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“It’s hard to forget someone who gave you so much to remember”.

I deeply relate to this quote as the person I cannot forget all my life (out of all the people I have read about so far) and so would want to bring back from the annals of history if given an opportunity, is none other than Annelies Marie Frank.

More commonly known as Anne Frank, she was a young Jewish girl born on 12th June 1929 in Germany to parents Edith and Otto Frank and was the younger sister to Margot Frank. Anne did not get along well with her mother and sister, but she had a deep relationship with her father. As life became difficult for the Jews in Germany due to the rise of the Nazi Party under Adolf Hitler, the Frank Family decided to migrate to Holland in the Netherlands in 1933. Otto Frank started a jam-making company there and Anne spent time with her two best friends: Hanneli Goslar and Jacqueline Van Maarsen. When Germany conquered Holland, Otto Frank, with some of his friends, decided and managed to build a place for himself, his family and later accommodated some of his Jewish workers so that they could hide from the Nazis and their terrifying methods to exterminate Jews.

On Anne’s 13th birthday, she was given a diary. Since she had no friend to talk to or any connection with the outside world, she made the diary her friend, named her as ‘Kitty’ and wrote her thoughts and feelings in it. The life for two years in the Secret Annex was full of austerity. They could not even afford to look out of the windows for fear of being seen and caught. Even living under such circumstances, she did not lose hope. She kept going and always dreamt of having a great future ahead. Unfortunately, they were found out by the German Secret State Police and were taken into mass concentration camps. Anne could not survive there and so she died of typhus along with her sister.

Reading about Anne Frank had left me completely dumbfounded as there are not many people on this earth who had led that kind of life and at that age at what Anne was, and despite going through everything, she remained positive. I have come to admire her for all that she stood for i.e. optimism, patience, steadfastness, and someone who was always hopeful. She taught me to be resilient, optimistic, and never lose hope even in the darkest of times. These traits that Anne Frank possessed will always inspire me to go through tough times with optimism and with a smile on my face. Someone has rightly remarked, “Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, but only if one remembers to turn on the light.”

It is only when we read about the lives of people like her, we can draw lessons to never feel disheartened, disappointed no matter what is thrown to us.

“Remember, young man, the experience is not the best teacher. Other people’s experience is the best teacher. By reading about the lives of great people, you can unlock the secrets to what made them great.”

Andy Andrews

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