Anne Frank:

Flower in a Crannied Wall

Anne Frank, the young girl whose posthumously published diary captivated the world with her chronicle of life in hiding in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, provides us with a poignant glimpse of humanity. Unfortunately, she was not plucked but violently uprooted from the wall in which she resided and those who uprooted her saw no value or beauty in her. Perhaps if her life had not ended so tragically, her insights into the people and the world around her would never have been known to us and our attempts to know and understand this remarkable girl could never have taken place.

Read about the young Polish Jewess who also kept a diary

Anne’s diary, along with her stories and other works show the unfettered imagination and joie de vivre of a girl whose life had all but collapsed around her. Despite the harsh realities of her life — the loss of her happy home, the persecution, isolation and enforced silence — Anne continued to find beauty, love, meaning and purpose in her life. Even when she longs for things that she does not have, she understands the need to keep a correct perspective. In one entry, she writes “Cycling again, dancing, flirting and what-have-you, how I would love that; if only I were free again! Sometimes I even think, will anybody understand me, will anybody overlook my ingratitude, overlook Jew or non-Jew, and just see the young girl in me who is badly in need of some rollicking fun?” She later edited the entry to read “Cycling, dancing, whistling, looking out at the world, feeling young, to know that I’m free — that's what I long for; still I mustn’t show it, because I sometimes think if all 8 of us began to pity ourselves, or went about with discontented faces, where would it lead us?” She is an apt example to all of us who, for whatever reason, must suffer, remain silent or conceal ourselves because of who or what we are.