Along with my final paper for the college class I was taking, Religion and Justice, I had to give a talk on the subject I'd written about…
For me, it was an opportunity to introduce my classmates to the story of young Anne Frank. Some of them had heard about her, while others had not.
So as I stood before the class, I told my fellow students who Anne Frank was. I shared how Anne, as a Jew, was forced along with her parents and sister to go into hiding in order to avoid being arrested by the Nazis, and sent to a concentration camp during World War II.
With the help of several gentile friends who themselves put their lives on the line to help the Franks, a hiding place had been set up in an industrial building in Amsterdam, Holland. Here the Frank family would have to share a few small rooms hidden behind a book case in the hallway.
Wanted by the authorities, the Franks could not talk above a whisper or make any noise lest they be discovered. Confined, they would have to wait out the war in isolation while trying to maintain their sanity.
It was here, while locked away from society, that an articulate, creative, and intelligent Anne, then age fourteen, began to keep a diary. With pen in hand, she began to write. Her energetic mind would not stop.
Anne Frank wrote on an array of subjects. As a typical teenager, she wrote about love and boys, her family, her thoughts about the war, and her hopes and dreams. But those hopes and dreams were to come to a sad ending. Discovered and arrested, Anne and her family, and several others who were confined with them, were hauled off to the camps, where only Anne's father Otto survived.
Through good fortune, Otto Frank was reunited with his daughter's diary. It was eventually made into a book and has since taken on a life of its own, being translated into many languages. It has now gone throughout the world.
But my theme was, what could we as confined individuals accomplish that would impact society the way Anne did? Maybe not on such a grandiose scale, but even in small ways?
I said that young Anne was living in a type of prison. Her environment was oppressive and frightening. There was the constant fear of being discovered. No doubt there were times when she was despondent, and where hope would slip away for a while.
Yet, Anne managed to keep her mind strong by focusing on her diary. Armed with pen and paper, she'd write whatever came to mind at the moment. This was her passion, even her therapy. Using words, she revealed her heart.
Ironically, Anne Frank would never see the end result of her work. Her diary was not discovered until after her death. She never knew her little diary would travel the world, and how she and her pen would impact so many lives in so many ways.
I then challenged my seventeen classmates by saying, "What about you?" I asked them what are you guys going to leave behind, and what can you accomplish now that would impact someone in a good way?
I closed by emphasizing how Anne Frank triumphed over her time of incarceration. Stuck inside a couple of small rooms with no privacy and no opportunity for the normal recreational outlets a teenager needs for her overall well-being, she overcame what we would consider to be a very negative environment.
I again challenged my peers and even myself when I said to them, "Don't let prison limit you. Dream big. Pick up your pens, turn on your minds, and write. And when you think you're done writing, write some more. Like Anne Frank, you can change the world for the better with just a pen.”
D.B.
NOTE: Please read my previous journal entry titled, "Anne Frank the Writer."
So as I stood before the class, I told my fellow students who Anne Frank was. I shared how Anne, as a Jew, was forced along with her parents and sister to go into hiding in order to avoid being arrested by the Nazis, and sent to a concentration camp during World War II.
With the help of several gentile friends who themselves put their lives on the line to help the Franks, a hiding place had been set up in an industrial building in Amsterdam, Holland. Here the Frank family would have to share a few small rooms hidden behind a book case in the hallway.
Wanted by the authorities, the Franks could not talk above a whisper or make any noise lest they be discovered. Confined, they would have to wait out the war in isolation while trying to maintain their sanity.
It was here, while locked away from society, that an articulate, creative, and intelligent Anne, then age fourteen, began to keep a diary. With pen in hand, she began to write. Her energetic mind would not stop.
Anne Frank wrote on an array of subjects. As a typical teenager, she wrote about love and boys, her family, her thoughts about the war, and her hopes and dreams. But those hopes and dreams were to come to a sad ending. Discovered and arrested, Anne and her family, and several others who were confined with them, were hauled off to the camps, where only Anne's father Otto survived.
Through good fortune, Otto Frank was reunited with his daughter's diary. It was eventually made into a book and has since taken on a life of its own, being translated into many languages. It has now gone throughout the world.
But my theme was, what could we as confined individuals accomplish that would impact society the way Anne did? Maybe not on such a grandiose scale, but even in small ways?
I said that young Anne was living in a type of prison. Her environment was oppressive and frightening. There was the constant fear of being discovered. No doubt there were times when she was despondent, and where hope would slip away for a while.
Yet, Anne managed to keep her mind strong by focusing on her diary. Armed with pen and paper, she'd write whatever came to mind at the moment. This was her passion, even her therapy. Using words, she revealed her heart.
Ironically, Anne Frank would never see the end result of her work. Her diary was not discovered until after her death. She never knew her little diary would travel the world, and how she and her pen would impact so many lives in so many ways.
I then challenged my seventeen classmates by saying, "What about you?" I asked them what are you guys going to leave behind, and what can you accomplish now that would impact someone in a good way?
I closed by emphasizing how Anne Frank triumphed over her time of incarceration. Stuck inside a couple of small rooms with no privacy and no opportunity for the normal recreational outlets a teenager needs for her overall well-being, she overcame what we would consider to be a very negative environment.
I again challenged my peers and even myself when I said to them, "Don't let prison limit you. Dream big. Pick up your pens, turn on your minds, and write. And when you think you're done writing, write some more. Like Anne Frank, you can change the world for the better with just a pen.”
D.B.
NOTE: Please read my previous journal entry titled, "Anne Frank the Writer."
