The Anne Frank House

We went to the Anne Frank house.  I was there once before, back in ’72 as Bob Seger would say, but it was different.  They had flat screens and quotes and…the diary itself.

I didn’t remember that.

It almost didn’t seem real.  The house, that is.  It’s half a century later.  I was calculating.  In ’72, it was 27 years since the war, now it’s 39 years beyond that.  A long time, in a lifetime.  Do we start to forget?

Do we believe that Jews are assimilated?  That we all get along?  That right wing extremism cannot happen again?

Not on your life.

Judaism is something you just can’t exorcise.  It’s there in your name.  The Nazis didn’t want to hear that you’d lapsed, that you were now going to church, they saw beyond that bullshit, you were sent to the camps, you had to die, for being different.  You need someone to blame your problems on.

Just like disadvantaged Americans pin their problems on immigrants.  Because to look to yourself is to accept blame.  And that just cannot be done.

Everybody hates the Jews.  If you don’t know this, you’re not one.  My father used to tell me about anti-Semitism, and I’d pooh-pooh his tales, saying we were living in different times.  But that’s wrong, it’s right beneath the surface.  We’re different.  We’ve got hooked noses.  We’ve got horns.  We’ve got all the money.  We’re the problem.  We’ve got to go.

Never again.  That’s why they say we must study the Holocaust, so it can’t be repeated.  And for a long time I thought those days were through, now I know they’re not.  Because ethnic cleansing goes on in Eastern Europe and Africa and in America political parties say those on the other side must die.

Lock and load baby.  We need the guns so we can fight the government.  Huh?  Where’s civilization?

Being at the Anne Frank house made me think not only about how we took all our diversions for granted, even sunlight and play, but how we dedicated so much time to entertainment and sports, believing they’re a religion when our true religion could be responsible for our deaths. What’s important here?

Eight people lived in darkness for years, only to ultimately perish.  Otto Frank survived, but his family did not.  He took ads in papers trying to find them.  My mother’s Russian uncle did this, that’s how he found his relatives in the United States, through the Jewish paper, but Otto just ended up with confirmation of his family’s decimation.

There was this other video, of Anne’s childhood friend.  Who saw her in the concentration camp.  She said Anne had given up all hope.  They tell us to keep on trying, to keep our chin up, but that doesn’t always work.

Anne wanted to be a journalist, she wanted to be a famous writer.  Childhood hopes and dreams don’t always die, the best of us pursue them to fruition.  As did Anne, only she didn’t know this.

The gold Star of David from the clothing, that all Jews had to wear.  Anne’s handwritten diary…

Some things are almost too real to be true.

Like man’s hatred of his fellow man.

2 Responses to The Anne Frank House


Comments

    comment_type != "trackback" && $comment->comment_type != "pingback" && !ereg("", $comment->comment_content) && !ereg("", $comment->comment_content)) { ?>
  1. […] Lefsetz Letter » Blog Archive » The Anne Frank House lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2011/01/16/the-anne-frank-house/ – view page – cached We went to the Anne Frank house. I was there once before, back in ‘72 as Bob Seger would say, but it was different. They had flat screens and quotes and…the diary itself. […]

  2. comment_type != "trackback" && $comment->comment_type != "pingback" && !ereg("", $comment->comment_content) && !ereg("", $comment->comment_content)) { ?>
  3. Trackback by Quora | 2011/01/18 at 04:47:56

    What is a good source for music news?…

    Aside from DMN – http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/ – there’s always Lefsetz – not so much news – more the most engaging insight into the business you’ll ever read:
    https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/


comment_type == "trackback" || $comment->comment_type == "pingback" || ereg("", $comment->comment_content) || ereg("", $comment->comment_content)) { ?>

Trackbacks & Pingbacks »»

  1. […] Lefsetz Letter » Blog Archive » The Anne Frank House lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2011/01/16/the-anne-frank-house/ – view page – cached We went to the Anne Frank house. I was there once before, back in ‘72 as Bob Seger would say, but it was different. They had flat screens and quotes and…the diary itself. […]

  2. comment_type == "trackback" || $comment->comment_type == "pingback" || ereg("", $comment->comment_content) || ereg("", $comment->comment_content)) { ?>

    Trackbacks & Pingbacks »»

    1. Trackback by Quora | 2011/01/18 at 04:47:56

      What is a good source for music news?…

      Aside from DMN – http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/ – there’s always Lefsetz – not so much news – more the most engaging insight into the business you’ll ever read:
      https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/

    Comments are closed