Category Archives: Anne Frank

Good and Evil and the Human Dilemma

Well, it’s like this. Heroes of disability are inspiring me daily. I enjoy adding a new hero every day to my facebook page. These people reflect good qualities in the human spirit of determination, perseverance and hope. There are also people who live for doing kind acts. They let us know that people do good deeds out of choice because they are sure it’s right.
On the other hand, people are also capable of choosing to be horrible. I now have to face some sad truths about human nature. My world has become sadder since I started thinking about the Holocaust. I sort of knew, because it is a well known history, and it is awful to be sure. Children and old people, and anyone the Nazis hated, were abused so cruelly and really tormented physically and mentally before being slaughtered.
I think about it because I read Anne Frank’s story and I came to care about her and her family. It happened long ago, but it feels like hearing a friend got murdered. I seem to feel it personally. Some of my classmates could not care less, but I think about how people chose to commit horrible evil in the name of Nazism and attacked defenseless civilians. It’s one of many cruel acts humans have done.
We are, as humans, a mix of goodness and horribleness. It is in all of us and we are required to choose. The heroes I show are choosing goodness. The Nazis, and those like them, chose to live in hate and sadism. Now I try to make sense of it all.
I believe God gave us free will so we can choose and decide for ourselves. I am sure free will is necessary or we would be sheep in a robotic world.  Stopping evil means denying us choice and free will. It would be a dead life. 
On the other hand, evil is awful and I struggle with this concept. The innocent Franks and their horrible fate- is this the price humanity faces for freedom of choice? This is my internal struggle. Now I must work it out as best I can.

Thoughts on Anne Frank

In my English class we are reading the play about Anne Frank in hiding. How unimaginable to have to hide from your government because it is against the law for you to live. It tries to be upbeat, but I can’t imagine the fear of those years. I felt so trapped in my silence for the majority of my childhood, so I think I can imagine how they felt, silent all day, in stillness and boredom. But, I didn’t have a police state after me.
The story is pretty much a slice of their ordeal. Life after their capture isn’t described, but I know only Mr. Frank survived. Oh, the sorrow he must have felt, only he had no family to cry with. My heart aches in thinking about hiding and losing. I guess the only hope is the courage they had, the moral bravery of Miep and Mr. Kraler, and Mr. Frank’s determination to live despite his losses. I pray people never hold genocidal thoughts again.
In lands like Iran they still do, but goodness must win. The person hiding is waiting, not fighting. I truly believe evil must be faced to stop it.