Anne Frank was 15 years old when she died in a Nazi concentration camp. Yet her words outlived her body. Words scribbled in a diary from a secret attic in Amsterdam became one of the world’s most powerful mirrors.
This summer, I found myself in Amsterdam for Mindvalley U. By chance, my Airbnb was on the street next to Anne Frank’s house. Each morning, I’d step outside and see the same canals, the same cobblestones, and the same rooftops Anne may have glimpsed in stolen moments when she dared peek out from her hiding place.
A few mornings later, I opened the news and froze. The Diary of Anne Frank had just been banned in Florida schools under new book-ban laws. Imagine that. In 2025, one of the most important human documents ever written—the testimony of a teenage Jewish girl hiding from Nazi genocide—was deemed “inappropriate” for children to read.
The synchronicity hit me hard. I was standing before the building where those words were written. Words that survived Anne, even though she did not. Words that outlived war, genocide, and cruelty—only to be silenced again today by politicians who fear truth more than hatred.
And this got me thinking.
If Anne Frank were alive today, what would she say about America? About Israel & Gaza?
What I’m about to share may feel uncomfortable—but Anne’s words demand we face discomfort.
Who was Anne Frank
Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt in 1929. When the Nazis rose to power, her family fled to Amsterdam, hoping to escape persecution. In 1942, when deportations began, they went into hiding in a small annex behind her father’s office. For over two years, Anne, her sister Margot, her parents Otto and Edith, and four others lived in silence, relying on the courage of Dutch friends who smuggled them food and news.
Anne wasn’t just a symbol. She was a teenager—funny, sharp, sometimes rebellious, and always observant. She dreamed of being a journalist. She once wrote, “I want to go on living even after my death.” And, tragically, she did—not through her life, but through her words.
In August 1944, they were betrayed. The Gestapo stormed the annex. The Franks were deported to Westerbork, then Auschwitz, and finally Anne and Margot to Bergen-Belsen. In early 1945, both sisters died of typhus—just weeks before liberation. Anne was 15.
Only Otto Frank survived. After the war, Miep Gies, one of the helpers, handed him Anne’s diary. He published it, fulfilling her dream. Today, it has sold over 30 million copies and been translated into more than 70 languages.
Anne’s body was silenced. But her voice became immortal.
Anne’s words in today’s world
Anne once wrote:
“Terrible things are happening outside. Poor, helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. Families are torn apart. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared.”
She was describing Nazi roundups in Amsterdam.
But doesn’t that sound eerily like ICE raids in America today? Parents taken in the middle of the night. Children left crying, bewildered, abandoned. Different time, different uniforms—but the same cruelty.
Anne also wrote:
“We are chained to one spot, without rights, a thousand obligations… waiting for the inevitable end.”
That could be the voice of Gaza today. Entire families locked in. Starved. Bombed. Denied freedom of movement. Children asking, “Why must we suffer simply because of who we are?”
Her words, written 80 years ago, read like dispatches from the present. History is not past. It is a loop—unless we break it.
A hard, controversial mirror
Anne’s diary teaches us to look at cruelty honestly, no matter where it comes from. And one thing history proves: atrocities don’t start with bullets. They start with words.
Dehumanizing language always comes first.
So let’s talk about Gaza, as uncomfortable as this may seem.
Consider the echoes:
- Nazi leadership (1943): Heinrich Himmler at Posen: “I am referring here to the evacuation of the Jews, the extermination of the Jewish people….”
- Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (2023): On the Palestinian town of Huwara: “[Huwara] should be wiped out. I think the State of Israel should do it.”
- Hitler, Mein Kampf: Jews as “the typical parasite, a sponger who, like an infectious bacillus, keeps spreading.” Nazi propaganda routinely cast Jews as vermin.
- Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (2023): Announcing a siege of Gaza: “There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel… We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.”
- Nazi propaganda (Goebbels echoing Hitler): Jews blamed collectively for war, threatened with “extermination.”
- Israeli President Isaac Herzog (2023): “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible….” — words widely criticized as endorsing collective punishment.
- Nazi euphemisms: “Evacuation” as code for extermination.
- Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu (2023): Suggesting a nuclear strike on Gaza was “one of the options.”
