Anne Frank was born on June 12th, 1929, a young girl whose name has become a beacon of hope, a voice that still echoes across generations, cultures, and continents.
She did not survive the Holocaust. Anne perished in Bergen-Belsen at the age of just 15. And yet, somehow, she lives on. In the quiet corners of classrooms, in hushed museum halls, in the hearts of millions, her spirit endures.
With a red-and-white checkered diary, Anne gifted the world more than just her thoughts. She gave us a human window into horror, not through statistics, but through a child¡¯s wonder, courage, and heartbreak. Her words transcend time. They have become part of the world¡¯s conscience.
It is not by chance that, to this day, people from all nations still walk in silence down a narrow Amsterdam street, waiting to step inside the modest annex where Anne and her family hid for over two years. They don¡¯t come merely to see a preserved room. They come to bear witness. To stand where she once stood. To look through the attic window she once gazed from. To imagine the chestnut tree she wrote about, blooming with the same hope she so desperately clung to.
Anne once wrote, ¡°I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.¡± These words humble us. They challenge us. They pierce through the cruelty she endured and hold up a mirror to our humanity. They are a call, not to naivety, but to moral clarity.
For the State of Israel, for the Jewish people, Anne Frank¡¯s diary is far more than a historical artifact. It is a sacred bridge, a dialogue between a Jewish child of the past and the moral compass of the present. In a world where survivors grow fewer each year, Anne¡¯s voice still reaches the next generation. Through her, children learn what hatred destroys, and what hope, even in darkness, can build.
This is not something we can ever take for granted.
In a time when antisemitism rises once more ¡ª in old disguises and new ¡ª when Holocaust distortion and denial fester online and in public discourse, Anne Frank¡¯s voice becomes more urgent than ever. She reminds us: we must remember. We must teach. We must speak out. Not just for the sake of the past, but to preserve our shared humanity.
Because her story does not belong only to the Jewish people, it belongs to the world. Her lessons are not just Jewish lessons, they are deeply, universally human.
So let us ensure that long after we are gone, the generations to come will still turn the pages of her diary - not as relics of another time, but as a living testament. As a warning. A light. A guide.
May Anne Frank¡¯s memory forever be a blessing.
And may we live in such a way that proves: her belief in the goodness of people was not in vain.
Thank you.