April 30, 1945 – Bergen-Belsen, Germany
Anne Frank
Born 12 June 1929, Frankfurt,
Lived in Amsterdam 1933 to 1944,
Spent two years in hiding in a secret annex,
where she wrote her famous Diary of a Young Girl,
Arrested, separated from her parents, and deported to prison,
Seen “bald, emaciated and shivering” January 1945,
Died in Bergen-Belsen March 1945,
Age 15.
My uncle Earl was born 24 May 1929, 19 days before Anne Frank. Earl is still very much alive and doing well (for a man of 96 years). My point is Anne Frank’s story didn’t happen very long ago. All that transpired to her and 6,000,000 other Jewish Holocaust victims happened within one man’s lifetime.
World War II isn’t ancient history; we are still living it. The time and metaphorical distance from Alligator Alcatraz to Bergen-Belsen is …
… A Short Slither.
Anne Frank and Earl Paton, born within a month of one another.
Anne has been dead for eighty years, because her parents were Jewish.
This is the tenth in a series of posts following Albert Allsop’s trek through Europe in 1944-45. The series begins on September 28, 2025.
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