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.
1,246 Responses
One of the best things i read recently.
Yes, let’s create a conversation about unity, compassion, ethics, moral values and virtues. We humans need it.
I grew up in NYC, were The Diary of Anne Frank, Exodus, and 1984 were not required reading but were carried in the hallways throughout my high school years. They all carried important views about humanities darker side and were good warnings about what could happen if we were not vigilant. I reacently viewed the tv series TURN that gives a view of what it was like to live under a King in this country that resulted in our revolution.
Here we are in 2025 and the parallels are right in front of us. The attempt to eliminate a “race,” represses human rights, and iimpose emperial rule are right before our eyes. These are being carried out by elected officials and governments that distort the truth, hide the truth, and distort the truth to get away with these oppressive practices.
Our memories are to short in Israel case 60 years, in the US our educational short falls have come to bite us in the butt.
There is a need to educate our peoples on the founding principles our democracies were founded on ‘…that all men are created equal. The Biblical teaching that it is a sin to kill, and even Jesus’s sermon on the mount.
Jim Mady
Dear Vishen,
Thak you for sharing this deeply moving reflection about Anne Frank touched me deeply. Anne once wrote, “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”
Her words remain one of the most powerful reminders of hope and humanity.
Yet today, her voice is at risk of being erased from history books, and that silence itself becomes dangerous. If Anne were alive, perhaps she would ask us to look at our world with compassion — for refugees, for the oppressed, and for those who are denied opportunities.
Her story reminds me that justice is not only about laws, but about giving equal chances to every human being. We must not let silence or indifference become the ground where injustice grows. Every act of awareness, kindness, and courage keeps her voice alive.
Outstanding, Vishen! A brilliant piece of work. Yes, to everything – across borders, across countries. And no to the resurgence of hatred in a country we once took for granted would work against evil.
Thank you, Vishen, for such a thought provoking, important message. The parallels are terrifying and the fact that Anne’s book is considered ‘not appropriate’ for children boggles my mind and is equally terrifying. I question what is passing for ‘education’ in America these days. Your words also give me hope – you have a great reach and as long as people like you remember these (hi)stories and bring them back into focus, perhaps we have a chance. On a personal note…my mother just barely survived that typhus ward. I could never look at those photos at the back of some editions for fear of seeing her emaciated face looking out.
Well said ! Bravo !
Thank you for using your platform to amplify the voices of the oppressed. I don’t know who will write the history books about this time we are living through, but at the very least, you can say that you stood up for what was right. I have a lot of grace in my heart for the folks in these comments who do not understand- they have been told a lot of propaganda and misinformation. Spreading awareness is the best way to counteract that, and I am grateful for you taking the time to speak out.
I seldom comment on social media, as I mostly find it biased (depending on the side you are on), and tends to simplify highly complex situations into simple constructs and paradigms.
I sympathize with most of your ‘calling’ to greater compassion and easing the suffering.
That’s why when I saw the “equation” you’ve cited above, putting Natzi Leadership aside to Israeli ones, I was deeply disappointed, as it misses a ‘HUGE PIECE’ of the puzzle – the brutal ideology of Hamas leadership. in many occasions – calling for destruction, massacre, and death of every Israeli – that set the foundation of Oct 7th brutal events – with over 1,200 israeli’s murdered, raped and over 250 kidnapped. The celebrations that day at Gaza streets (while Israel still trying to gasp) were widely shown on camera, showing the general narrative on the streets that day.
There are plenty of sources for those who are interested to deepen their understanding & knowledge (simply look on google: “Hamas leader citations calling for distruction of israel”) – but I’ll stick to one of he most important Sunni religious leader, the late Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who ruled that all Israeli citizens are potential soldiers, and it is therefore permitted and even a religious duty to kill them. (look it up).
Like many, I do call to end the war and the human suffering at the earliest. The prices are enormous.
I just ask that you keep in mind:
1. Hamas also hold the keys to ending the war by returning the hostages. In fact, they could have done so many months earlier.
2. Hamas takes shelter and hides under/among civilians. It is deliberate and intentional to increase casualties and leverage Western public opinion. Their leaders were cited on that as well.
3. Once faced Oct 7th events – Israel must make sure it never happens again. Evil always expands and spreads, until fully stopped (sometimes brutally).
I found my e-mail very enlightening and it brought my scattered thoughts together in a very clear way. I cannot believe that Florida has banned the Anne Frank story. Today’s children need to know her and her thoughts during the most difficult of times in order that history may not repeat itself.
Thank you! I needed this reminder of the parallels taking place with history – and that loop. If we don’t learn from history, then we repeat it – and we are repeating history all over the world right now – humanity has never been at peace globally – peace on Earth has yet to be acheived once in human history – there is always someone fighting somewhere – I would like to live to see peace on Earth – now with America on this path I doubt I will live to see it.
