Anne Frank
-
Liberation for Bergen-Belsen arrived on 15 April 1945. Major Dick Williams, one of the first British soldiers to enter and liberate the camp said, “It was an evil, filthy place; a hell on Earth.” The British comedian Michael Bentine, who took part in the liberation of the camp, wrote this on his encounter with Bergen-Belsen:“Millions…
-
Anne and Margot Frank’s final days were marked by extreme suffering, starvation, and disease in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp during the winter of 1944–1945. Their exact date of death is unknown; however, there is a wide belief that both sisters perished in February or March 1945, just weeks before British forces liberated the camp on…
-
As a father of three children, although they are all supposedly adults now, I often have nightmares and worries about them. I lie awake at night when they are out with friends. When they leave the house, there are a million worst-case scenarios that haunt my brain. There is some news you hope as a…
-
Anne Frank was born on 12 June 1929. As we all know her story through her diary, I will not go into Anne’s story, but instead, I will look at a few other children who were also born on that day and who, like Anne, were murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust. Levy Spanjer…
-
A few years ago, I was asked to give a speech at my eldest son’s high school graduation as a representative of the Parents’ Council. I ended the speech with a quote from Margot Frank. “Times change, people change, thoughts about good and evil change, about true and false. But what always remains fast and…
-
On may 15 1945 , Otto Frank wrote the following letter, while on board the Monowai steamship. This was exactly 5 years after the Dutch army had capitulated to the Germans. “The closer we get to home the greater our impatience to hear from our loved ones. Everything that’s happened the past few years! Until…
-
The Nazis implemented a series of discriminatory laws and regulations aimed at isolating and persecuting Jews. In many cases, Jews were forced to relinquish their pets as part of broader property confiscation. Pets were considered part of personal property, and when Jewish people were displaced, arrested, or deported, they were often forced to leave their…
-
Just a young girl standing outside her school in Amsterdam with a sign that reads, “Memory of my school time, 1936.” The whole future was still ahead of her. The possibilities were endless. Her dream was to become a midwife, a noble profession to help deliver new life and witness the joy of young mothers,…
-
We all know the story of Anne Frank, and there is no denying that her diary was essential to get an insight into how life was for those who had to hide from the evil Nazi regime. However, people do sometimes forget about the other women and men who hid in the annexe in Amsterdam.…
-
If there is one thing that Anne Frank’s diary teaches us ,it’s the importance of context. If you take her diary out of context it probably is quite a boring book. But if you leave it in the context and the time it was written in it becomes a powerful story of daily life and…