Different contexts. Different scales. But the same pattern.
Dehumanize → Justify → Destroy.
Anne Frank’s words remind us: when we hear this language, it is never “just rhetoric.” It is the runway to cruelty.
You see, cruelty always begins the same way: when leaders tell us to fear “the other.”
Fear the immigrant.
Fear the refugee.
Fear the neighbor who looks different.
Fear the people beyond your border.
That is the oldest political trick in the book. And it works—unless we refuse to buy it.
Anne Frank didn’t write her diary so we could cry in museums. She wrote it so we could recognize her suffering in others—and have the courage to stop it.
Why giving people a chance matters
This message hit me with even greater force because, while in Amsterdam, I also had a chance encounter.
I bumped into a young Syrian man who once worked for me back in 2016. At the time, he was a refugee in Malaysia. He and his friend had escaped a country torn apart by war. One had seen his home blown to rubble. The other had lost a brother when a bomb fell on the very place his brother was resting.
Both had lived through horrors most of us can barely imagine. And yet, when I met them, I didn’t just see refugees. I saw brilliant young minds. I saw hope, determination, and resilience.
That year, I had an idea for a new learning model called Quest and needed someone to build the app. These two young Syrians built it in record time. That app became the Mindvalley app—today used by millions worldwide and even featured in 200,000 Apple stores on the iPad.
Yes, our app was built by Syrians. Yes, it was built by refugees who were given a chance.
Anne never got her chance. But when we give people that chance, look what can happen.
This is why I am so adamant about this message. When politicians tell you to fear refugees, or immigrants, or minorities, they’re not just lying. They are robbing humanity of its future.
The rule we must all live by
If there’s one rule we must all live by, it’s this:
The moment a leader tells you to fear refugees, minorities, or immigrants, you are looking at a tyrant.
Do not believe them. Do not reward their fear with your silence—or your vote.
Because fear divides. And division always leads to cruelty.
What the world needs now is unity.
Unity across stripes, colors, races, and ethnicities. Unity across cultures, religions, and especially across borders.
Because the only way we solve the greatest challenges facing humanity—from climate change to war to poverty—is to remember this truth:
We are one humanity.
And kindness cannot stop at the invisible lines of race, religion, or border.
The higher vision
Anne Frank once wrote:
“In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”
That may be the most extraordinary line ever written. She believed it while hiding from people who wanted her dead.
If Anne could believe in human goodness then, we can believe in it now.
Let’s prove her right.
Let’s choose compassion over cruelty.
Let’s stand up for one another across borders.
Let’s silence the voices of fear not by shouting back but by choosing unity again and again.
Because Anne’s diary isn’t just a warning.
It’s a torch.
And it’s in our hands now.
So here’s what we can collectively do.
Stand for unity. Across color. Across race. Across borders. Across religions.
When you hear fear, answer with love.
When you hear division, answer with solidarity.
When a politician uses scapegoating, vote the other way.
The only way to honor Anne is to prove her right—that humanity is good at heart.
And that goodness becomes real when we act.
Because history doesn’t just happen to us. It is written by our choices—and our silence.
I’d like to hear from you: Drop a comment below—let’s create a conversation around unity, compassion, and what it means to stand for humanity in our time.
1,251 Responses
To hear of a man killing his own son out of anger–we see that as unnatural. Yet, to that father, it is quite normal at that time and seems fitting. He may regret it later, but he was led to do it and chose to do it.
There are things that are greater than us that we may not understand. Take for instance the law of gravity – yet an aircraft overcomes gravity.
Someone already made it possible for us to overcome hate, hurt, oppression, discrimination, fear…you name it.
This earth will pass away; a new earth and kingdom will come.
Let’s overcome then, and show the beauty of life, peace, joy, harmony, and found worthy to be part of that new kingdom when it comes.
Ps: I appreciate the fact that Vishen and hia team welcome all comments, comments that support and comments that reject their point of view. That’s the beauty of freedom. Keep up the great work.
