For our creative responses piece this edition, we focussed on 'The Diary of Anne Frank'. Anne's diary is full of incredible quotes and insightful writings that it is easy to forget she was just thirteen when she started writing.
Podcast - an introduction to our responses
By Jasper Hawkes
A picture collage of Anne’s quotes
For me, Anne Frank’s Diary cast a deep sense of connection, reading the day to day experiences that Anne Frank felt is an encapsulating feeling. I wanted to use her words that are so moving and poignant, particularly considering her young age, and collate these alongside her image. Using the colours of her famous diary and the recognisable plaid design set a striking background in which her writing and her as an individual are given equal importance. The words of her diary resonate with so many people due to their wisdom, hope and truthfulness. They present her as not just a victim of the Holocaust, but as a young girl with aspirations, intelligence and optimism for the future.
By Nicole Wu
Poem - A mind so sacred
Anne Frank’s diary is so insightful and sophisticated that it is easy to forget that she was only 13 when she started writing. The way she wrote at such a young age, whilst going through the unimaginable, is astounding. Anne repeatedly wrote of feeling trapped whilst hiding in the annex and I found the feeling she described of being “hauled away” particularly moving. Upon reading these excerpts, I felt compelled to explore that feeling, and Anne’s life via poetry.
A MIND SO SACRED
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world” - Anne Frank
Words were written out of a moment - the darkest of history -
By a girl, unbeknownst to what would become her legacy.
That lives beyond her years, cut short by hatred,
Yet out from the binding, in what she provided,
Lies lessons so crucial to a world so divided
Insight outed by pen to paper,
From a mind so young, yet plagued by the terror,
Of the actions of evil, from the low in people,
Fearing the error of living unlocked,
And it cannot be forgot,
That a time when lies multiplied before their eyes,
Allowed for hate to rise, whilst people lost their lives
It is hard to imagine, the fear that lived
Trapped behind the walls of thoughts that were bred, only to resent,
People without a fault, no guilty plea,
The crime that seemed to be, their presence -
In speaking. In breathing. In living. In streets built to lead nowhere
The power that is hidden, within her pages,
The courage she held, in a mind so sacred,
Is proof to the bravery, in every testimony -
In hope, and in faith, that one day,
There will be a harmony.
“What is done cannot be undone, but one can prevent it happening again” - Anne Frank