Reflection On Anne Frank And The Children Of The Holocaust By Carol Anne Lee

Anne Frank And The Children Of The Holocaust, authored by Carol Anne Lee, is a nonfictional book, which is based on the lives of what the children of the Holocaust (1941-1945) suffered through during World War II (1939-1945). Anne Frank And The Children Of The Holocaust discusses how the anti-Semitic policies which Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party put forth against anyone who was not considered “Aryan” by the Nazis affected the children who were the victims of the Holocaust. Although the book briefly discusses the lives of several other children, the principle person whom the book is written about is Anne Frank.

I greatly admire Anne Frank because of her intellectual, humorous, and friendly-natured personality which she possesses. In Anne Frank And The Children Of The Holocaust, Anne’s mother, Mrs. Edith Frank, describes Anne Frank as “droll...witty and amusing.” One example of Anne’s humor was that she liked to purposely dislocate her shoulder when she was in school “so she could laugh at her friends’ horrified faces.” She also liked to pull pranks on people with her friends, especially Hanneli Goslar (also known as Lies or Hanne). “Their favorite trick, especially at Anne’s apartment, was throwing buckets of cold water from the high windows onto passersby!”

Anne Frank was an extroverted, lively young lady and enjoyed being surrounded by the society of many children. Carol Ann Lee comments “Otto noticed his daughter was becoming even more popular as she grew up: ‘She was always on the go, and always bought a whole community of children with her wherever she was. People loved her because she had ideas, what to play, where to play, some new things to do. . .’ ” She also enjoyed traveling to Switzerland to visit her cousin, Bernhard Paul Elias, or as Anne liked to nickname him, Buddy Elias. In Carol Ann Lee’s book, Buddy Elias states, “I adored her because she was such a good sport—always ready for fun and games. We used to dress up and play film stars. Anne had a very keen sense of fairness and justice. Whenever we got dressed up and acted out our scenes, Anne never took the best garments for herself. She always gave them to me, and the funnier I looked, the better she liked it.” This statement by Buddy Elias reflects Anne’s playful nature.

Just as Anne Frank was very humorous and playful, she was an intellectual as well. Anne Frank had a natural talent as well as a great passion and interest for writing. One of Anne’s teachers, Mr. van Gelder, had taken notice of Anne’s talent and interest for writing. In Anne Frank And The Children Of The Holocaust, Mr. Van Gelder remembers “It is correct that she wanted to be a writer. That I remember. It started very early with her, very early . . . and I imagine she might very well have been one.” Anne Frank’s aptitude for writing was not only displayed through how she articulated her thoughts within her diary; she also liked to write short stories, like fairy tales as well as scripts for plays in her school. Author Carol Ann Lee comments that “She had lots of ideas for scripts, but she also enjoyed performing.”

Some of the short stories that Anne Frank wrote were “Eva’s Dream”, “The Battle of the Potatoes,” and “Villains!” Most of Anne’s short stories were written when she was in hiding in the Secret Annex to prevent boredom. These stories demonstrate how Anne was able to use her gift in writing to create such whimsical tales, all of which were based on her imagination. Another one of Anne Frank’s works was called “A Chatterbox,” which was a short two-page essay her math teacher, Mr. Keesing had assigned Anne to write because she was always very talkative during school, especially during her math classes. A few days later, Anne was once again assigned to write another essay by Mr. Keesing, this time under the name of “Quack, Quack, Quack, said Mrs. Quackenbush.”

Anne Frank herself was very well aware of the gift which she possessed for writing. Her capacity and skills for writing incremented more during the years which she spent in hiding from 1942-1944. Anne Frank had more time to ruminate as well as to write and learn new ways to express her thoughts and feelings while she was hiding in the Annex, mainly because she no longer had the luxury of interacting with her friends, much less step into the outside world to see what had changed. All of this was due to the fact that she was hiding from the “cruelest brutes the world has ever seen,” as Anne described the Nazis.

Carol Ann Lee states that “In 1944, Anne wrote at length in her diary about how she had changed since her birthday in 1942.” Anne Frank wrote in her diary “Although I’m only fourteen, I know quite well what I want, I know who is right and who is wrong, I have my opinions, my own ideas and principles, and although it may sound pretty mad for an adolescent, I feel independent of anyone.” This particular entry by Anne Frank in her diary is something which really fascinates and intrigues me, because it demonstrates how Anne was able to process her own thoughts and ideas, and then transfer them onto a sheet of paper.

In that same year of 1944, in another entry Anne Frank had written, she says “I want to write later on, and even if I don’t become a writer I won’t neglect my writing while doing some other job. Oh yes, I don’t want to have lived for nothing like most people. I want to go on living even after my death! And therefore I am grateful to God for giving me this gift, this possibility of developing myself and of writing, of expressing all that is in me.”

One other quality which I truly value of Anne Frank was her enduring fortitude during the years which she spent in hiding from 1942-1944 and even after she was captured and sent to both concentration camps Westerbork and Bergen-Belsen as well as the death camp Auschwitz. When Anne was in the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen in Germany, with her health and body rapidly deteriorating, nearly dying of starvation and ill from Typhus in the barracks, she still tried to keep a positive spirit towards the horrible conditions which she found herself in. In Anne Frank And The Children Of The Holocaust, a friend which Anne had met in Westerbork, Lientje Brilleslijper recalled that “Anne used to tell us stories as we lay down. So did Margot. Silly stories and jokes”. “Anne’s eyes glittered. She told us stories. We thought that they must be old stories which we did not happen to know. But now I know that they were stories she had made up herself. Margot started to tell a story too, but she could not go on and Anne completed it for her. She said that her father knew better stories and Margot began to cry, asking whether he was still alive. Anne was confident, ‘Of course he is alive.’ ” Unfortunately, Anne had lost her positive spirit after her sister, Margot Frank had died. Soon after Margot’s death, Anne Frank also died of Typhus.

Even with all the cruelness and inhumanity which was occurring at that particular period of time during World War II and during the Holocaust, Anne Frank still tried to be optimistic about the fact she was in hiding and that there was a world war occurring. In one of her diary entries during the last year which she had remained in hiding in 1944, she had written “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

All of those qualities and personality traits which I have read about Anne Frank in Carol Ann Lee’s book Anne Frank And The Children Of The Holocaust; a great sense of humor, a gift for writing, a positive outlook on the world, and a friendly-natured heart are what made me take a great interest as well as admiration for Anne Frank. If Anne Frank were my friend, I could only imagine the fun we would have together, talking about the latest books we have read, riding our bicycles together, going to the movie theater, and other countless amusements. I would have greatly cherished to have Anne Frank as my friend.