I find it very disturbing how people who claim to be spiritual and are seeking enlightenment are so fearful of immigrants and refugees to the point that they don’t have love and humanity for those seeking a better life for their families. We all came from somewhere else because of persecution or seeking a better life for our families. How can you not see the similarities of what has happened in the past and is currently being repeated? How many more lives need to be taken, families separated and communities being targeted for people to open their eyes and their hearts? in my opinion, spirituality and being humane go hand in hand. Therefore, don’t claim that you are spiritual and seeking enlightenment while you lack humanity and love for ALL our brothers and sisters!
Vishen:
Thank you for having the courage to share your insights on this issue.
As I read your article I thought WOW… powerful and very courageous because many people like to call the issue “political” and shouldn’t be shared in such a setting. Speaking out against injustice and cruelty is not “political”.
I subscribe to Mind Valley because it helps me to become the higher version of the person I want to be… a person who has compassion and love for all people.
To those that refer to the issue as “political”, I ask that you reach into your heart and try to hear the words for what they are… a reflection of how so many people are suffering because of our fears.
Socrates said an unexamined life is not worth living and ‘know thyself’. Buddha said hatred cannot be overcome by more hatred, but only by love and compassion. This include self-love and self-compassion. He also said the root of human suffering – greed, hate and delusion are based on ignorance of our true nature, nature of reality, mind and self. Jesus commanded his followers to be peacemakers and said ‘the kingdom of heaven is within you’. He also said ‘why do you see the speck of dust in your brother’s eye and not see the log in yours’.
Failure to see a person of another race, religion, sex, color, status as my own brother, sister, child, parent – one human family and one ecological system is the problem in our modern education system; both secular and spiritual. Education develops only the intellect but not the intelligence of the heart. The word ‘Islam’ derives from the Arabic root word “s-l-m,” which is also the root for “salaam” (peace). Islam also categorizes specific harmful behaviors rooted in ignorance, such as blind adherence to traditions, false assumptions, or baseless fanaticism, as forms of jahiliyyah.
Jewish proverbs and sayings emphasize peace (Shalom) as a supreme value, with sayings like “Love peace and pursue peace” (Abot i. 12), the understanding that “The whole Torah was given for the sake of peace” (Giṭ. 59b), and the concept that “Great is peace, for no vessel can hold blessings but peace” (‘Uḳ. 83b). In Kabbalistic thought, achieving a state of essential ignorance is considered a positive step towards spiritual enlightenment, as it makes the mind open to receive wisdom and truth, contrasting with the negative state of willful or passive ignorance. If you hear a truth or if you see a truth, you must not hide from it. One cannot build an enduring future based upon willful ignorance.
Basing himself on studies by renowned anthropologists, Einstein maintained that the Jewish people was not a race per se, however much it was considered as such by the political propaganda which had resulted in its persecution and diaspora. Same could be said of any other race. the concept of race is not compatible with modern science, genetics and anthropology because it has no biological basis. Individual mental-emotional-inner self development in conscious-awareness beyond survival-fear based brain is a choice and a decision we need to make for ourselves now and future of our children.
Life force, consciousness, and energy cannot be killed or annihilated. Ignorance of this universal Truth would keep us locked in the cycle of delusion-karma-rebirth-suffering-samsara and hell. It is much easier to train our heart-mind for peace, love, compassion, joy, freedom and awakening in this life.
It is sad to see that what was once unthinkable it is a reality in the United States. The U.S. was once a beacon of worthy ideals, such as freedom and progress, and of true democracy. Now it’s course is set to go back in time.
Although there are people who are still resistant to see the similarities, and that is why we need to keep bringing awareness.
I am surprised by how many people missed your plea to see ”the other side” as human beings. We are all in this together and I am ashamed of how the US behaves both towards people inside the borders and those outside. A clear understanding of history shows unfortunately that power so easily corrupts. It still baffles me that so many people voted for trump and actually agree with his policies, while he dehumanizes anyone who crosses his path. Thanks for speaking out clearly and reminding us that we each have a responsibility to treat others as we want to be treated.
Thank you MindValley. I appreciate your courage and honesty in a world that is far from truth. This blog has made me more determined to keep my subscription and know that I am in good hands. Too many people are blinded by self interest to see the harm that world leaders are doing to our most underserved communities.
