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
This was really hard to read. Vishen has done this a few times now—bringing up political happenings in the world—and honestly, for someone who positions himself as a spiritual leader, I believe the number one responsibility is to avoid fearmongering and instead encourage seeing more light in the world.
If you look for darkness, you will find darkness. If you look for light, you will find light.
What’s happening in Israel and Gaza isn’t about politics—it’s about what’s right and wrong. Israel had to shut off power and aid in an effort to get back the hostages Hamas took by force. If those hostages are released, the attacks would stop.
I’m not here to debate politics, but I am very turned off by the direction Vishen is taking. He now comes across more like a journalist highlighting fear and ugliness, rather than a guide helping people rise above it. That’s not what I’m here for.
For that reason, I’m choosing to step away from Mindvalley.
I am Writing from Israel, and received this column because I am a subscriber of Mindvalley.
if the answer is solidarity, love and other wonderful things, why would you compare Nazis with Israeli leaders? you might have had a good intention, who knows, but you used manipulative expressions to do so.
Politicians are corrupt and they are the ones who approve all wrongs against human beings, and that is the case in every country of the world. that is always the case because that is the methodology. seeing how you expressed yourself politically for the first time (that I have noticed, anyways), is the prove for me that someone has put pressure on you to publish such a column, and that you will now start to lose credibility, since you have chosen sides and not heart.
Well said, Vishen. Thank you.
Humanity is good at heart. Thank YOU. Keep loving extraordinary Vishen and expressing your miraculous divine love. You, inside and out, and all you do can be felt world wide and beyond. I am so much more … immensely better and stronger and even more aware and spiritual and intuitive than ever because of you – and my family is thriving more than with all my growth and learning from your programs, videos, books … You and your Mindvalley communty are fantastic beyond all the words. Beautiful. Beautiful life. “Yes, let’s prove Anne Frank right and together continue to keep her torch burning so very brightly.
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.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.”
Deeply reflective newsletter Vishin, I give gratitude for the strength of your voice to speak on the behalf of humanity and the call for us all to unite and usher in peace and to embrace one another with authentic love and compassion.
I was at a Native American powwow this past weekend and have had similar touch points in my heart after hearing story after story of their persecution and intentional extermination.
I know of a few thought leaders organizing global meditations that bring the collective together to usher in the next level of consciousness, heal various grid points, and amplify world peace.
Could a “quest” or something similar from Mindvalley be offered to help heal this fracture in humanity?
I am a bilingual librarian and we read and Frank Astoria biography for kids and thank you for this comment. I’m gonna share it in a different way for kids to reflect more. But I’m very proud to say that in our school we live through inclusiveness, respect and the protection of our community. Thank you 🙏
I thank you from the bottom of my heart for writing this text. It is so important and I hope that many, many people read it. I love the way you put Anne Frank in a „modern“ perspective and how you scarily demonstrate that history is indeed a loop. More tragically even, those once hunted are now the hunters. Immediately the 6 phase meditation comes to mind. „Hurt people hurt people“. On a large scale. How do we miss to see, that we are all human? Or as you put it „one humanity“? Thank you again for putting emphasis on this fact. ♥️
While reading this article and listening to CBC radio at the same time. The radio interview with Malcolm Gladwell started talking about Anne Frank! What are the odds of reading about an existing synchronicity with Anne Frank, only to layer another one upon it 🙂
Thank you for sharing this message. It’s a powerful reminder that we all have a responsibility to stand up for what’s right and ensure that history does not repeat itself.
Every word echoed my thoughts.I do believe that people are good at heart, those who seem other wise are just products of circumstances that corrupt and twist their soul into something ugly.In my country, racism is what keeps us divided. Being divided keeps humanity in segregation and is in my opinion a deep human issue that touches on social, political, and psychological dimensions. I wish that as human beings we would all come to resent the evil snare of fear: fear that difference is a threat, a weakness, something to be hated, crushed, exterminated.
Being divided creates barriers to understanding, cooperation, and mutual respect.To move toward a more unified and inclusive society, is essential to challenge these divisions through education, dialogue, policy reform, and a commitment to empathy and understanding.We cannot sit idly by and choose the safety of silence.There’s a powerful African proverb ” Out of hatred for the cockroach the ants all voted for the insecticide.They all died,including the house fly that didn’t even vote.”Moral of the story, hate destroys, not just the one who receives it, not just the one who gives it but also the one who sits quietly and does nothing to stop it.
I have been so moved by your recent comments. I admire your courage in refusing to smother your humanity or your moral sense for commercial purposes. You speak your truth to those around you in your commercial network, and in doing so your humanity and moral courage stand out. Kudos to you for using your platform to speak out against the eradication of democracy in the US, and Israel’s loss of their righteousness. Oct 7 was an atrocity. Unfortunately Israel has since lost their moral pedestal. Hamas bears equal blame for allowing this to happen to their own people. But the right wing in Israel has shown their true colours: “from the river to the sea” applies to the right wing in both Hamas & Israel. But back to your main point: elements in the US banning Anne Frank’s diary? We never thought history would repeat itself by the US becoming 1930’s Germany!
