Today, the New York Times published an important opinion piece by Ruth Franklin about Anne Frank. The singular tragedy referred to in her title is both her death, and the erasure of her Jewish identity in popular culture. Francine Prose’s book, Anne Frank: The Book, the Life, the Afterlife (2009) and Dara Horn’s chapter on Frank, “Everyone’s (Second) Favorite Dead Jew,” in her essay collection People Love Dead Jews: Report from a Haunted Present (2021) are both illuminating on the same subject. Adults sharing books about Anne Frank, and others on related people and themes, might wish to read Franklin’s piece, as well as the books mentioned above, as an appropriate and realistic memorial and a step towards some understanding of the Shoah. I have written about this topic before, and here, in recognition of International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, are some other relevant reviews and an interview:
Never Again Will I Visit Auschwitz: A Graphic Family Memoir of Trauma & Inheritance
The Librarian of Auschwitz: The Graphic Novel
A Delayed Life: The True Story of the Librarian of Auschwitz
The Boy Who Drew Auschwitz: A Powerful True Story of Hope and Survival
Behind the Bookcase: Miep Gies, Anne Frank, and the Hiding Place
Impossible Escape: A True Story of Survival and Heroism in Nazi Europe
Interview with Steve Sheinkin, author of Impossible Escape
When I Grow Up: The Lost Autobiographies of Six Yiddish Teenagers
Imaginary Elevators 