Again, thank you 😊
I canceled my subscription today. I am a legal immigrant. I became a citizen here in my late 30’s and I’ll be 50 this year. Using the tragedy of Anne Frank to call people who don’t think like you NAZIS is just too much. I do not ‘FEAR IMMIGRANTS” but I do think they should follow the law. You can’t just walk into someone’s house and take what you want and expect to not be treated like an intruder. If you don’t respect the law as a guest in another country, then you should stay in your own country. You don’t have to agree with me. I support your right to disagree with me. But I can’t support using this platform as a means of pushing a political agenda. I came to Mind Valley to relax. To escape the madness in this divided world. I did not come here for some “enlightened guru” to tell me how to vote.
I was born bred in Uk Wales, as country we opened the doors and let people in , now they threaten the people that gave them a chance , taking over the country wanting make it theirs , their religion drives out the values of the country that gave them a chance. I could see the writing on the wall and left my country. I wasn’t wrong, Ive been back home what a sad state of affairs. I entered a country where I respected the laws and values ( but now this this country is heading a similar way). Unity would be great, but its impossible in my eyes we would all have to want it and too many don’t !
A lot to be said about your post there Bob, nice one. I never thought of Mind Valley as a platform for political agendas.
I’m very sad that the “fake” picture being painted of over half our country has bled into this site. I have no fear or hatred for any immigrant the comes into our country legally. The 20 million unvetted and 300, 000 unaccounted for children has greatly troubled me knowing the children were abused and trafficked as they came up from South and Central America. We do not want these drug dealers and criminals in our country. We do not want to become Mexico or Venezuela. We do not want the globalists to actively try to bring down our constitutional republic by bringing division and violence into our country. We need to understand that as Americans we share so many good cakes…far more than our differences. I don’t care who you are, what color you are, what you believe in, who you sleep with…just please stop the ranting and name calling and violence and talk with your community again.
Please remove your comments. This type of rhetoric is what’s driving our nation apart instead of together with unity, especially after what just happened to Charlie Kirk the left wants to keep calling one side of the party Nazis all the time which is wrong and fake news and everyone starts believing it and causes Hate and terrorism within our country. It’s a shame that you put this out there, stirring the political pot and feeling the flames to keep this terror going in our country.
Charlie Kirk was a dad and husband and I feel very sad for the ones that are left behind grieving……and…… he was talking about how the odd gun casualty was worth it because he didn’t believe in gun restrictions…. He also used a lot of hateful speech. No, that does not justify his killing but it goes someway to explain the background to how this happened.
In Esther Hick’s words, ‘Wars happen because some people want it’. Since the beginning of life, there has never been a time when there has been no conflict. Even before humans, dinosaurs fought with each other. Look up any period of history and you will read about wars, battles and conflict. Conflict seems to be a part of life on this planet. So it is upto individuals to decide whether they want to align with peace or conflict. And when some groups provoke you by stepping on your toes and territory, even if you are peaceful you will pick up the sword. And you must protect yourself. And that is what IL is doing after extreme provocation. You have quoted IL politicians but conveniently ignored the slogan of the provocators who want to wipe out IL. It would do you good to stick to wellness and Mindvalley topics and not comment on politics without having an objective view.
Thank you Vishen for this clear comparison of them and now.
You are an indispensable key for today’s awareness.
Thank You endlessly
Vishen, it’s not like you to hear and accept fake news. I won’t repeat what was already written here in the comments. I suggest you take some of the things you wrote back. It will show your strength, not your weakness. We all make mistakes. You actually compare what IL is doing to what Hamas did and still doing? Do you realize that they all want nothing but destruction and the annihilation of IL? Do you find it comparable? I, as well as many others that don’t just repeat Hamas propaganda, don’t it comparable. Qatar monetize much of the terror, with the help of Iran. The hate is so much unthinkable, that it nativity to think that any kind of peace can be produced here. It will take a few generations, provided that education is taken place properly, and hate put aside. Would have been great to hear your thoughts.
Dear Vishen and Mindvalley, thank you for writing to the world about the life of Anne Frank.
As teenage girl students growing up in Lockwood Victoria Australia, I and my younger sister attend the St Mary’s College Bendigo, where we were reading the book The Diary of Anne Frank. During the 1980’s.
