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.
1,254 Responses
The banning of Ann Frank’s Diary in FL was not widely covered in America. I had no idea. This is so disturbing.
Very powerful and thank you for sharing. The land is called Palestine. Gaza is the area in Palestine.
To see the Palestinian people and their home land in 2025 eradicated by a county (or countries) that is supposed to be protecting them (occupiers are supposed to care for the people on the land they are occupying) and deem Palestinians less than animals is unconscionable. I hope your words help end the occupation and the death of more innocent Palestinians. As for the U.S. well I have no words…
I think you’re confusing immigrant with illegal immigrant. Anne would have been protected. Continuing this anti-American rhetoric only increases hate. Didn’t the riots cause enough hate? People are calling for the President of the United States to be assassinated. He’s a son, a brother, a husband, a father,a grandfather, and a friend to so many. Can you imagine if someone put a hit out on your loved one? Why is this ok? What kind of people advocate for assassination? The Nazis were horrible people who murdered members of my family. My family came here legally during WW2. I am disgusted to see so many people against my people who are all about love. We love this country. We love being Americans. I’m so ashamed that people who call themselves Americans are advocating for evil to come to America, and to stay in America. History is a lesson. It’s time to do what’s right. Is being Woke more important than protecting fellow Americans against foreign invaders who want to ruin America?
If you want to talk about foreign invaders, please remember that those who built this country were themselves foreign invaders who did so by slaughtering millions of people who were already living.
Proud American, you are forgetting that the America that you know and love was built by slaughtering millions of indigenous people who were living here long before the Europeans came. It was their land, and it was cruelly, horribly, muderously taken from them…and until that is addressed, this country will never be at peace.
Get real. Those who came to this land and ultimately built the country you love were themselves invaders. And those invaders slaughtered millions of indigenous people, took their land, made it theirs, and now call others who come here inaders.
Thank you for this today, Vishen. The fear, hate, and inhumanity needs to end, as much as we can manage without entirely getting rid of humans. More than standing up, the time has come for us to merely stand—we have to act. Thanks for adding your voice.
Here in the States, there are very few of us who are not immigrants. It’s past time we remember that.
Thank you, Vishen!
As an older white male, who grew up in in an environment in Southern Virginia, where racism was baked-in, I am grateful that I finally realized that “the problems” were actually not because of “those people”, but ultimately because of the many ways “those people” had been marginalized, scapegoated, downright lied about – forever! Sadly, it was “these people” – the historical bigots with whom I found myself too often going along to get along, but my better angels wouldn’t make it easy. I kept questioning. I kept making friends, naturally, with people different than me. I left for California and accidentally landed in the San Francisco Bay Area, finding a more egalitarian society (though still a far cry from equality on multiple levels), where for the last 3 decades, I have supported justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. It is sad that we humans let fear of others and a skewed sense of selfish self-protection lead us into what our hearts know is not true. We must stand up for what is is right and build together a world that works for all. Grateful for all you do, Vishen!
Thank you Vishen for writing this. I think we are all looking for actionable steps to reverse what is happening here. Recognizing words of hate and rebuking (with love) is one such step. I’m sure you’ve heard of Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) who was a prominent Lutheran pastor in Germany, and early sympathizer of Nazi right-wing political movements, until of course Hitler came to power and interfered with the Protestant church. As we idly watch as they pull immigrants from their homes, we fail to recognize that we will be next. Isn’t America the land of immigrants? Quote from Niemöller:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Wow very powerful! Thank you for sharing as I am not familiar
Very poignantly said. Unfortunately, the majority at this time doesn’t see it this way.
Beautifully written and on point.
What is happening to the people in Gaza is a heartbreaking tragedy. Hamas put Israel in a terrible complicated position, but it’s hard to call this anything but a gebocide at this point.
The changes I see in the US with ICE kidnapping immigrants without due process and the deployment of armed national guards troops in our cities to control citizens is a terrifying echo of tyrants past as they build toward total control and tyranny. I pray that the tide shifts before we lose our democracy.
