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.
1,231 Responses
Big respect and admiration for your courage in speaking out on this. Keep sharing, keep talking about it, people will listen. We need the whole world to stand up against tyrany. My heart is broken and I send the people in Gaza love and prayers every day. They’re living a life most of us can’t even bear to watch.
Another one bites the dust. This is lazy, shortsighted, and arrogant. You think all of the sudden that you are a person of spiritual authority, that now is the moment of outrage in the world when you have done nothing of the sort before and fail to mention anything about other horrors going on in the world. I wonder how this makes Bernard, Gwenyth, David and other Jews in your Valley feel. Extremely careless, and subjective. Bringing up Anne Frank the Jew actually comes across as condescending and patronizing to other Jews.
Sorry Vishen but your comparison between Israeli leaders quotes and the Nazis is disgusting. While I do not agree with many of the words of some of the Israeli leaders today (and despise the current government as an Israeli), you are quoting things by Israeli president and Minister of defense said after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th 2023, where children were taken out of their beds , shot and taken as hostages, women were raped and when there are still hostages that went to dance in the Nova party and are still in captivity after nearly 2 years chained and not given any visit from the red cross or anyone. You are totally one-sided here and I’m sorry you took Mindvalley, which up to now was a tool for good and development, on the path of fake and one-sided views. Many things are handled badly today, by leaders in Israel, US and other places. But strengthening Hamas and its hatred and fanatic policy of killing jews for fanatic religious views, is something Mindvalley should not do if it truely wants a better world. And unfortunatlly that is what comes out of essay. For me – another source of what I thought wants to do good in the world (Mindvalley) also lost it in the bad path we are on.
I agree with Orit ! Vishen, I’m assuming your intention was good and moral. However I’m afraid it only strengthens the pro Palestine agenda … when you leave out what Orit noted , the murders, rapes, stolen innocents… all Jews… it sounds one sided and not what I’m going to assume you intended. Vishen: Please please re write with careful wording . The propaganda needs to be interpreted as such, and from someone with many followers it’s even more important to vet the truth and include more than one side. There is suffering in Gaza and israel and many other oppressed places around the globe. Please re think and re write …Or you have just done what you were saying you didn’t want to do.
So many of my thoughts, too. Very scary that dehumanizing is used in many countries these days, with real threats behind it (Hamas in Israel) and completely imagined (refugees in Europe, immigrants in the USA).
We need more such messages like yours, Vishen.
In a day and age where people attack anything that differs from their view and are quick to cancel– I applaud your courage to post such a well-written message and lead with the aim of unity not division, kindness not cruelty, and fuel hope.
I had intended going to Amsterdam for Mindvalley workshop but didn’t happen.. everything for a reason I believe but I’ve been to Anne Frank’s house few times and can still feel awe struck by the shear energy oozing from the walls !
We should be grateful for all those gone before us who have paved the path for some to have an easier journey and send pure love to those who are still struggling around the world ❤️
Dear Vishen. Thank you so much for speaking out on these issues and connecting the authoritarianism, fear, and loss of human rights we are experiencing.
There are several responses here that ask why you haven’t mentioned October 7th and blamed Hamas. I suspect Vishen did not want to get his message lost in the weeds.
When bringing up October 7th to somehow justify a genocide that has killed over 60,000 as reported by health officials, but which is estimated as over 377,000 people by Harvard University (of whom at least 83% were civilians); and where we have seen daily war crimes and intentional atrocities for over 600 days is frankly misinformation and insensitive to the 100s of thousands of Palestinians killed and millions now homeless and without homes, healthcare, and water. Hamas did not start this ongoing violence. They are a product of decades of oppression violence and occupation by Israel. Israel, the occupation, and the Zionist movement created the current situation. This is well documented.
While I do not condone the killings that took place on October 7th, there is much larger context to why Gaza and Hamas exist as they do which the comments above miss completely. Prior to October 7th, daily atrocities by Israelis occurred in the Gaza and West Bank for decades. And prior to that Israelis drove 750,000 indigenous Palestinians out their homes and lands to create homes for people coming from other countries. Many of them became refugees in the Gaza Strip. If you take the time to understand the situation, you will see that Israel has illegally occupied and settled the Palestinian Territories since. And they have ruled these areas under military control. While it is important to release hostages, this applies to Israel as well. Where 1000s of Palestinians are held in prisons under administrative detention and tortured without any charges, including children. In addition, 1000s of Palestinians have been detained tortured and murdered in the Gaza Strip since October 2023 including doctors and healthcare workers.
I would also state that it is now well documented in Israel itself that the state and military knew about October 7th and cancelled border patrols that morning. They have also documented that when the IDF did finally show up they used the Hannibal Directive and killed many Israelis and Hamas fighters. Furthermore, Netanyahu has himself stated that he arranged to fund Hamas through payments via Qatar in order to prop them up to avoid a two state solution. There is more context and history behind all of this, but the overriding fact is that Israel is the occupier and the oppressor who has been carrying out a genocide for 2 years in Gaza, and who continues to murder and steal lands and homes from Palestinians in the West Bank.
This is not about safety for Israel nor their hostages, it is about genocide and expulsion of the Palestinians from Gaza so Israel can take over the land and expand the country.
Vishen has brought attention to the authoritarianism and the lack of accountability and responsibility from our world leaders to take action to stop this and other atrocities and violations of human rights in the US.
When speaking about the situation please do your research. It is not useful to spread the misinformation that the current Israeli government puts out. It is also important to remember that the Israel state and its military leaders are war criminals wanted for crimes against humanity. These are the issues that need to be enforced.
