A Reply Letter to Anne Frank

I hope you are doing great on the other side of the world. It’s 12th June today, your birthday when you first started writing your diary Kitty. So, I wish you a happy birthday and also thank you for writing this diary and living on as Anne Frank among us. Did you realise how old you would be today? If you were alive, you would have turned ninety-one – the typical age of dealing with diabetes, high blood pressure, and so on. But you are lucky in the sense that you are still fourteen and forever will be. What would you think of what happened afterwards to the world that you left in 1945? What would you hope for and dream of? Did you believe in a change of this world? Change in the right way.

Do you remember, you once stated, everyone should live with freedom? They have their own religion and love. So, the world should let them be themselves. But the matter of sorrow is that the world is still acting the same. We cannot live here just by being ourselves, here the majority dominates the minority. We are battling with religion and the colour of our skin, even in this era.

You believed that women are the symbol of strength and courage. Indeed, you were right. But many societies consider this a myth. Gender equality is still a joke now. So, it is pretty clear that this world hasn’t entirely erased the rules that had turned your life miserable.

Among all misfortunes, your quotes still restore hopes within us. “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart” is one of them. Your Kitty makes us cry with you, learn with you, and dream with you again.

I am leaving this letter to you with a birthday gift. Many people have written letters to you on your birthday, but nobody might have mentioned that your dream came true in 1947. So, I am going to give this news as a gift for your ninety-first birthday.

Do you remember that you dreamed of becoming a writer? And today, you are known as a famous author of your journal, The Diary of a Young Girl. Your father, Otto Frank, was the only person who later survived the war from the secret annex. He came forward to publish your diary, and to make you known to the rest of the world. Anne Frank, you are a globally recognised writer now, though you couldn’t live to recognise it yourself.

On your birthday, I hope your words soothe everyone by bringing hope and enable us to view the world in your eyes. Till then, happy birthday.

 

Yours ever,
One of your readers who follows your written word,
Sanjida Tamanna