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
Thank you SO very much for continuing to be a champion for the best human values and compassion..we need this more than ever in this world, bless you for using your platform to enlighten and evoke positive change.
Yes, choose love and unity. Well written, thank you Vishen.
Anne Frank was not for open borders. She was of course for peace and unity. And so is ICE in capturing countless criminals who’ve come across our US border illegally with the intent to hide and evade from claiming righteous US citizenship. Why else would ICE need to hunt them down? Be fair, respectful, report the truth. Anne Franks legacy was to keep the past from repeating itself. To open our eyes and to uncover truths. It’s never wise to make assumptions or imply that you know what an author thinks or would do or say about a situation based on their book of experiences. Ultimately, peace is the endgame. Not division.
Thank you again for a thoughtful, provocative and courageous letter.
Yes to Unity!
Also, I just listened to McKenna‘s hypno trance per your suggestion.
It helped me fall back into a deep sleep that was much needed and I will continue to listen for the next week, every day, to see what other benefits come.
You bring so much to humanity, I appreciate you 🙌 KDas
UNITY???
Shame on you.
Very easy to write about people in Gaza but not one word on Israelies who where masacared, butchered and needed to immigrate from theire homes because of fanatic Gaza people who attact them.
IF you wanted to speak about Unity you might say something about Israelies as well.
The way you presented your ideas was affensive.
We – Israelies as unity believers, and a heart full of love, were in total peace with a lot of Gaza’s people untill Oct. 7th.For many years. Those were the same people that we helped them get medical assitance in Israel, we drove them to hospitals, we gave them a lot of love and Trust, But they decieved us, They murdered our babies, put one in the oven and the other they took out from his mother’s belli by cutting her alive with his knife and filmed it and send in social media. We want unity. Yes we do but there is no TRUST anymore – from both sides. Unity is when Gaza’s people will realise the hostiges and will be willing to through away their fanatic ideas about destroying Israel just becase we are Jews, just like Anna Frank hidding becasu she was a jew. Talking about unity starts with seeing both sides and the way you presented your ideas were only for the sake of one side – How do yo sleep at night thinking thos thoughts?
very true
Thank you so much for this Vishen – you may get a lot of hate for speaking up, but I am so grateful for your courage!
Hi Vishen, I have great respect for the body of your work and the sincerity of how you go about it….after some years of being aware of Mindvalley, recently Ive decided to finally become a member of it and i like the fact that you’ve written this piece linking A Frank and Gaza, ICE, etc. In this respect, its important to remain consistent and if you sign up an Israeli author, presumably it would be an anti zionnist one. I hope.
On a separate note, although this might not be the right place to bring up, I am. I’ve tried to sign up for P McKenna’s zoom event this comiing Sunday and, although Ive added mindvalleys email address on my adress book, Im not getting the link. Please could someone sort itout for me beefore Sunday????
Many thanks
Lily Anderson Neyra (Instagram: hipnoterapia_con_lily_trujillo)
Imagining that we somehow innovate and create collective ways to “Judo” the wretched malevolent forces being used against us, to transform and turn these forces for our (and Gaia’s) collective good
Totally agree with your point of view. When I first learnt about Ukraine and later Gaza, I was flabbergasted. I didn’t understand why one can simply march into a neighbor’s land and attempt to proclaim it theirs; or to start war in the name of peace. It simply didn’t make sense. And for the very first time I prayed for the war victims, because I don’t know what else I can do for them.
I also cannot fathom why our government was turning a blind eye to the atrocities committed by Israel who was our ally until the General Election was at loom. Suddenly the ruling party changed their tune, and spoke up in a very diplomatic manner. Guess SG is too small to offend anyone else. But it’s high time we make a stand and they bet on the right horse.
I think we can make a difference if we sing in tune as one human, one race, one humanity. May God end these on-going wars.
The similarities of methods used by nazi Germany and modern Israeli government is mind boggling. How on earth can a ethnic minority group, who suffered so horribly during WWII, use the exact same methods to inflict cruelty to people of another minority group? What the Israeli suffered on 7th of October 2023 is a tiny fraction of what Palestinians have suffered for almost a century by annexation of their lands, imprisonment, genocide, starvation and killing of children… There is an aggressor and then there are those who suffer. It must be said what it is. Thank you for having the courage to share your thoughts with us.
“Anne Frank’s words should never be twisted into weapons against Jews. Her diary is a testimony of what happens when the world excuses violence and hatred directed at one people. To apply her voice to today’s conflicts without context is not only careless — it risks repeating the very indifference that killed her.
On October 7th, 2023, the world watched Hamas carry out the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Families slaughtered, women raped, children burned alive — not soldiers, but civilians. And yet, almost immediately, we saw the same reflex that has haunted Jewish history for centuries: excuses. “It’s Israel’s fault. They brought this on themselves.” Imagine applying that logic to any other community, anywhere else in the world. We condemn violence against women, against minorities, against any vulnerable group — but when it is Jews, the outrage is suddenly negotiable.
And this isn’t new. For more than 70 years, peace has been offered to the Palestinians — in 1947, 2000, 2008, and more — and every time, it was rejected, often followed by more attacks against Jews. Generations of Israelis have yearned for peace, while generations of their enemies have chosen terror over coexistence. That’s not an opinion; it’s history.
Let’s also deal with one of the most repeated lies: genocide. The Arab Muslim population in Israel has grown dramatically in the last 70+ years. Today, Arab citizens of Israel have full rights — they vote, they serve as judges (including on Israel’s Supreme Court), cabinet ministers, doctors, mayors, business leaders. Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike live under the same laws. Can the same be said about Jews in Gaza? No — because there are none. They were expelled, hunted, and would not survive a day openly as Jews there. That’s the reality no one wants to face.
