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 don’t usually comment, but this is so well written and matches my own feelings on the subject.
It’s challenging to be a peacemaker among those who are sewing such cruelty and division around the world.
But, I am committed to partner with you on answering all with my heart and commitment to peace, opportunity, and respect for all.
Thank you for being a Light in this world! 🙏☀️✨
Kristin
Thank you for this, this is exactly what is my sentiment, my heart, and my soul are. As a Floridian, I am sad that the words of a girl’s journal deal threateningly with those who fear judgment and critical thinking.
Thanksfor this article! couldn’t be more inspiring remembering this. Love is the only solution.
I am so glad you wrote this message, Vishen. Ann Frank was a hero of mine, when I read her diary as an eleven year old. Little did I know, her words would have such resonance now.
We must continue to respond in love, truth, and action here and now.
Thank you. What a wonderful email to wake up to. I will print it and put it up where I can read it each morning. If you can step into your truths exposing your points of view in your business, I can try to be brave enough to do the same. Treating immigrants like criminals although they’ve been upstanding American citizens for years…killing children and families as they wait in line for food (like an animal predator picking off the weak), how can anyone find excuses that make this okay. Love over fear. I’ll work on it.
Thank you for being on the right side of humanity. On the right side of history. Never again means never again for anybody.
Thank you for reminding us that we are all human. My heart breaks for the children of GAZA and for the many refugees around the world suffering. My own sister, journalist Mary Kostakidis, is being dragged through the courts in Australia by the Zionist Federation for commenting and reposting news tweets and showing scenes direct from GAZA for the last year and a half. We must stand up against racism against anyone. Peace be with you and thank you for reading.
Vishen, this might be the most powerful email I’ve read from you. I appreciate your forthright support for ALL humanity. The Diary of Anne Frank was one of the most impactful books I read a teenager. Thank you!
I hear you, and the pain is real. Only if all humanity can raise its frequency, which is every human is born to do.
Only if we realize that we are not the religion we are born in we are not the color of skin we are given, we are not the nationality we are due to geography, We are here on Earth on a mission to realize our demons hiding within that come out due to the environment we are placed in and comb our prejudices and fears through them and distill ourselves , that’s why we are born, but how easily we forgot as soon as we realize the I and EGO.
I am from Germany and I‘m just shocked, whats‘s going on in America, although we all have to stand up against these distroying power. I love Mindvalley and your work, Vishen. I am really touched by this newsletter and hope, many people read it. So sorry, that I couldnt join you in Amsterdam, next time I am gonna be in at Amsterdam. And yes, I want to believe it: Humanity is Good at Heart. 🙏
I love this, thank you for writing it. I also keep thinking back to reading Anne Frank’s diary as a teenage girl and crying. “Never again” must mean never again.
Thank you for writing about this. We need more people on more platforms to get the word out about how terrifying and dangerous this is. I am in Canada, and we are horrified at what is happening in Gaza and the States. I can’t even recognize what was once our closest allie, the hatred and the cover ups, it feels like we are looking at a different time in history. I always wondered how did people let that happen back then….well now I see. We need more love, more acceptance and less fear and hatred. I hope it isn’t too late ♥️ sending as much positivity as I can from Canada 🇨🇦
Vishen, not too long ago you spoke of turning your business into a movement; in your case that movement being unity.
That touched me and helped look at my own business through a different lens. In my case everything I do is to awaken people to their own greatness.
In your message today I see you walking your talk. I have always admired you and have been a Mindvalley member for years. Today I want to say I love you and your message. I stand with you in unity.
Vishen, this is such an important message, and I am glad that you had the courage to write it and share your voice. I don’t live in the USA, but what is happening there, as well as in other parts of the world, like Gaza, can be very distressing. Inasmuch as we may find it so, I do also believe that the foundations of a world order that has largely existed on fear, inequalities, and division must crumble to build a new way of thinking and being, one based on unity, kindness, and compassion that you so eloquently described. Let us all join our voices and hearts together to envision and bring into reality, the new world order where love, peace, and harmony are the essential currencies of life and business.
I appreciate the importance of memorializing the story of Anne Frank. It is pathetic and certainly “a low point” to censor it.
I object to the attempt to equalize her life and story with illegal , criminal terrorists, no matter their origin.
She was a victim of horrific circumstances, as are the children of Hamas or Latin America, or here in the USA for that matter. Violence and ignorance have no borders.
