Sincerely, Anne Frank

    I didn't know what caused it, perhaps maybe through school it kicked in, but not until about seventh grade did I firmly grasp what World War Two was about. I new it was a big war, America was in it, and Hitler was definitely in the whole scene. But I lacked so much of what trul went on in World War Two. The many men and women and children who died in the pits of Jewish concentration camps, who died in the bomb attacks over in Poland, who died along the shores of France. So many beautifal and honest people gave or had their lives taken from them, in a brutal ambush of races and discrimination. A longing for a perfect race.

 

  I remember reading about Anne Frank in my english class. The way the story was written, was as if we were reading a play or script. With stage directions and scene intro directions. I was very into the story, but seeing the way it was written, I imaginged it being simply a play, a memory or made up story representing a possibility of WWII. I had no idea that Anne was real, that she actually went through the months and years of silence and secrecy. Never knowing if your hiding place would be found.

   Do any of you remember playing hide and seek when you were young? You'd find a place, behind or inside of something, like in your closet. You cover yourself with some blankets, trying to hide yourself even more. Your heart beats fast, you try to quiet your breathing as you wait. Listening and staying alert, for those sounds of feet approaching your hiding place. You bite your lip as you watch them get closer, and closer, you close your eyes tight, hoping they'll leave. And maybe they do, but most times, they don't.

   Now imagine a game of hide and seek, but where if you're found, you're thrown into a camp full of scrawny un-human looking people. Starving and cold, you strive to survive. Your body covered in your punishment for hiding, and now you are found. This became a constant thought for Anne and her family. I can't even fathome this feeling. Fearing for my life that strongly, hiding away for years, praying that this war will end. But see, Anne was different.

   Despite this horrid nerve racking circumstance, Anne was still her happy self. Trying to keep the normalness of her past life, in her now crampt small world. Applying her favorite actors and actresses on her wall with tape, and keeping her attitude up. I'd imagine if i were in there along with Anne, i would have yelled at her many times to calm her attitude way down. I'd be on edge, fearful, and not in the mood for happy thoughts. And yet, she still kept going.

  I believe a big reason in this was her father. He tried to see the best for his family, and tried his hardest to maintain a normal life for his family. Though this new living situation was far from normal, he had them all continue their normal routines, school, chores, keeping a maintained bedroom and to obey his rules. The family got along well following these rules, and when another Jewish family arrived, they too were fine with the rules. Sometimes.

    As we all know, Anne did not survive WWII, but sadly in a died concentration camp months before the war was ending. The family was discovered by German soldiers, and later seperated into different camps.  Anne described this as a somewhat of a relief, no more envisioning that door opening wide, no more fear of their secret being found. And when she did arrive at the camp, she endured terrible treatment. Her hair was shaven off due to bugs, she grew skinny and weak. But she continued to look on the brighter side, trying to keep her sister's and her own chin up. Other Jewish women describe her as fearless, not afraid to still show happiness despite her situation. But when she witnessed her sister die, I believe this is when the happiness, could not cover things anymore.

     Soon after, she became depressed. Fearing that all her family was gone. And that she was alone in this. She died there in the camps, never being able to see the Americans who came months later. And she neer was able to find out she was not alone. Her father had managed to make it through the war, hoping to see his family once again, but was later told that both his daughters and wife had died.

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    Though her story holds much cold truths of war and its destruction, this is a story that has been an inspiration. A key to the past, an insider's look to how it was. And a warning to the future, a warning of what rage and hatred can lead to.

     Anne dreamt and wrote many times that se wanted to make a difference, wanted to be a writer and change the world with her stories. And though she didn't live to see them become that, through her death, her writes became treassures. She became a writer, she became someone who changed the world. And now she is a brave woman of war. And I pay my deepest respects towards her.

 

                                                            In Memory of all
                                                               who passed
                                                             away in WWII.