So impressed with the courage you have shown in speaking up on both fronts. Gaza is an ongoing genocide and no matter what lead to it, starving 2 million people after bombing out a population and displacing them multiple times must be opposed by people of conscience everywhere. In the US, the illegal terrorising of immigrants, lack of due process and systematically scapegoating and otherizing people is also unconscionable and must stop. Too many people are silent in these difficult times. You have earned my respect and membership for life with the courage you have shown in speaking up at this time. Thank you.
Vishen, your courage is so inspiring! Writing down our thoughts and feelings is one thing, but to publish and share them authentically is a whole other thing. So many “leaders” who have reached a certain status are strongly encouraged to keep their personal opinions on political matters to themselves. And in a culture where one “wrong” move and you’re discredited, cancelled, and chastised, I can understand this advice. But, your words, your vision, and your Truth are stronger than those opinions. This is the sign of a true leader and what we need more of today. So thank you for standing in your own power and being a light in the face of darkness. I am buzzing with inspiration because of your courage and these powerful words. This inspiration is evident now, as I write this comment. Former me, would have never responded or commented.
Your invitation to act in these ways:
“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.” is exactly what I will continue to do.
History is written by our actions – and our inactions.
Thank you for the courage and true leadership you are expressing through your actions.
I believe we are here to express ourselves through the lens of love. Anything other than that is a lie… an illusion. Let’s stand for the Truth – for love. ❤️
Thank you.
Let us keep these thoughts in mind and stay vigilant as we head into this and are currently in a state of social moral shock especially in the USA, I understand over my years of life that the entire group of a country will take time to understand and absorb.. whats really happening as so few comprehend at this moment in time! Now, also those who do get it.. and think.. what is it? that I can do to try to change the course of this madness.. again.. only time will tell but it does start with us, one person at a time.. are you willing to share your thoughts? are you willing to move against the grain of the government? are you willing to stand up for the truth and what is right? and point out what is wrong? and if not yet.. when? These times are strange and hard to handle for many.. at my age it seems I need to support good leaders .. again.. political leaders.. and to whom I must put my TRUST.. questions.. Thank you Vishen for this!
The least Vishen Lakhiani should have done before publishing this absurd piece was read it to himself- a couple of times.
It is outrageous, false & inflammatory! The very ‘ideologies’ he condemns.
To lay the blame of this tragedy on the Jews ( I am not one) is divisive & tyrannical !
With this he himself lays those very same seeds of hatred he talks about in this rant.
Someone in the comments has called him a ‘public person’ which he hardly is. Yes he may be more influential than many, which is why this is highly irresponsible , showing how even the slightest amounts of ‘fame’ can ruin minds , turning them into precursors to great human tragedies.
To unsubscribe from this one-sided viewpoint seems to be an urgent & only sensible thing to do, for who knows where this river of hatred in the name of an innocent Anne Frank (as bait) will end.
I wonder if mindvalley will publish this comment!
Unsubscribing!
Vishen, thank you for writing this piece. I was reminded that in our every actions, we need to live with courage–to dissent, to stand up for unity, to love. Thank you.
Thank you Vishen for speaking up and sharing your powerful and strong statement. Anne Frank was part of my school education in Germany, and it is terrifying to read that it is banned from Florida schools. I am recognizing the current direction of various countries with concerns and worries, whether it is the war in the Ukraine, the despot in Russia, the narcist in the US and the right-minded parties, populists and humans in Germany. We have more repression than ever versus humans which flew from not safe countries or wanting a better life. Each of us can support in one’s personal environment, showing humanity, kindness and an open mind to any human. We need to carry the message out of our “bubble” because most of the humans connected with Mindvalley and our personal relationships will have an equal mindset.
RESPECT – KINDNESS & LOVE – HUMANITY!
I don’t understand why we can’t read previous comments and only this page. Whether I hit “older comments” or “newer comments,” all that’s available is this short page.
I’ve already commented and feel like you’re pushing propaganda. I’m interested in reading the rest of the comments, to see who can see thru it or not. I’m happy to see many people are calling you out for it.
I keep wondering if you’re being PAID to be an “influencer” to push these mainstream narratives. If not, you are quite sadly misinformed… Stop watching all the BS from CNN… it’s a bunch of LIES and you’re falling for it!
Another brilliant article on the decaying state of the world’s morality. Thank you, Vishen, for showing up and telling the truth. For the first time in decades, our western culture is going backwards. We made massive conquests in gender and race equality since the 1960s until recently. I’m with you 100% that the problem is the weaponization of fear. Good examples like yours are the hope of this world. I still believe there is more good today. But history is repeating itself and we are again tolerating the intolerable. Learn from the past, people!
Thank you for opening a door for conversations to take place. Sadly it seems Anne Frank was a victim in her time in history and we are still witnessing global conflicts and hateful policies – even as we wonder why these atrocities continue to occur between and within nations. If more individuals can take a step back from whatever valued position they hold and consider our neighbours as citizens worthy of our care and compassion – perhaps we will have time to become models for succeeding generations in how to live in peace and harmony as world citizens.
Two wrongs will never make a right.