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
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..
This is certainly one of the most important articles you ever wrote, if not the most important one. Every single line is so powerful. Don’t let anybody dim your light, tell you that you must not talk about politics. This is about humanity. And your voice matters. Please never stop talking about Gaza, they have suffered for too many decades, and the current famine, as Tom Fletcher (UN) said, should haunt all of us.
I have been following Vishen and Mindvalley for years and have finally become a member. Thank you Vishen for this post as I have been studying WWII for years and have read Anne Frank’s words countless of times. This post has solidified the research and work I have put into my historical fiction novel (not yet published) because I belive we need to remember what happened and teach the next generation so that they see that such atrocities still go on today. Thank you Vishen for enlightening us with the comparison!!
Thank you for pointing out so blatantly that history is indeed repeating itself. Humans have weak moments blinded by power, greed and ego and sadly it seems we have not evolved….We need more voices to remind each other to see beyond, that we are ONE humanity regardless of race, religion, colour.. Unity and love is the answer for us to progress and move on to the next level..It may take time but I have faith that the power of many awakened conscious souls will bring us there … eventually.
Yes! The pattern is so clear yet it makes us feel so powerless at the same time. Banding together really is the solution. The larger the reactions and protests from civilians, the more we win.
This is mind blowing and so sad – made me feel about the 1000s of immigrants flooding into England daily while the English indigenous population are becoming disenfranchised and impoverished, many loosing their homes and living in the streets while immigrants are cared for – but are we being fed the truth or is it just stirring up fear and hatred. Bring on a world of unconditional love for all beings on this beautiful planet we are blessed to call home
Thank you so much that you use your position and reach to remind of Anne Frank and of the eerie parallels to what has happened back then and what is happening nowadays in different places. And thank you that you give precious advice of what we all can do to stop these horrible developments.
Thank you Vishen for this. I must admit, when I saw your newsletter in January saying to give Trump a chance, I was disheartened because I KNEW the policies of hatred, dehumanization, and tyranny that Trump was consciously planning to implement. We have to call out evil for what it is. Our freedoms as Americans and citizens of the world hang in the balance. So thank you for speaking truth to power.
My longing is this message could reach the heart of those in charge of the killings and cruelty🙏🙏🙏🙏😓
To live in a world that has respect and reverence for all.
This hit me so hard. I spent some time in Amsterdam in 2011, and visiting the Anne Franke museum was the one thing that I remember viscerally from that trip. I just couldn’t understand the cruelty behind all those evil decisions, and felt that familiar hatred of the Nazi regime, Hitler and all of his stooges. But then I realized it wasn’t over. Genocide at different scales was happening the world over, still. I had just been lulled into complacency, buffered from reality by my own ignorance and simply by being a United Stares citizen – a country that was proudly built by immigrants. Or so I thought. I can’t understand why anyone would have voted for our current administration in the United States, but your admonition makes it so simple that we can teach it in schools : “The moment a leader tells you to fear refugees, minorities, or immigrants, you are looking at a tyrant.” And we must. Thank you again, your writing deeply affected me today.
Vishen – Thank you for posting these views and perspectives. I appreciate you. I support your views
Hi, Vishen –
Thank you for your thoughts comparing the wise words and fate of Anne Frank to ICE raids and families who may be suffering in Gaza, and for the opportunity to comment.
Please remember that those detained in ICE raids violated immigration laws that were not enforced by Biden Administration officials, who tried to create an insurmountable majority of Democrat voters.
As for Gaza, despite offers of generous rewards, no Gaza resident has either freed or led Israel Defense Force personnel to the location of even a single hostage kidnapped & held by HAMAS (translation: “Violence”) terrorists during HAMAS’ invasion of Israel & October 7th Massacre. Why not? Because Gazans elected HAMAS terrorists to govern them after Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005 in a failed bid of “Land for Peace.”
The first murder victim I read about in the October 7th massacre was an Israeli Muslim shuttle bus driver, who was working at the NOVA Music Festival to support his family. Why wasn’t he spared? Because HAMAS terrorists were told by their commanders to ignore Islamic law & Islamic clergy regarding those who might be exempted from being attacked. NO Israeli was spared.
If you study HAMAS’ original Charter, it calls upon Muslims to kill Jews “wherever they are found” (not just in Israel). HAMAS conducts summer camps for kids in Gaza, and teaches them to become future terrorists. More importantly HAMAS targeted my family and others immediately following the October 7th massacre, & threatens to repeat the October 7th Massacre again and again until Jews and Israelis are no longer.
Since Palestinian leaders have consistently refused every offer of an independent Palestinian state, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not about land – it is about JEWISH & ISRAELI genocide committed by Palestinians.
As for HAMAS broke a ceasefire to invade Israel on October 7th, the Wall Street Journal ran an exclusive report revealing that HAMAS wanted to scuttle Saudi-Israeli rapprochement with the October 7th massacre. HAMAS & Gazans WANTED war with Israel. To learn more, try watching “October H8te” – it’s an eye opener (trailer below):
https://youtu.be/I09UNC3T_Fc?si=bnewP1VXu9IvKcQx
Thank you for speaking out for humanity, for love, for life.