Anne Frank Did Not Just Die a Death. She Lived a Life
For years, I had known Anne Frank as a girl who died a death. I knew she wrote a diary and died in a World War II concentration camp at the age of 15. When her life should have begun blossoming, it came to an end. I suppose this is why I only knew her as a girl who died a death.
Then, about 10 years ago, I was a teacher’s aide in a 5th- and 6th-grade Adventist school classroom. One of my responsibilities was reading Anne Frank’s censored diary with the class. Ironically, one of the first observations my class made was that the dates and days of the week in her diary aligned with those of the current year while we were reading.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
While reading her diary with the class, I personally discovered Anne Frank was way more than a girl who died a death. She lived a life! She was fascinated by human nature, as I am. She studied people and had her ideas, dreams, and imagination. While in isolation, she and her friend Peter would stare out the attic window, trying to imagine and grasp what was going on outside. The writer in me ponders that for the last 80 years, the world has been staring back through that same window, trying to grasp and comprehend what was going on in her and Peter’s world.
While Anne was a girl with vivid ideas and imagination, one of her quotes really hits home with me. Speaking of her writings, she wrote,
“I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I’ve never met. I want to go on living even after my death!” -Anne Frank April 5, 1944.
When I read this, I thought those are my thoughts about writing for Sabbath School Net! Now before anybody gets any crazy ideas, I don’t intend to actually be alive while I am dead, and I don’t think that is what Anne meant either. I want my writings to be a blessing to people around the world whom I have never met, and I want my writings to keep on living even when I am sleeping in Christ. While many of you comment on my posts, many of you do not. Still, I run into you at camp meetings and various places, and you tell me you enjoy reading what I write. What that tells me is, while I am writing on my little laptop in my room in Florida, I still have a connection with those who live beyond my “little attic window.” I don’t think Anne Frank wrote to become famous. I believe she loved people and wrote to connect with people, even people she would never meet. It is the same with me.
About one third of Anne Frank’s diary was censored. At first, that made sense to me as it was a personal diary. However, after I found out that she was writing her diary with the purpose of it being published I changed my mind and did not think it should have been censored. Her father felt some of the things she wrote about other people should not be published, and I agree with that. However, some of her thoughts about sex were simply a part of living a life with a God-given curiosity. As a writer, I do not believe those thoughts and ideas should have been censored, knowing she was writing for publication. I am used to it now, but when I first began writing for Sabbath School Net, I was uncomfortable having my thoughts and ideas edited and revised.
I love that Anne Frank’s words have lived on after her death. A powerful would-be world dictator used a world war to kill Anne Frank and shut her up. Instead, Anne’s lively writings have been freely circulating the world for over 80 years. As a writer, I see that a 15-year old school girl won the war against Hitler. Her spirit would not be defeated, and her words live on to inspire others she has never even met. Long before the Internet, with just pen and paper in an isolated attic, God protected her writings and the spirit of those writings so that Anne Frank is a household name, and unlike Hitler, a household name that inspires enduring joy, love, and authenticity in us all.
Today I took time out from my usual Sabbath School writing, to remember another writer, who over 80 years ago was exceptionally more than a 15-year-old school girl who died a death. Anne Frank was a girl who lived a life. Today her writings inspire other writers like me to be useful, joyful, and authentic to people we may never meet in this life. Thank you, dear reader, for taking the time to connect with me today. Thank you for connecting your world with mine. I hope that maybe not this article, but my other articles have not only been usefiul and brought you joy, but have also inspired you to be useful and to bring joy to others, even people you may never meet, just as Anne Frank has inspired me.
