The Freedom Writers Diary - Erin Gruwell [62]
So with computers on the way and honor codes being drawn up, I’m going to kick off our diary with a special visit from two people who have been immortalized in Anne Frank’s diary. I’ve helped arrange for the kids to meet Anne Frank’s best friends, Jopie and Hanneli (a.k.a. “Lies”) who she wrote about before she went into hiding. Hopefully, meeting Jopie and Lies will get them excited about starting our new writing project—and reaffirm the power of the written word.
Diary 67
Dear Diary,
My mom always says, “Silence will get you nowhere in life.” Today she was right. I had the opportunity to sing to Anne Frank’s best friends, Jopie and Lies, but I didn’t. Two people were needed to sing the song “Hero,” but I never told anyone that I could sing. I really wanted to sing to them because Anne Frank is my hero and the song would have tied in perfectly, but the thought of telling anyone scared me. So I let that chance slip right out of the palm of my hand.
When the girls sang, I was sad because I had the chance to do it and I didn’t take it. Everyone cheered, but I felt so disappointed that I wasn’t on the stage. One of the girls who volunteered was in the concert choir, but she was not in Ms. G’s class. She hadn’t even read the book, so she didn’t know the symbolism of the song. I did—and I was ashamed that I didn’t stand up.
After the song, Jopie and Lies told us about how they knew Anne. They both went to school with Anne before she went into hiding. They were inseparable, kind of like the Three Musketeers, until the war tore them apart. Luckily, Jopie didn’t have to go to a concentration camp, but Lies did. Ironically, while she was at Bergen-Belsen, she had the opportunity to talk to Anne, who was dying of hunger, disease, and sadness. A fence separated them and Anne was sick with typhus. Anne kept saying, “I have no one left.” Lies threw a bag of food to Anne across the barbedwire fence. Even though she would not have food for herself and she risked getting killed by the Nazis, she didn’t care, because she saw that Anne needed help and she could not deny a friend. Somebody grabbed the bag and ran away with it, leaving Anne in that horrible situation. She died a few days later. When Lies was liberated from the camp, she found out that Anne’s father, Otto, was the only one who survived from the Frank family. Otto treated Lies, who had lost her family as well, as an adopted daughter. Both Jopie and Lies were shocked to read Anne’s diary. They never knew that they meant so much to her.
After I heard their moving stories, I felt really guilty. After all, Jopie and Lies risked themselves for their friend and I didn’t even have the guts to say that I wanted to sing to them. Maybe I didn’t deserve to be there because I wasn’t as brave as they were. Lies helped her friend in the camp, knowing that if an officer saw her she would be killed. No one was going to kill me just for saying that I wanted to sing, but I made it seem that way with my cowardliness.
Bad things have happened because people hold back information. Women get beat up by their husbands and no one can help them because they never say who did it. Children get abused and we sometimes think that everything is normal because they act as if there is nothing wrong. The Germans knew what was going on in the camps, but the world found out too late because they held back that information. There are many tragedies that could be stopped if only we spoke up more often. From this point on, I will not be silent.