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Unforgettable Diary Of A Young Girl…

August 25, 1980 Gloucester, Massachusetts

I first read Anne Frank’s Diary in 1967. My family had watched the televised play & the day after I went to the Sawyer Free Library to check out the book. The librarian was perplexed  that I was seeking to read material that was intended for adolescents & adults, not kids younger than the author. I was so moved by her story that I wanted to study the book & understand. I would read the book 3 more times over the next decade. In the summer of 1980 Otto Frank passed away. I learned that he had made the painful decision to share his daughter’s diary with the hope that making it available to people around the world might help to avoid a recurrence of the horror his family faced. I wrote a letter reflecting on his decision and the impact of Anne’s diary.

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Written by PaulPallazola

6 Comments

  1. To be honest I said that I had forgotten about the story of Anne Frank even though I still remember her name. But the other thing I want to say or question is how much will our determination to learn from the past and stop all the abominations on earth? Another thing, at least there are people like you who have a wonderful sense of humanity.

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    • Thank you Albert. We live in dangerous times. Technology has given us access to more information and at the same time allowed a cesspool of misinformation and hate speech the opportunity to reach millions in seconds. Each generation has its share of visionaries, idealists, prophets and dreamers who offer the best chance out of quandaries like this. Hopefully they will have the knowledge of history and capacity for critical thinking to make a difference. If I didn’t have faith in the future, I wouldn’t have fathered children.

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      • Yes, you are right, Paul. We can only rely on ourselves to be a person who can be trusted by our children and at the same time an example for them. We choose to have faith in the future, first for ourselves, and also for our children.

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    • While Hitler and now Donald Trump have used fear & manipulation to exploit and undermine democratic process, people resisting fascism today have a wealth of historical information to use in fighting it that weren’t available to the brave fighters who resisted the rise of the Third Reich. Hopefully those lessons are used to keep the reactionaries in check. In the meantime I’ll do whatever I can to be a drum major for justice and fight for a better future.

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