"Meeting" Anne Frank

Now in full-color, our expanded, and updated version of "Meeting" Anne Frank: An Anthology continues our exploration of the personal influence of Anne Frank and her sister Margot.

None writing here actually knew Anne Frank personally, but we believe we have "met" her in the eighty years since she died. She unites us here at a time when so much of the world continues to be riven by the familiar but divisive themes of extremist politics, anti-Semitism, and prejudice. To "meet" Anne requires one to focus both on who she was as a talented, lively, funny, and warmhearted daughter, and also on who she represents as an involuntary spokesperson for all the lost dreams and promise of the 1.5 million children who died during the Holocaust or Shoah.

We will, though, be meeting four writers who knew Anne's "most adorable father" Otto, and they have shared their recollections in this volume. Joop van Wijk-Voskuijl, who has kindly written the foreword for us, is the son of Bep Voskuijl who was famously responsible for helping those in hiding in the Secret Annex, and for establishing a warm and close friendship with Anne.

Many of our reflections will pay tribute to the beautiful city of Amsterdam. Anne Frank came to "love the Dutch" and the Netherlands, and she looked forward to becoming a Dutch citizen after the war. She died stateless instead.

Anne Frank has become variously the sister, mother, wife, daughter, girlfriend, or best friend to each of us writing for this anthology and to millions across the world. We pay tribute to the many Annes who have survived in our thoughts and ideals. Sometimes we have wanted to talk to the Anne who was a gregarious, opinionated, impulsive, and fun-loving teenager, while at other times, we have wanted to listen to the Anne who was a talented and observant writer, or to the Anne who was serious, self-critical, and idealistic, and who grew in maturity and wisdom while in hiding. She was a child while she lived freely in the comparative safety of life in and around Merwedeplein, Amsterdam, and only a young teenager when she died with Margot in a Nazi concentration camp for the simple "crime" of being Jewish.

Anne Frank wanted to "go on living after [her] death" in February or March 1945, and I hope "Meeting" Anne shows how her wishes and voice have been heard in unique, inspiring, and instructive ways. We may be walking where others have gone before us and where others will surely continue to do after, but I hope along the way we will have shown that you can always see something different if you want to