Anne Frank’s voice demands honesty: antisemitism is alive today. It hides in book bans that erase her diary, and it hides in the world’s willingness to rationalize the murder of Jews. If you are going to invoke her name, then you must condemn all antisemitism — whether it comes from neo-Nazis in Europe, mobs in American cities, or terror organizations in Gaza.
Yes, the IDF is not perfect. No military is. But let’s be clear: the famine and devastation in Gaza are not created by Israel; they are created by Hamas — a terror group that hoards aid, hides weapons under schools, and uses its own civilians as shields. The choice to prioritize war over life belongs to Hamas, not the Jewish people defending themselves from annihilation.
It is very convenient to write articles from the comfort of Amsterdam or America. But before using Anne Frank’s name to condemn Israel, I urge you: go to Israel. Speak to survivors of October 7th. Look into the eyes of children who lost parents, of parents who buried their children. See the horror for yourself, and then tell me that invoking Anne Frank means silencing Jews today.
Anne Frank’s legacy is sacred. Her warning is not about abstract politics — it is about what happens when the world excuses hatred against Jews. If we truly want to honor her memory, we cannot twist her voice to fit our narrative. We must face the truth: antisemitism did not die in 1945. It is alive in 2025. And every time we excuse violence against Jews, we prove how desperately her diary is still needed.”*
Vishen, once again, your words allow everyone to take the time to reflect, and provide courage to speak instead of remaining silent.
Communication has become an afterthought for many these days.
We are in a world where people want a different result by doing the same things over and over again.
History doesn’t have to repeat itself but yet it does, over and over again.
Unity.
Collaborations.
Communication.
Acceptance.
Love Mindvallley. Thank you
Thank you Vinesh. This is such a powerful post and so timely across the world. I believe we need to find ways to share with our neighbours, across all of those false boundaries, to enhance our communities and to grow – together.
In Australia, we often refer to ourselves as being multicultural – this is not true.
We are a mix of multiple cultures, however more and more those cultures are becoming isolated and disconnected.
Shared experiences will help us to know and understand the other humans we share our world with, and we will all be richer for it.
The similarities of methods used by nazi Germany and modern Israeli government is mind boggling. How on earth can a ethnic minority group, who suffered so horribly during WWII, use the exact same methods to inflict cruelty to people of another minority group? What the Israeli suffered on 7th of October 2023 is a tiny fraction of what Palestinians have suffered for almost a century by annexation of their lands, imprisonment, genocide, starvation and killing of children… There is an aggressor and then there are those who suffer. It must be said what it is. Thank you for having the courage to share your thoughts with us.
I appreciate your message about this. It is not easy to speak out as a public figure and I commend you!
I do not believe Florida is banning books for political purposes or to make government more powerful. Most of the books being banned are related to sexual orientation, but Anne Frank wouldn’t fit under that category, so I looked it up on Google, and this is what I found in the AI Summary: Anne Frank’s diary was not banned in Florida; rather, a graphic novel adaptation was temporarily removed from some schools in Lake County in 2023 for review after a parent group raised concerns about its content. The graphic novel adaptation included a depiction of Anne Frank asking a friend to expose themselves to one another, which was not in the original diary. The book was pulled from shelves to ensure it met guidelines for age-appropriateness and state regulations on sexual education, as mandated by Florida’s House Bill 1069.
I value the intent behind invoking Anne Frank’s legacy, but I strongly disagree with the framing of this message.
This email, while calling for unity, actually promotes division by turning Anne Frank’s tragedy into a vehicle for politically motivated comparisons. Drawing a parallel between ICE immigration enforcement and Nazi roundups is not only historically inaccurate, but it also diminishes the singular horror of the Holocaust.
The Nazi regime carried out a state‑sponsored campaign of genocide, deliberately seeking the extermination of an entire people. ICE’s actions, while often debated, are based on enforcing immigration law — not genocide. Equating the two not only distorts history but also weakens the very lessons we should be learning from it.
Furthermore, this raises a bigger concern: this kind of messaging should not be the focus of any business. Businesses exist to serve customers, create value, and foster innovation — not to push partisan political narratives or weaponize history for modern debates. When companies wade into these divisive and politicized comparisons, they alienate customers, divide communities, and compromise their credibility.
Anne Frank’s diary is a sacred historical document that reminds us where unchecked hatred can lead. To honor her legacy, we must handle it with honesty and respect — not use it as a political tool. True unity requires accuracy, responsibility, and a commitment to bringing people together, not driving them further apart.
So well put, there fear of strangers is so often stoked, but also it seems well routed in much of humanity – often I struggle with being asked “where are you from” – disguising the questioner meaning you are not from here so I need to place you – so eloquently put in Taiye Selasi ted talk “don’t ask where I am from, ask where am I a local”. Imangine what humankind could achieve if there was global collaboration
Wow! An incredibly powerful and moving message. Thank you for writing it, for the work you do, for increasing the connection, compassion, awareness, love and education in the world.
Vishen, you are a real disappointment. Using the tragedy of Anna Frank to made a hideous parallel between Hitler and Israeli Government while not addressing even in a word to the horror atrocities at October 7? Not mentioning Hamas, like it was Israel who attacked innocent Gazans in their beds?? Rewriting history only ti prove your point with enormous amount of populism?
How disappointing to hear that from you.