understand it, that is where her uncle found it some time later. Perhaps so. I also know that heartstrings are a terrible thing to waste, especially after the size of the heartbreak that comes with genocide. The holocaust was such a scourge on our legacy that anything probably was fair in hedging the bets against it happening ever again. But...
Could the diary have been fabricated? The world was reeling from the holocaust and politics of homelands and other safeguards were in the works. The timing was perfect.
Now I know her diary has been carefully and expertly studied, even forensically. Hand-writing experts have probably weighed in as to its authenticity; I don't know. I only read it and didn't study it or the extended history around it. But I have thought about it immensely and on many levels. I'm a boomer, so when I was growing up, WWII and the holocaust were still fresh sensibilities. But if it had been fabricated, or at the least altered in such a way to push the humanism that begs "Never again!", would that have been a bad thing? That's not politics.
Not to me.
"Never again" is not a political promise. It's a human mandate.
Do I really think Anne Frank's diary was fabricated? Well, actually, no. So before I get responses of "Ridiculous!", "Idiot!", or "Antisemitic!", know that I DO believe it to be because of the authentic coming-of-age angst strewn throughout. It would be too genius to fabricate such authenticity. Yet, it's also a human voice that is heard loud and clear. It is the truth, no matter what the source, right? And its young-girl innocence only heightens the messages between the lines.
"Suffer the children," Christ allegedly said. (There I go again!) Why? Because innocence is what we're born with and it's a great gift. It invites wonder, another great gift. If a young girl cannot understand what happened to her, how can any deity? How can our humanity?
Let’s all remember, she was a naive preteen when she wrote all this BEFORE witnessing and dying in Bergen Belsen.
Agreed, which is why her optimism was always questioned. Still, I imagine it would be difficult to maintain optimism in hiding.