This is where we need to unite and work together to stop genocide and violence and the loss of human rights and dignity. Thank you Vishen. Speaking out and having respectful and informed dialogue on these matters is a key component of personal growth that contributes to raising the collective consciousness of the world. May peace and positive energy be with you all on this day.
Anne Frank’s words continue to remind us that even in the darkest times, hope and humanity can prevail. If she could still believe people are good at heart, then we can too. May we keep choosing love over fear, peace over division, and unity over separation, again and again.
Vishen, these words ring so true. I would like to make a suggestion… use your platform to have a day of prayer where spiritual leaders across the globe come together to write and then recite one prayer/one vision for our world. They can recite it together and have their congregations present. It can be a day of music, celebrating God, life, our differences and our similarities. You could gain the help of spiritual thought leaders to help with the content and donations to have it televised. We need to do something big to bring light to what’s going on in the world and our intent to choose love and unity over, fear, war, and division.
Hello Vishen. My name is Thierry and I’m following you since 2018 and a member of the Mindvalley since then. I have to say that I’m really surprised to read this post and especially that it’s coming from you. You see, taking one of the most known stories of the Holocaust and making comparisons in a manipulative way, to nower days and insinuate that Jews have changed roles from being persecuted from the Nazis to be persecutors like the Nazis of the citizen in Gaza is completely out of place! Using a story of a haunted Jewish family in the Second World War and showing empathy to it does not allow you to make the balance with the families in Gaza. The Hamas brought all what is happening on their civilians. This is their line of defense, the bigger the number of casualties the better for them, it serves their twisted narrative, and writing a post like you wrote gives them power. Power to a terrorist organization. An organization that on a Saturday morning at 6:29 am crossed the border to Israel and entered into family houses to butcher, rape and behead family members in front of their loved ones! And all of this was filmed! Did you care to see the atrocities Vishen? And on top of that kidnapped 254 people, from babies under one year old to elder people over 80. I think you got it all wrong Vishen.
This!!! Yes. Please read Vishen!!
I have been to Gaza for work, the differences between Israel and Palestine were vastly different back in 2005. I don’t condone the October 7 2023 attack.
The atrocities / war crimes which Israel are inflicting on the people are horrific and countries like US and Europe should be doing more to stop this
Thank you, Vishen, for sharing this message and for taking a stand for what is right and true. We cannot afford for anyone to remain silent anymore. Silence is complicity, and sllence is death. We are in those times that the world will look back on and see what choices we each made, who stood where. Thank you for using your voice and platform to speak out.
This was wonderfully put Vishen!
I understand that you are human like the rest of us, and living in or around an Islamic country can naturally shape one’s perspective. But I invite you to reflect on why, when there is so much devastation in the world, Armenia, where nearly 200,000 were ethnically cleansed, the Congo, Yemen, Syria, you chose to focus on Israel.
Is it possible that this focus was not yours to begin with, but placed there by media narratives since October 7th?
You’ve portrayed Gazans as a peace-seeking people, yet independent surveys show that around 70% openly support the destruction of Israel. Their actions have proven this again and again, but it seems hard for many to see.
It’s a shame that even someone like you has been caught in this distortion, and an even greater shame that you chose to use your platform to amplify propaganda rather than truth.
Thank you, Vishen, for your thoughtful and compassionate words. Their meanings penetrate me. My tears fall, and my heart aches. And I’m inspired to bring more Love into this world … deep true eternal Love.
Powerful, courageous, truthful, humanity likes to hide and avoid these realities and continue the patterns we all live in. Hiding and avoiding is one of the most common patterns of humanity. Thanks for posting this.
Yes Vishen! I thought I had lost my badass-buddha-guru, but you’re back! This is truly the truth, and I saw one comment on how your essay has «so many holes» -commenting how palestinian children are taught to hate jews, well, it goes the other way around, and it’s just a sick way of defending and normalizing violence and murder of children. And, might I add, the fact that Israel has been doing this to the Palestinians since 1948! So thank you!! Monica, Norway.
Vishen, your blog was beautifully written and incredibly timely. I just read a book recently by Alice Hoffman, “The world that we knew” that gives a moving and imaginative look at Anne’s life before the attic. What struck me most was how easily people she once called friends turned away. They got swept up by fear, propaganda, and the pressure to conform. That part of her story continues to haunt me, especially in light of the world we’re living in now. Thank you for the powerful reminder.
From the heart of Amsterdam, in shock to read Anne Frank is banned, thank you for your voice!
Vishen, I have long admired the powerful and inspiring platform you have created with Mindvalley, which has served humanity in so many meaningful ways. That is why I feel deeply shocked and appalled by this post. By invoking Anne Frank and then comparing Israel to Nazis, while omitting any acknowledgment of Hamas’s atrocities, including mass murder, rape, mutilation, the kidnapping and barbaric torture of over 250 hostages, and the use of civilians as human shields, you present an incomplete at best and dangerously hate invoking, misleading narrative.
Israel is not without criticism, but equating it to the very regime that murdered Anne Frank fuels hatred and incites antisemitism rather than encouraging dialogue and understanding. With your global reach, words matter. To leave out Hamas’s role in starting and perpetuating this war while framing Israel as Nazis distorts facts, history and puts Jewish people all over the world at risk due spreading such propaganda.
I urge you to use your influence to foster balanced conversations that acknowledge the full complexity of this tragic conflict, instead of spreading narratives that sow more hatred.