I remember that I would never forget how her writing touched my heart as a teenage student in a reasonable comfort of middle class society,
learning about her experience also gave me more insight into the world my parents grew up in.
The second world war had a resounding impact on my parents thoughts and feelings and their narrative referred back to the holocaust survivors and from their perspective I did ask God, what about the genocide that hurts our first nations traditional owners families respect in Australia?
Feeling so sad for a world of terror happening to a girl and her sister at the time, not really understanding how much her story is a part of my story until the later years of reflection upon what Anne Frank wrote from her experience.
As a young person teenage years never spent time reflecting on the scope of how we come to endure the things that a society shapes for our life experience, but the Diary of Anne Frank left me feeling horrified by the world and empathizing with the innocent young life impacted by the realms of fossil fuels ideation.
Over the years realising how, in reflection, and quiet moments, listening to the small voice of truth within, I came to see as we do now, that we live in an apparent pretentious Christian society? However that Christian notion is built exactly upon the nasty rhetoric of a white Australia policy and the racial religious profiling that goes with the hatred coming from those in power of white intellect pretending supreme behaviour.
In the way that Nazi Germany treated humanity is a world that God and the guardian angel described to myself as no more than one white man hell bent on world domination via extermination of those he did not want to be in the world.
The way God almighty God Bulurru describe to myself that in the scheme of things most trauma caused by fossil fuels agendas and the ideation that comes from a world living under the rule of fear mongering as a means of quality of life?
“What the world needs now is love sweet love, it’s the only thing that there’s just too little of” is a song we used to learn and sing in Primary school years and those words are true today as well.
Imagine a world where humanity is purely powered by renewable energy resources.
I try applying some of the techniques learnt in Mindvalley for the overall improvement of the intellect of human beings who are causing the imbalance of power to our lives.
God tells me, that the industrial revolution was in full swing during those war years and the way that Israel acting today is the carry on of the same fossil fuels abuse agendas that Hitler used back then.
Calling ourselves Christian society is one thing, while murdering the human civil rights of human beings? is happening under the nasty elements of a fossilized regime of society that started with the idea of ethnic cleansing back then.
Hitler went to the extreme to purge the world of the Jewish people.
However the family of Jesus Christ Mary and Joseph came from the Nazareth, and were Jewish people.
The idea of Christianity came from the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and before the passing of Jesus in the crucifixion of his life, there wasn’t Christianity.
One day, as a young adult age 19 I went to work in St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne as a ward assistant, I wasn’t in the job for very long, and during the short while working there, I met a woman who just given birth to her 6th baby and she was of Jewish faith, we talked a few times while she was there in recovery with her newborn baby.
This memory stays with me because until that moment I never met a Jewish person before, and she was a lovely person with a kind heart, as she described her faith, I was able to absorb her input into my life experience as an educative factor, that opened my heart and conscious awareness to the love of God and God’s love for everyone equally in this life.
I felt privelaged to meet this woman and to be serving her clean water and generally cleaning up around her as was my job.
Because of the impacts of the Diary of Anne Frank which I had read only 5 years earlier age 14.
In this reality God was showing me, that our humanity wellbeing is precious that we need to cherish one another in our differences.
Fast forward to today and seeing the trauma created by Hitler exterminating the Jewish people replaying itself as you say in a loop , until our humanity could awaken their awareness and spiral out to a new perspective to understand what powers our society, is what causes our humanity states of being.
God almighty God Bulurru says that our humanity lessons for rising above the fossil fuels agendas and relying on fossil fuels for comfort of wealth mongers, is hurting our human civil rights to live in a world without this discrimination and persecution of our rights to live is all caused by the reality that dragged fossil fuels energy out of fossil times of dinosaurs era is a massive error on the part of humanity.
As we all seek a better world practice forgiveness as Jesus Christ tells us, also the truth that dragging out fossil energy from the past and making us all believe that is all we can trust for our energy source while the Sun of God arising in the sky with so much energy to power the whole earth is a sad and sorry reality of how ignorant is a white man? To assume that raping the mother earth is the best way to power humanity?
While ignoring the Sun of God almighty God Bulurru in the sky that can give energy to every country for free.
Anne Frank wrote about her reality and that she still believes the people are inherently good.