Thank you, Vishan, for the thoughtful words. In times like these, it’s been easy to feel alone and lose faith in humanity. From Anne Frank to Gaza to ICE, we have seen the many faces of inhumanity and cruelty. Time and again, we see that oppression begets hatred, and hatred begets violence. The only way to break this cycle is through compassion and empathy; but, I worry that only a small minority of people truly understand this.
I visited Amsterdam last year and it was a powerful reminder of how precious freedom is,and how fragile. I toured Anne Frank’s house, but also went on a city walking tour. On the walkibg tour, the guide told me to look down at the street,not jusst up at the buildings. On the stones in Dam Square are engraved the names of people who were shot by the SS during the Canadian forces liberation celebration in March 1945. Also, in the Jewish quarter, one sees the names of the families on the stones in front of the doors, marking their deaths in concentration camps. It is a profound experience, punctuated by the posters around Amsterdam of Trump and Putin with the single word headline “Terror”! I fear for our country and for those who are blind to what is happening. Thank you for sharing your powerful message. Geri Murphy, PhD
Thank you for this beautiful article Vishen. 🙏🏼💕
The world needs compassion more than ever. I often feel so helpless in the face of human’s inhumanity to one another. 🥲
My daily practice is to not turn away and ignore what is happening as well as to shine my light and love into the word. 🙌💗🙏🏼💕
Vishen, this is beautifully expressed and such a powerful commentary. We cannot allow Anne Frank’s story to ever be erased. I often wondered how it was possible for the German society to turn their gaze from the atrocities that were being committed and yet, it appears we’re teetering on the edge of a similar abyss. History apparently does repeat itself until we as a human collective learn these lessons so that they’re deeply and permanently ingrained without their lingering shadows. I choose to believe that humanity is good at it’s core. Our actions and voices must drown out the silence of inaction and complacency. Thank you for all you are doing to shine the light even more brightly for all of us to see.
Dear Vishen, this has been your best article yet. Thank you so much for sharing this with the world, realising your global reach these days. I felt both the pain of history echoing and the clarity of your mirror. You did something powerful here: you showed that Anne Frank’s words are not frozen in a museum—they are alive, vibrating into our present moment, exposing patterns that repeat when fear takes hold.
What touched me most was that you held the synchronicity: standing at Anne’s house while her diary was being silenced again in Florida. That’s not just a coincidence: life is showing us that the same struggle between fear and truth is still playing out, only in new disguises.
I deeply resonate with how you mapped her words onto today’s world. The parallels are uncomfortable, but necessary. Cruelty always begins in energy, with separation, with dehumanisation and with leaders who tell us to fear “the other.” You revealed this with clarity.
But what rises above it all is Anne’s extraordinary line: “I still believe people are really good at heart.” That is more than optimism. It is frequency. It is the highest spiritual truth: that underneath all the fragmentation, Being itself is luminous and good. That is the torch she passed on. Your story about the young Syrian refugees carried that torch forward beautifully. It’s proof of what happens when we choose unity instead of fear—whole futures can be built that ripple out to touch millions.
So for me, your article is not just a political reflection, but an energetic reminder: history is not past, it is a loop, and recurring, unless we consciously break it by embodying unity. That’s the invitation Anne left us, and that you carried forward in your words.
Thank you for writing this. It is not just commentary, it is a transmission.
With respect and resonance
Floris Robert Slob
Hi Vishen, as a German & Belgian, I thank you for this message. It is very important. We must unite in humanity, choose higher consciousness, love, over division, satanism and hate. We are all part of a bigger reality which is love, the universe, peace, consciousness. Once we will recognise this, and prioritise love no matter what, humanity shall live in peace and happiness.
Lisa
Vishen,
Your words are very beautiful and inspiring.
But it is also very confusing.
I have only two question:
1. If you ask people to believe that human is good, do you mean that to exclude the politicians who proposed those decisions and rules? Because they are humans, too. So according to you (and Anne Frank), they are good and those decisions and rules were created with good intentions. Not necessarily right, but good (since according to you and Anne Frank, human is good).
2. Are you trying to move people’s emotions to believe that those politicians made those decisions and rules WITHOUT a very strong cause?
Because I don’t see anything in your words that sympathize to their cause. To Israel’s leaders especially, because Jews during Nazi time did not suddenly shoot long-range missiles to a civilian city and Jews leaders at that time did not give money incentive and tax exemption to the family of those died fighting Nazi, like what the leaders of Palestine do now.
I’m sure you agree that higher frequency is for those who is aware of the damage done by the current frequency, humble enough to acknowledge its imperfections, shrug off all ego that subconsciously defend it, and be wide open for that higher frequency.
I believe that’s you and me both.
❤️
Wow! You continue to inspire me with every perfectly picked word!! Your words are powerful not just because they get my mind thinking, but because they create a feeling within my body of hope and belief that we are headed towards a grand future, and it begins today with love! Let that light the way with the torch and all of our hands!!
Thanks Vishen…..we need understanding 🙏 and unity and so much more at this time….
Fear is a strong tool..