Ten years ago I bought the newly published “definitive” unexpurgated version of Anne Frank’s diary. It got lost on my bookshelves with many other books I’ve meant to read but got lost behind other books that jumped on my shelves.
Before publishing the diary after it was given him Anne’s Father prudently edited out his deceased daughter’s impolitic but honest observations that would have offended the polite sensibilities of his age – sensibilities which did not prevent her death in a great mass murder.
A couple weeks ago I stumbled on the original 1960’s Hollywood treatment of Anne on one of the movie channels. By today’s standards it was a little saccharine but not badly so. It was based on the early version of the Diary available to the reading public.
Last night I was dog tired after six hours of yard work and gardening when to my dismay I remembered that the latest PBS telling of Anne’s story was about to be shown. I didn’t think I could stay awake to watch it. Not a problem.
This Anne Frank was less saintly, alarmingly self knowing and far too often a self centered pill. then again she was thirteen/fourteen when she was crammed for two years into an attic with a lot of strangers. I wept at the end for her loss which I did not do when watching the 1960’s Anne Frank.
For the time being this blog is primarily dedicated to exposing the depredations of the clueless do-gooders who stole our right to vote in Duluth. We will get excessively expensive and in some cases unnecessary schools for our troubles. Our bodies won’t be shoved into a crematorium or bulldozed into a pit with thousands of others as a result of our loss.