She maybe right because it’s only one or three wealthy white man and woman, over the generations who are trying to govern our humanity with the fossil fuels agendas from the industrial revolution errors.
We know most politicians follow each other not daring to step out of line in order to make sure their income and wealth remains.
But for most of us average citizens who relinquish stand over power grabbing methods for the common good and for equality, we already see the perverse nature of the few in charge no different from those war years.
Jesus Christ often warned us, there will be rumours and talk of wars, this is as he predicted. And to not lose heart hearing these things.
However once we reach the pinnacle of our faith altogether in our humanity wellbeing, then we can take a leap of faith forward together into our renewables energy resources powered lifestyles, where no fossil elements are enabled. (Including life without fossil guns)
God tells me that we need to focus our humanity on the very real practice of renewables energy resources and fully understand that our focus and our beliefs in that reality can bring the reduction in murderous intentions of fossil fuels agendas that came from a dinosaur era of kill or be killed.
Once we take that leap of faith altogether as one humanity and fully trust renewables energy resources powered lifestyles can be our reality for humanity wellbeing , is when we are free from fossil relics agendas
So a lot of my thoughts practice is about seeing a world where we care for each other and respect each other as individuals and in our communities our religious education and our true community faith practice, coming away from the old building and finding ourselves altogether in the nature recreating our values with God in respect of our spiritual rights.
God gave us the ten commandments about how to treat each other with respect, the hypocrisy of this world is the reality that calling oneself a Christian while murdering the rights of children and adults and innocent people is as far away from Jesus teachings as our humanity could go.
Now we need to rely on renewables energy resources powering our human life because the Sun of God turns up every day in the world without trauma or baggage of violent from the dinosaurs past.
In a forgiving world we acknowledge the trauma and move to change the way our societies are powered, thereby giving opportunity and life and respect for every living being.
For humanity to become the best versions of ourselves we need to be powered by renewable energy resources.
The only reason we human beings fight so much, intellectual coercive control is the isolating ideas that one is more important than the other or that one needs more power and control narrative than the other.
As a traditional owners families respect in Queensland Australia today is yalaguli, we practice surrendered power for the common good, respect of the other no matter race creed or culture.
No-one ever is to blame.
Blaming others causes war and war causing poverty is the merry-go-round that humanity is on , until we consciously choose no blame no war and start rebuilding and plant trees with cities powered by renewable energy resources that will calm the farm, for the few power mongers who need to learn how to surrender to the power of the almighty God Bulurru our creator and redeemer.
Anne Frank never lost her faith that humanity can be better versions of themselves although she was murdered by the fossil regimes.
In this way I relate to Anne Frank and her story is my story , in so much as my rights in Australia also murdered, reflected in the murder of my younger sister by her boyfriend with a fossil relics tool of fear mongering gun.
Every day that I wake up in this world trying to be grateful for the life a gift we are given,
I know that my prayers are for a best quality versions of ourselves in our humanity ,
if that is my service for humanity that is oke with me, but of course I would love to make this a better world for everyone to share and care without the distractions of fossil fuels agendas that dominated far too long and that hurts way too many people for no reason other than world domination.
Decentralized government departments would give more rights responsibility and improvements to the average citizens, and the average citizens of humanity are way more compassionate than the apparent world leaders who inflict such unnecessary unconscionable pain in the physical world, all starting in the thoughts & words of white man race.
Israel is no different to the regime of Hitler,
when they need to show compassion for every human being and rebuild life,
we couldn’t blame anyone for the fossil agendas that have become the comfort zone for wealth and fear mongers.
Australian Government are also caught up in the fossil desires and is why we see so much energy wasted in the world when we all need to focus on repair the damages consciously to the people who were here first. Let them be part of the affluence that is power and control beyond equality, and give respect by elevating the life of all human beings left suffering from the violations that comes from control thoughts and actions by those acting from fossilized regime agendas.
Unity puts the respect into community, when most people want to be together, we are finding ourselves more and more being individualised and marginalised for thinking of compassion as means of recovery and compassion for each other and ourselves.
There are no excuses for the deliberate massacres of people in cultuures of humanity.
Jesus family was a Jewish family, on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was born Christianity, however what makes a good Christian?
