Anne Frank was beautiful and talented...
She was also an author of a diary which, after the second World War was over and Anne Frank was dead at the age of fourteen, her diary would live on. It would be turned into a book. Her father, the only survivor of his immediate family to walk out of a German concentration camp, would find her diary and eventually get it published. It would go on to become one of the world's most celebrated works of literature
I grew up hearing about Anne Frank. Her diary was read and discussed when I was in public school. But being a poorly performing student at the time, I didn't pay it much mind. It wasn't until I came to prison many years later and developed an interest in writing, that Anne's story would prick my heart.
Anne wrote while she was in captivity. She and her parents and sister were living in a secret hideaway they called, "The Annex." Being Jews, they were hunted by the Nazis. To be discovered meant getting sent to a concentration camp where they would be facing great hardship, maybe even death.
With her diary at her side, young Anne penned away. I could relate to this because here I am in a prison cell, and like Anne, I found pen and paper the best way to express my thoughts and share my heart. Eventually I would get a small portable typewriter that I would peck away at for hours. The result? Today I have more than a thousand pages of journal writings, and they still keep coming. Writing has become one of my passions.
Years ago I found a copy of Anne's diary, now a book, in the prison's library. Reading it from behind prison walls brought her work into a whole new light. She became a source of inspiration for me to continue on with my own writings. An innocent Anne and a guilty David, both of us locked away from society. Anne was hiding for her life, and I was confined to prison for life. Each of us in captivity, yet diligently putting our thoughts and feelings on paper. How could I not relate to her? And we're both Jewish, too.
I try to read her diary at least once a year. I do the same for my two favorite books in the Bible, Ruth and Esther. These devoted women were outstanding examples of those who demonstrated champion-like faith. Their acts of courage altered history for the better.
To quote portions of Anne's entry for Wednesday, February 23, 1944, she wrote, "The best remedy for those who are frightened, lonely, or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere they can be alone, alone with the sky, nature, and God. For then and only then can you feel that everything is as it should be and that God wants people to be happy amid nature and simplicity... I firmly believe that nature can bring comfort to all who suffer."
While in the same entry Anne wrote, "My writing, the best thing I have, is coming along well." Anne sharpened her writing skills while in confinement, and I've been trying to do the same. She also loved and admired the beauty of nature, and for spending time alone with our Creator. This describes me one hundred percent.
Dear Anne Frank, her heart now lives in her words.
D.B.
End note: After she and her family were discovered in hiding, they were all sent to concentration camps. Anne and her sister Margot both died in the notorious Bergen-Belsen camp. Anne and Margot probably died in February or March 1945; their bodies dumped in a mass grave. Ironically, the camp was liberated by British troops on April 12, 1945.
The Diary of a Young Girl: Anne Frank
(The Definitive Edition)
Anchor Books/Random-House, Inc.
New York, 1996
I grew up hearing about Anne Frank. Her diary was read and discussed when I was in public school. But being a poorly performing student at the time, I didn't pay it much mind. It wasn't until I came to prison many years later and developed an interest in writing, that Anne's story would prick my heart.
Anne wrote while she was in captivity. She and her parents and sister were living in a secret hideaway they called, "The Annex." Being Jews, they were hunted by the Nazis. To be discovered meant getting sent to a concentration camp where they would be facing great hardship, maybe even death.
With her diary at her side, young Anne penned away. I could relate to this because here I am in a prison cell, and like Anne, I found pen and paper the best way to express my thoughts and share my heart. Eventually I would get a small portable typewriter that I would peck away at for hours. The result? Today I have more than a thousand pages of journal writings, and they still keep coming. Writing has become one of my passions.
Years ago I found a copy of Anne's diary, now a book, in the prison's library. Reading it from behind prison walls brought her work into a whole new light. She became a source of inspiration for me to continue on with my own writings. An innocent Anne and a guilty David, both of us locked away from society. Anne was hiding for her life, and I was confined to prison for life. Each of us in captivity, yet diligently putting our thoughts and feelings on paper. How could I not relate to her? And we're both Jewish, too.
I try to read her diary at least once a year. I do the same for my two favorite books in the Bible, Ruth and Esther. These devoted women were outstanding examples of those who demonstrated champion-like faith. Their acts of courage altered history for the better.
To quote portions of Anne's entry for Wednesday, February 23, 1944, she wrote, "The best remedy for those who are frightened, lonely, or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere they can be alone, alone with the sky, nature, and God. For then and only then can you feel that everything is as it should be and that God wants people to be happy amid nature and simplicity... I firmly believe that nature can bring comfort to all who suffer."
While in the same entry Anne wrote, "My writing, the best thing I have, is coming along well." Anne sharpened her writing skills while in confinement, and I've been trying to do the same. She also loved and admired the beauty of nature, and for spending time alone with our Creator. This describes me one hundred percent.
Dear Anne Frank, her heart now lives in her words.
D.B.
End note: After she and her family were discovered in hiding, they were all sent to concentration camps. Anne and her sister Margot both died in the notorious Bergen-Belsen camp. Anne and Margot probably died in February or March 1945; their bodies dumped in a mass grave. Ironically, the camp was liberated by British troops on April 12, 1945.
The Diary of a Young Girl: Anne Frank
(The Definitive Edition)
Anchor Books/Random-House, Inc.
New York, 1996
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