Anne Frank – 1942 Image info below* |
Today marks the 80th anniversary of a birthday gift — a diary given by Otto Frank to his 13-year old daughter Anne1 (June 12, 1942). In a history anthology, Scott Allsop writes:
In July 1942, barely three weeks after Anne’s 13th birthday, Anne’s older sister Margot was ordered by the Nazi authorities to go to a labour camp. Their father instead arranged for the family to go into hiding in a so-called ‘Secret Annexe’ above his office building.2
From 1942 to 1944, Anne wrote her observations and experiences from within her hiding place until her family was betrayed, arrested, and taken to concentration camps in August 1944. When the war was over, the sole survivor of the family of five was Otto. On finding that Anne’s diaries had been preserved by his secretary Miep Gies, Otto decided to publish them to fulfill Anne’s dream of becoming a writer. Thus, 2022 also marks the 75th anniversary of first publication in Dutch (1947) and the 70th anniversary of first publication in English (1952).
Anne’s words were at one time read as a warning to the world, but in déjà vu of these words:
11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness3;
33 For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift4;
we seem to have forgotten Anne ‘s witness and rejected her gift of knowledge and warning. How is it possible that we cannot see the parallels between her day and ours. Our dangers, because of technocracy, are multiple-fold what confronted the Franks and yet, many of us carry on without a prayer for awareness, repentance, courage, or deliverance. So, to all the agents of power: to enforcers, judges, pscientists, journalists, profiteers, educators, religious authorities, artists, employers, employees, and on and on, whether duped or duplicitous, YOU who continue to pump and empower the narrative of WO, YOU are the foot soldiers of a new tyranny, global in nature.
Anne is only one of thousands of witnesses bearing gifts of warning and remembrance. We forget her and all those others at our great peril.
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1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Frank
2. Allsop, Scott. 366 Days: Compelling Stories From World History (p. 175). Kindle Edition.
Image Source:
3. New Testament | John 3:11 (Bold emphasis added.)
4. Doctrine and Covenants | Section 88:33 (Bold emphasis added.)
2022 anniversaries relating to Anne’s Diary:
93rd: a daughter is born to Otto and Edith Frank – June 12, 1929
80th: Otto gifts his daughter, a diary, on her 13th birthday – June 12, 1942
80th: Frank family goes into hiding – July 1942
78th: Frank family arrested by Gestapo – August 4, 1944
77th: Death of Anne – February or March 1945
75th: Dutch publication of The Diary of a Young Girl -1947
70th: first English publication of The Diary of a Young Girl – 1952
*Image Source:
Page URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anne_Frank_passport_photo,_May_1942.jpg
File URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Anne_Frank_passport_photo%2C_May_1942.jpg
Attribution: Unknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Date: 30 May 1942
Description: The last known photograph of Anne taken in May 1942, taken at a passport photo shoot.
(Photo collection Anne Frank House, Amsterdam. Public Domain Work)]
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it meets three requirements:
1. it was first published outside the United States (and not published in the U.S. within 30 days),
2. it was first published before 1 March 1989 without copyright notice or before 1964 without copyright renewal or before the source country established copyright relations with the United States,
3. it was in the public domain in its home country (Netherlands) on the URAA date (1 January 1996).
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Note: in addition to this statement, there must be a statement on this page explaining why the work was PD on 2012 in its source country (second case). Additionally, there must be verifiable information about previous publications of the work.