Jesus never said start your own religion and murder everyone who doesn’t believe you.
The good news of Jesus Christ story is in practice of surrender to forgiveness and from forgiveness and gratitude we can appreciate the equality respect for every human being in our world.
I will stop talking now because Vishen, this subject is close to my heart, and maybe you can see from this response that I might have thought about these things before now.
Our prayers for a best quality versions of ourselves and our humanity family and community is our dreaming to circulate truth
Thanks for your conversation peace love and blessings prayers from us, to you all.
I am shocked, saddened, and horrified.
You placed quotes from Nazi leaders alongside quotes from Israeli officials, drawing direct parallels between the Holocaust — the systematic, intentional genocide of six million Jews — and today’s war in Gaza.
I cannot begin to express how deeply painful and offensive this is. For me, and for so many others, the Holocaust is not just “history.” It is the darkest chapter of human cruelty, one that left scars across generations. Comparing the intentional mass killing of millions of people to today’s complex and tragic conflict in Gaza is not only misleading — it is blatant holocaust distortion and trivializes the suffering of Holocaust victims and survivors.
What makes this even more upsetting is how irresponsibly you handled facts and context:
You quoted far-right Israeli politicians with minimal public support, presenting their words as though they represent the mainstream government’s position.
You cited statements from Israeli leaders like Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and President Isaac Herzog but stripped away the context — Gallant was referring specifically to Hamas, a terrorist organization that murdered, raped, burned, and beheaded civilians on October 7th, and Herzog’s remarks were tied to the hostage crisis — yet your framing falsely implies they were targeting all Gazans.
The result is a deeply distorted narrative that oversimplifies a horrific, complex war and vilifies an entire people based on selective, sensationalized headlines.
When you remove this context, your words do real harm. In the years since the Holocaust, antisemites have used the same manipulative comparisons — twisting the Holocaust to push agendas — and we’ve seen where that leads. Antisemitic hate crimes are at an all-time high worldwide, and content like this fuels dangerous stereotypes and hatred. The consequences of framing are not theoretical — people are being attacked simply for being Jewish. Posts like this contribute to that rising tide. This is precisely why countries around the world have enacted strict laws against Holocaust distortion and trivialization. I strongly urge your team to reflect carefully on the harm done here.
Anne Frank’s story is sacred. Her words should inspire compassion, not be used as a political weapon to promote one-sided narratives. Seeing her memory manipulated this way — by a platform I once respected — feels like a deep betrayal.
I subscribed to Mindvalley for personal growth and unity, not for political messaging masked as a call for peace. This post crossed a very big line for me. It also made me question what other misinformation you send out.
I am cancellation my subscription, I would encourage anyone who doesn’t want to be fed misinformation to do the same.
Anne Frank’s legacy deserves better. The memory of six million Jews deserves better. And your community deserves better than this kind of rhetoric.
Thank you MindValley. I appreciate your courage and honesty in a world that is far from truth. This blog has made me more determined to keep my subscription and know that I am in good hands. Too many people are blinded by self interest to see the harm that world leaders are doing to our most underserved communities.
Again, thank you 😊
Thank you, Vishen, for your insightful and timely commentary. I was impressed and proud of your willingness to stand up and say what needs to be said.
I am deeply disturbed by your horrendous misappropriation of Anne Frank who, along with her family, hid in an attic ata time when Jews, all over Europe were hunted down like animals and sent to crematoriums and mass graves just for being jewish!!!! Go visit Auschwitz’s or any other concentration camp and educate yourself. Go to israel and visit the site of a nova music festival where 3000 participants who came to celebrate peace love and music were hunted down ands raped and slaughtered. Israel’s beef has NEVER been with the Palestinians. It’s the terrorists Hamas that plants their arsenal in tunnels crisscrossing under civilian life that causes all the unnecessary innocent deaths, it’s Hamas that prevents the Palestinians people from accessing their food trucks while they confiscate the resources, eat lavish meals in their hideaways and sell what supposed to be free food provided by sponsoring countries, lining their pockets with millions, while mere feet from where they are starving and torturing hostages that have been held for 700 days, it’s Hamas that shoots to kill any Palestinians who try to evacuate areas forewarned by Israeli with leaflets dropped from the sky and cell phone messages because Hamas needs maximum fatality counts against their people so they can continue to make up lies about germicide. I always loved mindvalley and respected your efforts to enlighten the world and here you are, spreading baseless ignorant lies. Where was your voice when hundreds of women children and old folks were trapped, dismembered, burned and kidnapped, all while posting these vicious scenes on social media??? Even when they unabashedly shots off their brutality, you make up lies for your thousands of followers. It’s beyond irresponsible; it’s incitement
1) Israel left Gaza in 2005- fully!! All 21 Jewish communities were dismantled; the IDF withdrew. No “occupation” inside Gaza since then. Hamas then won elections (2006) and seized full control (2007).
