Not Forgotten – The Many Lives of Anne Frank by Ruth Franklin

The Diary of Anne Frank is the best-known chronicle of Jews in hiding during World War II and Anne Frank is one of the war's most famous victims. Anne was a German Jew who emigrated with her parents, Otto and Edith and older sister Margot, to Amsterdam during the rise of Hitler. At the age of 13, Anne and her family went into hiding in rooms above and behind her father's place of business, where they were joined by their friends, the van Pels and their son, and later Fritz Pfeffer, a dentist. They were able to survive in hiding for over two years, but were betrayed, arrested, and sent to the concentration camps. The sole survivor of the eight was Otto Frank, who lived to 1980, and died at the age of 91.The diary has been translated and published in a multitude of languages and countries. It was dramatized in a Broadway play, Hollywood movie, and other formats. This is all well known.

Ruth Franklin, this volume's author, has taken a unique approach to Anne's life. She has divided Anne's life and afterlife as a celebrated icon into separate sections.

The first section is biographical, but in greater depth than is often presented, with material about her friends and classmates, as well as her parents and sister, and of the helpers who brought food and supplies to the hidden families, and who kept their secret.

The second part addresses the publishing of the diary, the development of the play and film, and delves deeply into Otto Frank's decades of work to bring his daughter's writing to the greater world. While I was certainly familiar with some of the events that resulted in the diary's initial publication, and translation into English, this book examines the circumstances of its publication and the following representations in much greater depth. Franklin also covers the creation of the Anne Frank House, the museum in Amsterdam at the site of the hiding place, and its further evolution.

I first read the English translation, published in the United States in 1952, as Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, in the mid-1960s, when I was about 12, so I was close to Anne's age at the time. I remember how shocked I was when reading the text after the final entry: "Anne's diary ends here". I felt such a strong kinship with her, and each year, when her birthday would come around, just two days before my own, I would remember her and how old she would have been had she survived the war – and I still think of her each year, though now she would be approaching 100. I had such a hard time accepting that Anne had been arrested, held in captivity, and eventually died a sad and painful death. It truly registered with me in the most graphic way just how unfair life could be.

I no longer have my original copy, but I read it over and over, along with the following revised edition, and many books that both examine and extol Anne's work, but Franklin's book is so insightful, and so moving, that I felt almost overwhelmed by it. It is a fascinating testament in particular to Otto Frank's work to bring the diary, and Anne's story, to the world. He succeeded. As Anne wrote, "I want to go on living after my death", and yes, she truly has.

So Many Doubts, So Many Questions – The Land of Hope and Fear, Israel's Battle for Its Inner Soul by Isabel Kershner

Those of us who were Jewish children born in the United States not long after end of World War II and the founding of the State of Israel grew up with a rosy, inspirational set of images and ideas that are quite different from the modern, realistic picture of the country that Isabel Kershner presents in her book. 

Obviously, it has been clear that all is not milk and honey in Israel for many years, especially since the rise of Netanyahu and the hard right that supports such policies as exempting the Haredi from military service and taxes, and promotes settlements in disputed areas. 

Kershner, a long time reporter for the New York Times, and a resident of Jerusalem, presents the history and many sides of modern Israel in great depth. She examines the waves of immigration that have made the country far more complicated and heterogeneous than it was at its founding. Reading this book is illuminating, fascinating, and more than a little depressing at times. Israel cannot be kept on a pedestal – there are so many possibilities, and so much achievement, but also so many inequalities, contradictions, and frustrations for those who are minorities or viewed as outsiders. 

The book is eye-opening and thought-provoking. It was written before the current war, and ends on a note of hope, but knowing what has transpired since it was completed, makes it all the more an illuminating, compelling and vital book for those readers who are concerned about the rightward swing in politics here in the United States and other countries, and the increase in anti-Semitic (and anti-Moslem) crimes and protests. While it has no answers, it does provide some background and reasons for the alarming trends we face in the world today.