Anne Frank is at once hailed and lost amongst the crowd of crowned females of today. Among the modern thoughts of Diana, Marilyn, and Oprah she does not, at once come to mind. The common thought is to hold up women for their achievements and their ability to push forward in a male-dominated world. She is not as glamorous in this, and thus, is often overlooked as a person and seen more as just a diary.
This is, in part, what drew me to her. In school reading her diary, I did not initially fathom the depth of what I was reading. Oh, I understood the hiding, and that people were trying to kill her for being Jewish- inasmuch as I could as an early teen living in a big city. Some of the fears from my life were juxtaposed by what this little girl was writing. Growing up as one of the most diminutive students in the largest high school east of the Mississippi, I understood the constant fear of persecution and discovery, just in a different context.
The realities of that diary, of her life, of her very existence, were difficult for me to absorb as a young teen –neither did I comprehend them fully as an older teen and early adult. I understood it as I would in my own context, possibly as she had understood it in her own, but as with any great work, any great voice, there was more. I respected her poise, her courage, and her apparent indomitability. Even if that was all her work afforded, she would have placed well on my own personal list.
What brings Anne Frank near the top of my list is the additional depth her work affords those lucky enough to read it with an open mind. It is the ability of her work to contextually facilitate our understanding of a murderously dark era in our history. It gives us an easy personal focus for history in a way that we may forever remember and keep in context.
What bolsters Anne and her diary to the top of my list is the simple reality of being a single parent to three children. Anne and her diary additionally afford those of us blessed as parents a distinctly different view to consider – and to remember. It gives us something to keep in the back of our minds as we raise our children. Anne reminds us of the potential each child possesses, and those exemplary aspects we can help shape in our children. She also reminds us of the ominous possibilities of the world; that rather than be passive to the world around us, as parents we should never wait until they come for our children to speak out.
