“Women should be respected as well! Generally speaking, men are held in great esteem in all parts of the world, so why shouldn’t women have their share? Soldiers and war heroes are honored and commemorated, explorers are granted immortal fame, martyrs are revered, but how many people look upon women too as soldiers?”
This past weekend, my friend and I traveled to Holland to discover its romantic city of Amsterdam. As the taxi wove its way through the streets to our hotel, beautiful facades unfolded on the sides of the roads, their reflections dancing in the water of bordering canals. I knew that I would be completely in love with this beautiful destination by the end of our visit.
What I didn’t expect, however, was the cultural and philosophical awakening that awaited behind the door of a 27 by 24 meter space, otherwise known as The Secret Annex of Anne Frank. Born in Germany in 1929, Anne Frank was a young Jewish girl whose family was forced to flee their country in hopes for a better and safer life outside of Nazi Germany.
Though I was familiar with her story and the diary in which she wrote while hiding in this closet-like “home”, it wasn’t until I was fully immersed, both literally and figuratively, in the environment of her experience that I really felt the weight and importance of Anne in our world’s past, present, and future.
Until my time at the museum, I could not fully grasp the idea of The Annex, as I associated it with what I perceived as a tragic yet kind of fantastical narrative. Once there, however, there was no denying the truth - not only behind The Annex, but also behind the terrible event whose place in our history I still have trouble digesting.
As I stood in front of what may be the world’s most famous bookcase, one that both protected and denied eight frightened people from the outside world, I consciously took a deep breath and then stepped into the space that I had felt only existed between the covers of a famous book.
From all the things presented at the museum, what I found most extraordinary was neither the claustrophobia induced from the annex nor even the horrible images of concentration camps. While so many aspects of the entire Anne Frank story struck me as both serious and shocking, what resonated to me the most throughout the barren building was the infinite capacity for hope that Anne expressed through her writing.
Just prior to exiting the museum, an exhibition called “Reflections on Anne Frank” revealed how various people had been impacted by Anne’s diary. Among these reflections, a woman refugee spoke about the book’s lifesaving power, explaining the positive message it had passed onto her as well as the motivation to document her own experience.
Like millions of Jews in the Holocaust, Anne’s story has a tragic ending. But her voice lives on, urging for tolerance and unity in a world that is too often prejudiced and divided. Though young, Anne understood the importance of faith, not just in a religious sense but in humanity as a whole. She has showed others the beauty of hope and the power of love.
Denied access to the outside world, Anne’s diary, which she named Kitty, became her trusted confidant. It was to Kitty that Anne turned to in times of sadness and, as she matured, to express her frustrations about the injustices of the world.
Anne’s reflections transcended both her age and time period. Anne shared bold signs of feminism, as illustrated in this article’s opening extract from her diary. Anne recognised the importance and value of women in society, symbolising their potential through her own strong character and thoughtful ideas.
And to this day, her words not only help inspire people to cope with their own problems, but hold a mirror up to the issues that we still face in our world.
Anne’s words not only reveal the beauty in self-expression, but also embody an unprecedented and uplifting example of optimism. In times of deep hatred and destruction, Anne’s words remained forgiving and radiant. “In spite of everything,” she wrote, “I still believe that people are good at heart.”
In anticipation of International Women’s day, Anne Frank - open-hearted, courageous and intelligent Anne – is the perfect emblem.