Anne Frank Video Posted on YouTube

The internet revolution, including the relatively recent phenomenon of YouTube has given people world wide new ways to communicate, as well as a new form of news broadcast in the form of video clips from devices as mundane as cell phones. YouTube clips usually don't shock the world though, however, recently rare video footage of Anne Frank was recently posted on YouTube are haunting reminders of the Jewish girl who died in a Nazi concentration camp.

Anne Frank, and her family who had German nationality, moved from Germany to Amsterdam in 1933. The Nazis were beginning to become more powerful in Germany at the time, and by 1940 Hitler's army had occupied the Netherlands, which includes Amsterdam, by 1940. Anne and her family were effectively trapped behind Nazis lines, and hide in a concealed rooms, while spreading word that they had left Amsterdam. Anne Frank's father, Otto Frank, even left behind a note indicating they had moved to Switzerland, and left their apartment in a mess, as though they had left quickly. The ruse almost worked, however, Anne and her family were revealed to the Germans and sent to a concentration camp.

Anne died from Tyhpus in a concentration camp, only weeks before the war ended, as did her sister. Otto Frank was the sole member of her family to survive the concentration camps. Ironically, Otto Frank was German soldier during World War 1, and was decorated for his efforts. He returned to Amsterdam, and in tribute to his daughter had her diary published as a book, which quickly became a top seller.

However, history can often be dry, and after a while loses its humanity when sterilized with statistics and analysis. Modern video technology has afforded future generations the opportunity to dissect events in the past, such as Bill Clinton's election to the Presidency, by reviewing thousands of hours of interviews of footage. While Anne Frank's story, told via her diary is a powerful reminder of the worst that humanity can become, I was not aware that there was any video footage of her.

However, the recently posted footage of Anne Frank on YouTube gives a human dimension to the young girl that we had only known through photographs, her diary, and information given by her father. The Anne Frank footage is hauntingly remarkable in that it is utterly unremarkably and, if we knew not who was in the photo, it could be just a random film clip of some European town in the 1930's or 1940's. However, we are presented with the briefest glimpse of a young girl, who's diary would become world famous, and unfortunately would be shipped to a concentration camp, have her head shaved, and be tattooed with a concentration camp number, and then made to engage in hard labor.

You can see the footage at, www.youtube.com/watch.

Chilling footage, and perhaps a reminder that should we forget the lessons of the past, such atrocities could be repeated during another conflict.

Sources:

Anne Frank
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Frank

Anne Frank: The Only Existing Film Images
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hvtXuO5GzU