Last year marked both the 65th anniversary of the day the Frank family was discovered hiding and what would have been the 80th birthday of Frank. It is now 50 years since the Anne Frank House opened its doors as a museum.
From now on the entire diary – along with some short stories by Frank and a notebook of quotes that she collected – will remain at the Anne Frank House. The rest of Frank's diary – which spilled over into two exercise books and other sheets of paper – had been kept at the Netherlands War Documentation Center. Frank's original red plaid diary has long been exhibited at the museum, but that book was only one of three in which she wrote her thoughts during the 25 months that she and her family hid from the Nazis in a concealed apartment in the building that is now the Anne Frank House. They are the future.The complete surviving manuscript of Anne Frank's diary is now on display, for the first time, at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. We have to be the example for the generations to come. So while we remember and reflect, let us dedicate ourselves to educating the next generation about the past and to lifting their voices up. Through the program, students interact with history and with each other to combat intolerance in their communities, becoming ambassadors of change. That is why the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect started a new Youth Initiative program to bring the lessons of the Holocaust and modern social justice to schools around the country. Anne wrote, “Even if people are still very young, they shouldn’t be prevented from saying what they think.” Young voices matter. And like Anne continues to inspire generations, we are inspired by the new generations of young people willing to make their voices heard, like the brave students campaigning against gun violence in the aftermath of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida. When our leaders use hateful rhetoric against immigrants and refugees, we must not remain silent. When we see Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, homophobia, misogyny, and bullying, we must speak out. When we see violent white supremacist rallies, such as one that occurred in Charlottesville, we must remember and act. Discrimination, injustice, and exclusion did not end at the conclusion of World War II and the liberation of the camps. Anne writes in her diary, “The final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.” It lies in our hands. The memories of those who perished during the Holocaust, including Anne, must sustain us and urge us to make a difference. That we must speak out and say never again! Her words show us that we cannot be blind to the atrocities and abuses that surround us. Anne’s words teach us that actions and language matter. We connect so deeply with her because her emotions reflect our own.
Anne’s search to find out who she is as a young woman while living through the worst horror in history impacts us all because she feels the same emotions that most teenagers feel at that age: angst, love, isolation, fear, loneliness. This is why Anne’s legacy is so great, and why she connects so deeply with people, youth in particular. Drawing inspiration from Anne’s quote about being a strong woman, this exhibition looks at the way young people deal with identity, discrimination, and exclusion. The exhibition not only tells the story of Anne, but also stories of young people today. In March 2018, the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect held North American premiere of Let Me Be Myself: The Life Story of Anne Frank at the Seattle Holocaust Center for Humanity, a new exhibition courtesy of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.
And her words continue to inspire, to provide optimism and lift generations up. She is a woman of inward strength and courage. Yet she is an extraordinary person, not only because she wrote these things amid war and violence, but also because in this teenage girl, we find reflective wisdom and wit. In many ways she is an ordinary teenager, writing about ordinary teenage things.
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