Anne Frank and a Concrete Evil

The first time I heard about Anne Frank was when I was in first year high school sitting in the auditorium and lazily watching a character portrayal contest for the English Week. There is this third year girl who portrayed Anne Frank and she did an amazing job of waking me up after spending half of the contest on almost closed eyes. I still vividly remembers how her minuted voice sounds cute when she says, "Dear Kitty" every time she monologues a diary entry. Since that time, I grew curious about this mysterious girl who talks to her diary anytime. I did some research and found out how hope stayed on this girl when it seems that every hope around her is too elusive to catch.

So I found myself few days ago searching Anne Frank on YouTube our of boredom and I came across this full movie (uploaded in 17 parts) entitled Anne Frank: The Whole Story (thanks romanov1918 for uploading). It is not actually a movie, it is a mini-TV series based on the book Anne Frank:The Biography by Melissa Muller (There is supposed to be an umlaut in u but I don't know how to do it) and it stars Hannah Taylor Gordon as Anne and Ben Kingsley who won a Screen Actor's Guild Award for portraying Otto Frank, Anne's father. The movie made me put faces on the stories I have read about the Frank's. What is nice about the movie is that it extends the story to the days where Ann spent some days in the concentration camps until the day she died in Bergen-Belsen. Anne Frank's story is about hope amidst the evils of humanity.

I talked about supernatural evils on my last post but what is more scary is the tangible evils that a person could afflict. This evil is infectious and it can spread very fast that is why the Frank's were driven to hiding. The persecution of the Jews-- if not the most-- is one of the scariest moments in the history were thousands of innocent people were killed because of the stupid reason that they belong to the inferior race. It is stupid to cleanse the supposed to be master "Aryan Race" and Hilter is damned incarnate evil to afflict that ideology. The Holocaust was not just about driving Jews from their homes but actually killing them for inhumane methodology such as starving, gas chambers and shooting random Jews for leisure. It is so sad that hope that is abundant in Anne's personality was sucked out of her piece per piece until she looks to heaven defeated at the last scene.

On the lighter side, there is the character of Miep Gies (Lili Taylor), the one who sneaked the Frank Family in the attic above their office. The Frank depends on Miep and three others for their food and supplies and most importantly their secret . Lili Taylor's role has not many lines in the story but the sense of her trustworth is always expelled in the atmosphere every time she is in a frame. It is warming to have Miep Gies's character to buffer the darkness all throughout the movie. No wonder the real Miep Gies was blessed by long life (She died January 2010). Her persona is the ultimate epitome of a friend, that is, of trust.

It is so sad for me to watch this great film because of seeing how people could do great evils. It is just like Lord Voldemort and Muggles, just more concrete and indeed scarier. This movie leaves me in a position to wonder what if I'll lose hope with life. I hope that everything that is happening to me right now will not suck out the hope inside me. I think we just need to remind ourselves that Anne endured the worst thing.