But comparing ICE to the Nazi monsters is “over the top” and leaves the fragrance of a hidden agenda. Smells really bad!!!
Vishen, you words are powerful. You are well known and respected in the world, a representative of innovative thinking and self agency. I couldn’t agree more. Our problem is that many very smart people are writing eloquently about the situation in Gaza and about the disappearing migrants. I write about it myself often on Facebook. But we have yet to find the way to defeat the hatred and insanity that threaten our core values. The other side is heavily armed. Many of us are nonviolent. The man at the helm has no conscience, is driven by greed for attention and power, and has a vast army of sycophants who worship him. I have never had to think in these terms in the 73 years I’ve been alive. What shall we do?
Hello.
I was very offended by your words as an Israeli. Have you studied the subject as seriously as you are building a course? I am a long-time customer of yours and appreciate your work, but here you fell for the evil’s mind engineering. The war began with the murder, rape, and burning of babies of Gaza residents who voted in the Hamas elections, I personally know hundreds of stories. So you are comparing this to the Holocaust they did to us?
Also, our army sends there quantities of food that are enough for many years. There is no starvation. I can’t see it with my own eyes. You are being told stories… You heard the story from fraudulent intermediaries, and therefore I judge you fairly. I am just telling you as an Israeli Jew that everything you have written about us is a lie and is completely the opposite. I hope you don’t understand that Islam will do to you in Europe what it does to us. It seems that it is already on its way if you don’t wake up… jonatan.
Thank you Vishen, I can not say enough about how right you are. Anny Frank does represent a torch, a light we all hold in our hearts. All of humanity hopes for love.
May I republish this on my site?: http://www.emptybowls.com?? We feed the world one bowl of soup at a time. “Think globally, Act locally.” Might you have more to add? And reference back to Mindvalley??
Sincerely;
LeRoy Grubbs
http://www.emptybowls.com
Thank you for your vision, your strength to see, and your courage to speak out.
I agree with you.
Over the course of 8 years, i hosted 60 international students from 8 different countries. This is what i learned:
Cultures, language, customs, may be different, but we are all the same in our need for food, safety and shelter and LOVE.
Over and over again, with each student, i watched as once receiving the love, the safe space, and nourishment, they adapted beautifully to their new space and gained their education. I listened to them and loved them and vice verse. There were no barriers, not language or cultural differences got in the way of our building living relationships where we ALL thrived.
I learned a great deal from those beautiful students. I respected their goal of education, their courage to leave their homes and families at a young age, their willingness to be vulnerable as they trusted me and their teachers at school. And i loved myself for the courage and strength it takes to open my heart to the unknown.
We are indeed all ONE. The blood in our veins is the same. As we open to the unknown we learn and grow as humans and as spirits.
I move thru each day with an open heart and open mind. I don’t tolerate inhumane speech or actions.
“See beauty. Cultivate joy. Feel the love that surrounds you. ” -Carol
Thank you Dear Vishen, it takes courage to speak your thoughts- i have a question/ a hope.. how can Mindvalley be a part of the change that we need, i believe the global Mindvalley community has the potential and role to play in transforming the world to reach humanities full potential.
I would have thought of you as a smart person, but was beyond shocked and disappointed to read this email.
You have fallen for terrorist propaganda.
Anne Frank might have been the jew who was kidnapped by terrorists and starved by these same terrorists that YOU are standing up for. You have chosen the wrong side.
Our kids and friends kids are actually in Gaza, fighting the same antisemitism that we are fighting today, just now it shows a different face. They are trying to find our current day Anne Franks, jews having their freedom taken – starving and stolen by evil people, but its actually worse than Anne Frank’s time because the Nazi’s hid what they were doing. Hamas is proud of it, and you are standing up for the evil side!
I beg you to reconsider.
I beg you to look for the truth.
Don’t fall for the propaganda, don’t fall for the antisemites.
We are jews back in our homeland after 2000 years after losing 6 million of our people, people like Anne Frank, we lost them to evil. We have done everything to live in peace with people who state that all they want to do is kill us for being jewish, sound familiar – yes the Nazi’s did that too.
There were good Germans that hid Jews to save them, there have been no good Gazans that stood up to help, no matter what Israel offered them. They are taught hate in their schools, our soldiers who I know personally saw this.
I beg you to learn history, I beg you to follow Hillel Fuld on social media and if you want to use your voice in the conflict, to use it against Hamas to get our hostages out of there.