March 12, 2010 - TakePart.com:
“In Celebration of Anne Frank: Youth Share Their Stories” by Jenny Inglee
Writer Anne Frank died in early March 1945, at the age of 15, just weeks before she would have been liberated from Germany’s Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. She had been imprisoned solely because she was born Jewish. What remains are her diary, her legacy, and a worldwide call to action to end ethnic, religious, and racial discrimination.
Since its publication in 1947, The Diary of Anne Frank has been translated into 67 languages. This remarkable autobiography chronicles the hopes and travails of the Frank family as they hid from Nazi forces occupying the Netherlands during World War II. Starting in the 1950s, schoolchildren around the world have been introduced to the horrors of the Holocaust through Anne Frank’s story. It is one of the most widely read books in history.
Today, TakePart honors Anne Frank by showcasing several young men and women who are striving to overcome distressing circumstances and writing about it. Like Anne Frank, these storytellers have had the courage to put their lives to words and put the world on alert.
The DREAMies
Every year children are brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents. Life isn’t easy for these kids as they grow up. Being undocumented means they are at risk of deportation and will have difficulty applying for college scholarships, jobs, and U.S. citizenship. If the DREAM Act passes, this could all change. At Dreamactivists.org, undocumented students share their immigrant experiences, struggles and dreams. Here’s an excerpt from Andres’ story:
“ I always felt so alone in this. I don’t usually tell people about my status because not thinking about it is what motivates me to keep going but I am 19 years old, a sophomore in a community college, and honestly, as I grow older it just gets harder and harder to deny the fact that this is a HUGE anchor weighing us down. An anchor tying us and not letting us reach our goals and our dreams…. ”
Read more stories from the DREAMies here.
Foster Club
Being shuffled in and out of foster homes, group homes, and aching to belong to a loving family of your own is everyday life for many foster kids. Foster Club is an online place for foster kids to connect and share their stories. Here’s an excerpt from Julia’s story.
“ I will never forget my twelfth birthday—on that day, my social worker appeared at my foster home with two trash bags and announced that I was moving. She handed me the bags and said, ‘You need to pack your things…’ I had no idea why I was moving or where I was going. It was then that I knew what it meant to be a foster child. It meant I was not worth the time it takes to explain what’s going on; I was not worth owning a real suitcase…. ”
Read more from other youth leaders in foster care here.
Afghan Women’s Writing Project
Many women living in Afghanistan cannot express themselves to the outside world directly. Their stories are generally filtered through male relatives or left untold. The Afghan Women’s Writing Project has set out to change this. Through the project, women young and old share their stories, and teachers and authors in the U.S. help them work on their craft through online writing workshops. Laila is a teen girl living in Afghanistan:
“ I looked at the real Afghans, the kind-hearted ones who made me feel like I was one of them. I thought of other Afghans, and how anger and bitterness was their way of life now. Even so, I didn’t lose hope in these people. I knew that deep down there was goodness left in them that could grow into love. The wars of the past have left deep wounds on them that have become infected. We must not throw salt on these wounds, but take care of them, because these wounds are the only thing preventing them from being the great people who built this nation. ”
Read more stories from the Afghan Women’s Writing Project here.
In light of her lasting contribution to literature and her message of hope, it’s only right that Anne Frank should have the last word. Here’s an excerpt from her diary, dated July 5, 1944.
“ It’s a wonder I haven’t abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart. It’s utterly impossible for me to build my life on a foundation of chaos, suffering and death. I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness, I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too, I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more. ”
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