Vishen, I admire your courage to speak out and take a stand. Many organizations at the cost of losing subscribers turn the other way. You are an example of someone who has integrity. Would love to be in touch with you. Warm hugs, Nita
It was a trip in time when I read your blog about Anne Frank. I once visited Anne’s home as a young girl myself. I felt the energy of the place and tried to imagine living there under those conditions. It was like no other experience. I will never forget it. I’ve been inspired my whole life of this story. Kind of living myself in thoughts a lot because of my health or lack of it. Been a prisoner at my own home. Then later in life I lost my brother to anorexia, a terrible battle that started in teen years. He looked like a boy from a concentration camps. Somehow the worldwar was close to me. I have been thinking that maybe I lived another life back then. In the middle of the war. Anyway I thought that everything is going in a better direction. That people are evolving just for the better and our world would look so different when I’m old. Oh how it all changed. Time sort of presents itself so different when you’re young or older. Now I know the history and maybe also remember a lot from past lives. Like you said Vishen, time is a loop. We learn the same lessons over and over until we master them. Earth is a great school. I want to say that this blog really touched me and I would like to put some of your words of wisdom forward into my Threads account. Would that be ok with you? 💖🙏
this is a terrible comparison and is so dumb and polarizing. Indeed the comments from Israeli government officials are way beyond acceptable, but the history of repeated terrorism, indoctrination of an entire population and the bloodbath that happened on Oct 7th cannot be ignored. You have lost a customer with this terrible blog and hope many other drop your platform too.
October 7th was orchestrated by the Israeli government to happen while they stood down for 8 hours and let their people be killed as a pretext to commit genocide. It is sad that people who were dehumanized have now become the dehumanizers. Genocide is happening and starvation is happening right now. You condone this.
Yes Anonymous! And…I’d like to add: No one is telling anyone in the US to FEAR immigrants, refugees etc. Our country is founded on laws. Everyone (who has not committed a crime) is welcome here through the proper process. Is the process perfect? No. Yet just opening the border was a dangerous thing to do because it not only allowed in many wonderful people who want/need a chance at a better life, but it also let in a significant amount of crime. Parts of the US are a shit show right now, and unfortunately the media is left biased, making any attempt to get our shit back together as some crime against humanity. In leadership roles of all kinds, sometimes hard decisions NEED to be made for the greater good. If someone is unable to make these hard decisions …they have no business leading our country. Unfortunately decisions need to be made based on the whole, and that is never 100% ideal. We are NOT headed in the direction you nod to in your article. Now calm down and stop being over dramatic . WE ARE THE MOST SUCCESSFUL NATION for a reason. And that reason is NOT called weakness.
Annie2, you forget that this country was built by slaughtering millions of people who were living here.
Truth …I feel the same.Bye.
I completely agree with this comment and couldn’t have said it better. I think Vishen’s comparison is unfair and uninformed.
Fabulous Vishen and hopefully a wake up call for many. As a Jewish woman I understand and support the imperative to get rid of Hamas and other terrorist groups targeting Jews. Yet, the toll to innocent women, children and yes men in Gaza is an attrocity and not the Judaism i grew up with. I am concerned that what is being created is anther generation who hate Jews. I feel similalry about the Latins being persecuted in my country- the U.S.- because some Latins are criminals. So are some white men and women. Yes, target the criminals and leave the rest alone. Right now, Latin men are doing the gardening in my home association. The temperature is the mid 90s.. I don’t know how they stand it or what we would do without them. Keep up your good work Vishen. The world needs more leaders of kindness. BTW… I interviewed you in 2014 for my book Stress Less Acheive More. (Harpur Collins) Thank you once again for your contribution.
Reading this, I am reminded that the wounds of history are not linear but cyclical, surfacing again when we deny our shared humanity.
As a womanist, I cannot separate the cries of Gaza, the displacement of migrants, or the silencing of marginalized voices from the larger fabric of oppression. They are threads in the same tapestry, stitched with the same rhetoric of dehumanization.
Metaphysically, I believe words carry power to either curse or create. When language reduces people to “other,” it is a spell of separation—one that breeds violence.
When we dare to speak unity, compassion, and dignity, we are calling forth a higher reality. We are co-creating a field where Anne Frank’s radical faith in human goodness can actually take root.
Unity is not sentiment; it is practice. It is the daily choice to embody love as resistance, to insist on freedom for the oppressed, and to anchor hope even in a world determined to recycle despair. To me, this is how we honor Anne’s diary—not just by remembering her words, but by becoming the living evidence that her faith in humanity was not misplaced.
You write with good intentions and at the same time are completely blind. You write about Gaza without writing about the fact that on October 7, 2023, thousands of Israelis were slaughtered, burned, raped and taken hostage. Children hid under the beds while their parents were murdered. And a common statement by survivors of this massacre was the feeling that the holocaust had returned.
The fact is that while you quote extremist Israeli ministers, you could also acknowledge that the war in Gaza would be over if Hamas – a brutal murderous terrorist organization- would release the hostages and disarm.
Visten, I appreciate you. Your thought patterns are pleasurable and hopeful for humanity.
I agree with probably 95% of your train of thoughts.
However, one needs to be practical in this world of beauty and ugliness, of goodness and chaos. Unity has NEVER existed on Earth. Discipline, protection, health are some of the traits that allowed humans to survive. All sprinkled with SOME Love.
