The Singular Tragedy of Anne Frank

“Poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes … Families are torn apart; men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find their parents have disappeared.”

Written by Anne Frank about the persecution of Jews by Nazis in Amsterdam, these words went viral during the first Trump administration. ICE agents were targeting undocumented immigrants in enormous raids, and news reports described adults seized at their workplaces and children left without care after a parent was taken into custody. “Read this quote from Anne Frank in light of exactly what happened this week,” one activist urged.

Since 1947, when Anne’s diary was first published in Dutch (it appeared in English in 1952), her words and image have been harnessed to any number of political causes. It’s heartening to know that her story remains a touchstone for many, especially at a time when Americans, especially younger generations, are startlingly ignorant about the Holocaust. In one study, 66 percent of millennials could not correctly identify Auschwitz, the death camp liberated 80 years ago tomorrow, as a Nazi camp.

Still, as someone who’s spent years researching Anne and her world, I cringe to see her invoked in contexts far removed from her historical situation. This happened during the Covid-19 pandemic, when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggested that Anne Frank had more freedom than people required to get the Covid-19 vaccine. Even in situations where the comparison feels more relevant, such as the migrant crisis in Europe and the United States, taking Anne’s words out of context risks flattening her into an archetypal symbol of victimhood, ignoring her historical reality and the remarkable achievement of her diary, and downplaying the continuing threat of antisemitism.

Anne’s father, Otto Frank, published her diary so that her words could reach a large audience and serve as a beacon of global peace and tolerance. “The book should be read as widely as possible, because it should work for people and for humanity,” he urged. Nearly 80 years later, with more than 30 million copies in print in 70 languages, it’s clear that his mission was successful. During my research, I found stories of Anne inspiring Japanese people in the wake of Hiroshima and an Eritrean refugee who translated the diary into his native Tigrinya after reading it in an Ethiopian refugee camp.

But Anne’s iconicity requires her story to achieve a difficult balancing act. It warns powerfully against all persecution, but must remain true to its character as a Jewish work — as the complicated story of its publication and reception helps us to see.