of Anne Frank and the Holocaust

We had the cutest little old man for clinicals today.
He was so like those old men that you see on black-and-white films with the receeding hairline, small and bony stature complete with that cute voice.
And he had that sense of self-deprecating humor that most old people didn't.

And get this. He was a Holocaust survivor.
I've finaly met one.
And even though he was only 6 when he was in Germany, he still remembered his mum being herded into trucks and him standing behind this huge wrought-iron fence, unable to get to her.
And from there, it was just a-wandering from Germany to Hungary and finally to Australia without his birth certificate.
Hence, his official age being 60++ and his daughter's age being 50++.

Listening to him just reminds me of the Anne Frank story.
I was lucky enough to stumble upon her published diary about her being in the Holocaust during her teens.
And teens are the most insightful creatures.
They emote so well (hence the emo culture right now), they cry and laugh so easily.
They get angry and rebellious at the slight injustice.
And the sun comes out the next minute with the slightest gesture of kindness.

And so, Anne documented this incredibly insightful diary about her being in hiding during Holocaust to avoid being sent to the camps, or worse, chambers.

Textbooks only bring the cold hard facts about the mistreatment that went on during that period.
But reading Anne is like attaching a familiar face or human being to those facts.
You sympathise with her, you wonder whether you could ever be as brave as her.
And your heart aches so badly at the epilogue when Otto (her father) wrote that they were caught just a day after her last entry.
And from there, it was just misery to her.
She was sent to the concentration camp where she died of malnutrition and disease.

And at the very end, you wonder what were her last thoughts, whether she thought of her faimly at all, whether she missed her diary which she affectionately called Kitty, whether she regretted being born Jewish, whether she would go to heaven.
And then you wonder when your time comes, what will be your last thoughts.