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.
1,234 Responses
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.
Vishen, thank you for your observations. I agree with so much of what you say. I do think that you need to do a better job seeing the other persons perspective on immigration and immigrants. Many people love and respect immigrants, but don’t want them flooding across the border in huge numbers. That is unsustainable. This is an obvious globalist plan to undermine societies especially in Western Europe. Unlike in America these groups refuse to assimilate and are sometimes hostile to the country welcoming them in. Also, if governments did not create crisis situations around the world like genocides and wars there would be a more manageable amount of immigration. So my solution is to stop creating the conditions that result in out of control immigration and do not allow open borders as it is unsustainable.
Vishen, thank you so much for this letter. I whole heartedly agree with all you’ve said and I hope your words will reach far. The only tyranny can stop is for people to unite. There are so many out there who feel powerless against the atrocities that are happening every day? It feels so unreal that people can be so evil. And we thought we had learned from our past mistakes. But as you say. Fear is a powerful tool. You’re right, we have to keep voting the other way even if it feels hopeless sometimes because so many still vote the wrong way because they don’t know any better.
Keep us in the loop about what we can do to create change. At the moment I feel the only thing I can do is belief in the good of the majority of humanity like Anne Frank did and keep praying for peace and standing up to injustice and cruelty.
Bless your Vishen for taking action. The world needs leaders like you. Have you considered becoming a politician?
I have read your article and understand what you are saying about compassion. I would rather you use America as the example of raids in the middle of the night than comparing what is happening between Israel and Gaza. First of all, let’s look at Hitler’s program. The Jews did nothing wrong to provoke “The Final Solution”. They were just leading their lives and being a contributing member of society. Immigrants in America did nothing to provoke the ICE roundups. Just trying to be contributing members of society. Israel people did nothing wrong to provoke October 7th and the hostages that were taken to Gaza. Israel has made lasting contributions to the world. Yes, the people of Gaza have done nothing wrong to provoke what is being done in Gaza other than the hatred taught them by the Hamas group. However, the difference is that Gaza is governed by a Hitler type group, a Terrorist group that uses their own people to hide behind and take advantage of to further annihilation of Israel – remember the chant “from the river to the sea”. That means no Jews, no Israel. Israel is fighting for its right to live. Tell Hamas to lay down its arms and no more pain in Gaza. So for someone so mindful, that you missed this most important comparision in your story. We love our Ann Frank and I find it hurtful that you compare her to Israel and Gaza.
Thank you, Vishen, for sharing and using your voice on Gaza and immigration.
I have said it before, and I say it again. You are one brave soul, and I deeply respect you for the oh so important work that you do. Having the courage to stand up for what you believe, using your influence to create more love, more hope, more empowerment, more trust, more of what we all need to let our guards down. Your vision of unity, I love it. It’s beautiful, it’s what this world needs. And it’s so easy to get discouraged, but you don’t and you just keep going and I need to say this – that I just now realised – that you are my number one role model, putting people like Tony Robbins in second place. Keep going, keep going, keep going!!! And I will do my part, being the kind of person that I am proud to be, a role model for my kid, for my peers and the people around me.
Thank you so much Vishen for this truthful and corageus message. I am Spanish and live in The Netherlands. Some of my friends are also refugees from Syria. Every time I go to Amsterdam I feel Anna Frank´s presence very much alive and it´s always a chance for renewing my commitment to do my little part, in my everyday life, towards a more compassionate and united world.
I am Christian and believe that Love will have the last word. We are indeed one human family. Thank you again for using your blog for spreading this message.
Hi Vishan. and thank you so much for sharing all of this very valuable information. Although we know it and we’ve heard it it’s so much more relevant now than many people realize. What scares me the most is not the dictator that is upon us here in America, but that we don’t know what to do about it. Yes, we can voice our opinion and put a sign on our lawn, but that is not going to reinstate democracy to America. Democracy is fading away every day here. I wish I knew what to do. But thank you for keeping communication open. Thank you for sharing Anne’s words What a prophetic young lady. All my love, Caryn Kennedy.
Thank you for this Vishen. In these times all people must speak out for humanity and compassion and though you definitely don’t have to, I am grateful you did.
Thanks for the clarity of this article, I have been waiting for something like this for weeks! Thanks for speaking up. I still remember the impact of the Diary of Anna Frank on me when I was 13 years old and the visit to a concentration camp in Dachau, Germany. The horror is still in the air in that place. I am sure that many of us feel very concerned and alarmed about the current situation in Gaza, US and other parts in the world. Sometimes I wonder what are we waiting for? I wish this would be published on the newspapers too, we are watching a genocide on the news and the worst thing that can happen is to normalize that brutality and lack of humanity. And the question is, now that we all know, what are we willing to do? I wish we have the strength, clarity and compassion to act and make this world more human and unite. It’s on us.
Hi Vishen. Let me preface my comment I probably. Thank you for your commentary Vishen. I probably agree with most of what you say however, I don’t think Mindvalley is really the platform to propagate your ideas. This is the second email I have received from you filled with political commentary. I did not sign up for Mindvalley for this. It is with great regret that I shall be cancelling my Mindvalley subscription.
In spite of all atrocities driven by fear we see in the world today, we stand for unity and create it first in ourselves and each person we touch. The way forward is to uplift each other to hold a space of unity for all uplifters who are leading others until goodness becomes the collective , the normal way we live .
We’ve know this since ancient times and I see now more people remembering to choose love over fear , to walk the path to their inner union and release all fears holding us back for generations . I see Mindvalley acting on this vision for years , thank you Vishen and team! And now I join this movement uniting the uplifters in my circle to create a space of unity of our whole being so we bring truth , beauty and peace in the world . We remember how to live in love and take others with us. Eden is a space in each of us and we create together .
Thank you for this, 🙏 it needed to be said and felt by this community which I am grateful for and falling deeper and deeper in love with ❤️