Book

The Legacy of Anne Frank

How has Anne Frank succeeded – where other initiatives have failed – in bringing together those from different sides in intractable conflicts and breaking down deeply held prejudices against ‘the other’? What are the often surprising long-term legacies she has left behind?

This fascinating study aims to answer these questions and many more.

From her secret hiding place in wartime Amsterdam, the Jewish teenager Anne Frank wrote heart-wrenchingly about the terrors of a captivity that would ultimately end with her death at the hands of the Nazis. In her world-famous diaries, she described with remarkable honesty her transition from childhood to a deep thinking, opinionated and passionate teenager.

The life she longed to live, during which she would help to create a more caring world, was tragically not to be. In August 1944, she and her family were captured and deported to Auschwitz. Two years after her death from starvation and disease in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, her diary was published. It quickly became an international sensation, going on to influence hearts and minds for over seventy years. Although many books and literary analyses have been written about Anne Frank’s life and diary, none have explored the surprising influence she has had on young people in countries all over the world, helping to shape their moral framework and giving them critical life skills.

The Legacy of Anne Frank takes us on a voyage around the world over the past four decades, through the prism of the Anne Frank House’s groundbreaking educational programmes, and explains how they have impacted on the societies they have visited. Many of these regions had only recently emerged from turbulent, violent and troubled times. 

It also describes some fascinating people who shared Anne’s experiences, such as her posthumous stepsister Eva Schloss, her first cousin and close friend Buddy Elias, and the Frank family’s heroic helper, Miep Gies, all of whom Gillian has spent quality time with. It also describes the development of the educational charity the Anne Frank Trust UK, which started life as a one man band from Gillian’s home and grew into one of Britain’s most admired and influential educational organisations. 

As well as an overview of Anne’s short life, here are some examples of the other chapters: 

• Anne and Eva Schloss – the Girl who Became her Stepsister
• Anne Frank’s Role in the Transition  from Communism
• Anne Frank in Latin America
• Anne Frank and Audrey Hepburn
• On the Road with Anne Frank
• Anne Frank and Nelson Mandela
• Anne Frank and her Protector Miep Gies
• Anne Frank and her Secret Hero
• Who Betrayed the Frank Family?
• Anne Frank in the Far East
• Anne Frank was a Real Person
• Anne Frank in the Indian Subcontinent
• Anne Frank and the Future, From the chapter Anne Frank in Bosnia, 1996: 

In Sarajevo, Barry (educator from the Anne Frank House) worked with two young boys who were both called Adnan. The older Adnan was given the role of Otto Frank in the performance of Dreams of Anne Frank, a new play by London writer Bernard Kops. Adnan’s father had been killed in the war and because of the stress he had endured, Adnan was already suffering from a diagnosed heart condition. After the first performance, where he had given a wonderful portrayal of Anne Frank’s beloved father, none of the team could find Adnan. He was discovered outside crying his eyes out. Sensing it was something the boy needed to do, Barry and the other children let him be. After two hours of continuous crying, Adnan came back inside. All through the performance he had felt the presence of his own father by his side and told an emotional Barry that he had dedicated his performance to his father. The Muslim Bosniak girl who played Anne thanked Barry and the team for ‘letting her sleep again’. Being Anne Frank, even for such a short while, had helped her to process all that had happened during the war.

In this fascinating study, Gillian Walnes Perry explores the various legacies of Anne Frank’s influence. She looks at the complex life of Anne Frank’s father and the motivations that powered his educational philosophy. She shares new insights into the real Anne Frank, personally gifted by those who actually knew her. Global icons such as Nelson Mandela and Audrey Hepburn relate the influence that Anne Frank had on shaping their own lives. This book presents – all in one place and for the very first time – the inspirational stories of a diverse variety of people from all over the world, brought together by the words of one particularly articulate and inspiring teenage victim of the Holocaust.