I have stood in front of Anne Frank’ apartment in Amsterdam and totally partake of your emotions.
We must think not only with our hearts but also with our minds. The current situation in the US is difficult. But, But we must have rules and regulations. Last words, Love always triumph. Thus, we must go to the source: God!
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Vishen, you speak about peace, but peace cannot exist without truth. Where is your condemnation of Hamas—the terrorist group that on October 7th unleashed one of the most barbaric attacks in modern history? They slaughtered families, raped women, burned Israeli babies alive, mutilated bodies, and kidnapped hundreds of innocent people, and recorded their atrocities with pride. They then hid those hostages in tunnels, schools, and hospitals, using civilians—including children—as human shields. This is not resistance. These are war crimes.
Israel did not start this war—nor did it start the countless wars before it. For years, Hamas and other terror groups have launched tens of thousands of rockets at Israeli civilian populations—at schools, synagogues, buses, and homes. Israel unilaterally left Gaza in 2005, but instead of building a thriving society with billions in international aid, Hamas built terror tunnels, amassed weapons, and indoctrinated children to hate and kill Jews. That is the leadership Palestinians live under.
Let me put it this way: if someone came into your house, burned your children alive in front of you, raped your wife and then ripped her limbs off while she was still breathing, filmed it, and then kidnapped your neighbors, what would you expect your government to do? Would you ask them to remain passive? Or would you demand they defend you and ensure such evil could never be repeated?
And then, to compound this, you invoke the story of Anne Frank to make a point against Israel. That is not only misplaced and manipulative—it dishonors her memory. The historical truth is that the Grand Mufti collaborated directly with Hitler. So let’s not pretend that Palestinian leadership has been some innocent party of peace-seekers. Suggesting otherwise spreads falsehoods and fuels dangerous narratives.
Where is your compassion for the Israelis who have endured unimaginable suffering at the hands of terrorists? Why do you overlook their trauma while painting Gaza’s leadership and all of their citizens as victims? Your comments, whether intended or not, foster antisemitism and smear the memory of Anne Frank by equating Israel with Nazis.
The truth is stark: if Israel laid down her weapons, there would be no Israel. If Hamas and the Jew-haters laid down theirs, there would be peace. I hope you open your mind and heart to see beyond misinformation, because only truth can lead to real peace, and you can’t have peace with people whose actual mission is to kill you.
Hi Deborah, I agree with your comment as a whole. However, I’m not sure truth is the only thing required for peace. I think it is forgiveness that is most required. I don’t expect the victims of October 7th to be able to forgive what happened to them and their families, but without forgiveness as a people/society for things that have happened (think Hiroshima / Nagasaki, etc.) there will not be any peace. More war cannot bring peace.
Thank you for sharing this. The truth is this: Humanity is ONE. We were never meant to be the same–our diversity is a strength and not to be feared. When we start speaking with each other instead of shouting, when we recognize the humanity in each other, we will have taken a huge step in slaying the monster of prejudice and ignorance.
Unity in Diversity–the path forward to a world of mutual respect, peace, and wholeness.
Thank you for taking the time to write this message. It is urgent that we speak out on the horrible things that are happening. Happening in Gaza, and happening in “The Land of the Free”. I don’t know when it became taboo to speak out against genocide. Or to have disgust for abducting people from their homes to send them to concentration camps. I’m happy to support an organization that is on the correct side of our history-the-making.
My wife and I teach swing dancing and pickleball to build community and friendships. We see firsthand how powerful simple connections can be. But reading your words, I feel a deep sense of powerlessness. If we can’t rely on the leaders our own neighbors elect, where do we place our faith? It feels like we’re at the bottom of a lake, hoping to have water to swim in when the dam finally breaks. If it took a catastrophic war to stop this kind of hate before, what will it take for us to stop it today? I hope someone or some group intervenes in time.
Thanks so much for posting this! Now how can we get it to the people that need to hear it? So much of this information goes to the ones of us who already see what is happening. I do what I can at 80 yrs old to sign petitions, volunteer & go to marches but would love to hear other ideas.
I was so moved by this as we often are when we read or witness the truth. It is heartwarming and gives us hope knowing there are so many like minded people in the world despite what we see on the news. Thank you from Saskatchewan Canada
You are fully right. It is so sad that even the word “Genocide” started after the holocaust, it never went out of humanity. The Congo, Ruanda, Sudan, Armenia and also Taliban regime trying to kill any female presence and rights. Humans are the only member of a species that kill others just because they are some way different… and everything starts with silence. We are living sad moments regarding human evolution.