JUDITH GOLDSTEIN
Anne Frank: The Redemptive Myth
F
OR MILLIONS OF PEOPLE,
Anne Frank's history has come to sym–
bolize one of Europe's deadliest conflagrations-a time when one
nation set fire to its democratic government, ravaged countries all
over the continent, destroyed Jewish life in Eastern Europe, and
irreparably damaged Jewish existence in many Western European coun–
tries, as well. The outlines of Anne Frank's history are clear: the escape
with her family from Germany and resettlement in
J
933 in Amsterdam,
where her father Otto Frank had a business; German occupation of the
Netherlands in May,
1940;
and the family's flight in
1942
into hiding in
the attic above Otto Frank's office. Then betrayal and capture in August
1944;
imprisonment in Westerbork, a transit camp; deportation to
Auschwitz in September
1944;
and death in Bergen-Belsen a few weeks
before liberation in March
1945.
Otto Frank's return as the sole surviv–
ing member of the family led to publication, in the early
1950S,
of the
diary found by Miep Gies after the police arrested the Franks and to
posthumous fame for Anne and her family.
The Diary of Anne Frank
and derivative theatrical productions have
made a unique impact on chi ldren and adults throughout the world .
The writing bespeaks courage, misery, persecution, and resistance. Anne
Frank has come to represent the child, in her mid-teens, struggling to
maintain hope and faith in mankind, if not in her own future. The most
famous quote from her diary is, "In spite of everything I still believe
people are good at heart." Sudden capture stopped the testimony of
inner thoughts.
An aura of sweet optimism and faith surrounds the
Diary.
Unfortu–
nately, the sentiments are misapplied. Cynthia Ozick's critique is closer
to the truth. She described the
Diary
as a "chronicle of trepidation, tur–
moil, alarm.... Betrayal and arrest always threaten. Anxiety and
immobility rule.
It
is a story of fear." People know that Anne, her sister,
and her mother were exterminated, but for many readers Anne's story
ends with the hope that "people are really good at heart." These words,
I believe, are the key to understanding the conversion of her diary and
persona into a redemptive myth.
