The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank is probably on every high school required reading list and has been read by millions around the world. It has been translated in over 70 languages. About two blocks from our apartment, along the canal at 263 Prinsengracht, is the Anne Frank House where she and her family hid from the Nazis from July 6, 1942 until the house was raided on August 6, 1944. The family hid in a secret annex at the back of the building, accessible only through a landing hidden by a movable bookcase. Touring the house provided, at times, a stark reminder of the impact the hiding had not only on the Frank family, but on those trusted individuals of her father's business who were helping to hide them. Anne was planning on writing a book she titled The Secret Annexe, but she died of typhus in the concentration camp at Bergn-Belsen only a few weeks before the camp was liberated by Allied forces.
Seeing the house gave each of us a new appreciation for her diaries, which each of us plan to re-read once we get home.
I long to ride a bike, dance, whistle, look at the world, feel young, and know that I'm free.
--Anne Frank, 24 December 1943
So true. We rejoice in our freedom.
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