2) Hamas’s doctrine rejects Jewish self-determination and glorifies “jihad.” The 1988 Covenant frames the conflict in explicitly eliminationist, religious terms, not a standard border dispute.
3) Years of rockets and cross-border attacks preceded 10/7. Israeli border towns endured chronic bombardment and trauma; Sderot kids have sky-high PTSD rates.
4) 10/7 was mass atrocity, including sexual violence. Independent reporting and legal teams have documented rape, mutilation, and executions, facts many “unity” essays conveniently downplay.
5) Hamas systematically embeds among civilians. This is not propaganda; it’s a long-running pattern documented by governments, investigators, and even some Hamas statements while rights groups simultaneously remind Israel it must still obey IHL. Both things can be true.
On the email’s Nazi comparisons (why they fail)
Yoav Gallant’s “complete siege / human animals” line is real, and, condemnable in tone, yet it was made in the immediate aftermath of 10/7 while announcing wartime measures. That’s not the same as a regime built on a program of genocide. Context matters!!
Amichai Eliyahu’s “nuclear option” was a fringe remark. He was publicly slapped down and suspended from cabinet meetings. Nazi policy wasn’t an undisciplined one-off, it was the state’s core program.
Isaac Herzog’s line about Gazans’ responsibility has been hotly contested, and he’s said the ICJ twisted it. Quoting an embattled president mid-war as if it were Mein Kampf is rhetoric, not analysis.
Bottom line: ugly wartime rhetoric exists, and should be called out, but equating Israel with Nazism collapses history and motive. Israel’s polity includes Arab citizens, an independent press, and courts that can and do restrain the state. Hamas’s founding text and practice target Jews as such. Those are not symmetrical systems.
Your clarification is appreciated, and heard. I am still trying to wrap my head around it all. The Middle East….. there has to be better ways. There has to be. How can humanity as a whole make all things right, stop all the killing on all sides?
Vishen, I value humanistic spirituality and that’s exactly why your Anne Frank/Nazi comparison is reckless. It erases basic facts: Israel fully left Gaza in 2005; Hamas’s charter rejects Jewish existence and has used Gazans as shields while firing on Israeli civilians for years; on Oct 7, Hamas carried out mass atrocities, including sexual violence. None of that is “a mirror” of the Jewish teen who hid from a regime dedicated to exterminating her people.
If you want unity with integrity, start by refusing false equivalence. Condemn extremist remarks on all sides, yes, but also name the ideology that set this war in motion and holds Gazans hostage to it. If you’re serious, platform voices who’ve risked everything to expose Hamas (ex. Mosab Hassan Yousef) and educators like Noa Tishby who actually teach this history. Compassion without context isn’t healing, it’s harm.
Thank you for picking up on the importance of the synchronistic connections in your path in Amsterdam and ACTING on your desire to share the impact of them on you in knowing most in your audience would feel the same.
Great information and inspiration here, and a reminder that we can each do what we can, where we are, with what we have. And each of us has our daily choices to make for living the example compassion, kindness, mercy, love, service to others.
In respect to your reminder about the loop of history and breaking it, and for those who still have the right to vote for your legislators in the U.S. , I share a quotation to this effect that I recently saw printed on a friend’s TShirt and attributed to the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg: “When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. “I vetted this and she was quoting this in an interview with Bill Moyers in 2000 invoking it from political discourse of the 1960’s civil rights movement . And the loop goes on!
Everything you say and write is dead on. Thank you. Love is always the answer. Hope you run for office. We need people who can unite us right now.