Anne Frank's Friend Recalls Intense Girl

Anne Frank's status as a symbol of the Holocaust has overshadowed the reality of a girl eager to discover the world around her, a close childhood friend said.

Jacqueline van Maarsen said that while the use of Frank's name to fight anti-Semitism had been very effective, it inadvertently made her larger-than-life.

"Anne as a little girl was lost," Van Maarsen said during an interview in Budapest where she was presenting the Hungarian version of her book "My Name is Anne, She Said, Anne Frank" published in English in 2007.

Anne Frank was 15 years old when she died of typhus in Germany's Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March 1945.

In her famous diary, Frank called Van Maarsen her "best friend," but the 79-year-old former artistic bookbinder said she was long reluctant to publicly claim the title.

"I wanted to have my own identity, I didn't want to go through life as Anne Frank's friend," Van Maarsen said in the Monday interview.

She said Frank was an extroverted girl whose intensity and the demands she made of their friendship were nearly overwhelming.

"She claimed me as her best friend and she didn't want me to be with other girls," Van Maarsen said. "She thought she was the center of the universe but I wasn't like that."

Dutch director Ben Verbong is making a film based on Van Maarsen's book, a project currently in the casting stage.

[spiritwalk]

I''''m not saying that the Palestinians aren''''t getting a raw deal. They are.
Posted by rafterman1

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It is not about the Palestinians getting a "raw deal". It is the hypocrisy of the situation.

The Nazis said that the native German Jews were a threat to the nation. So, they drove them from their homes, confiscated their property and put them in camps because they had the right to because the Aryans were the master race.

The Israelis say that the native Palestinians are a threat to Israel. So, they have driven them out of their homes, confiscated their property and put them in camps because the Jews are the chosen people.

That is so, in your face, hypocritical that you sjould not be able to get away with it without criticism. But, if you even point out that there may be an issue you are beaten over the head with the bible or Ann Frank''s diary and accused of being an anti-semite.

If you are beaten and enslaved and then when freed your first act is to beat and enslave someone yourself you can''t escape the fact that you are just as bad as the ones who did it to you.

If people in the West do not face this and recognize it for the hypocrisy it is then they will never understand why the Arab World has given up on trying to talk and why they are willing to fly planes into buildings.

[deweyhowe]

"Never forgetting is like never forgiving. Those monster Nazi''''s are long dead. The HATE they created flourishes. The book is really outdated unless a lesson on equality is learned and those damaged by the Nazi''''s are finally set free from carrying on the HATE created by them. I know I speak to deaf ears. Get it? Deaf ears. Kind of ironic wouldnt you say?"

Spoken like a true genius! (Holy moly, what pseudo-intellectual graveyard does CBS go to dig up these people? Seriously?)

[jackp32]

Those monster Nazi''s are not long dead. Many remain alive and well off although aged. They should continue to be hunted down and brought to the bar of justice until every last one of them are dead. Places like Argentina, Brazil, Syria and others continue to harbor these people. In 1944, as the war was winding down, millions of dollars in stolen Jewish owned gold was shipped to Argentina as many Nazi leaders planned to escape to that country. To this day, that gold, worth billions today, has never been accounted for. No one has forced Argentina to explain where and what happened to that gold. The book at issue is not outdated and will live on as a testament to Nazi horrors.

[metsobitso]

You make my point. We must eliminate this hatred and oppression from the earth. Peace be with you.

[metsobitso]

VcofReason: Talks about oppression. The proceeds of this book should be made to go to the Palestinians. They are now the most oppressed and persecuted people on earth. The murder and oppression of Palestinians far exceeds that in Europe before World War II. Young Palestinian girls have every right to grow up, fall in love, marry, have children, rock their grandchildren, and enjoy life just like any other people on Earth.

[noaanhc]

william908

That is such a sick comment!!!! You are totally ignorant about this brave young girl and her familys struggle to survive the horrors of World War 2

[vcofreason]

Sometimes when I take the time to actually sit down and think about it, I cannot get over the stupidity of hurting, killing and oppressing anyone. What makes one human being worth more than another? I will never understand how someone can believe that the Holocaust didn''t exist. Life is special and you hear so much of people hurting other people, killing, r.aping; I could go on. Why? No one is better than another. I realize very clearly that I''m being unrealistic, but it has never made any sense to me. Anne Frank had every right to grow up, fall in love, marry, have children, rock her grandchildren, just like any other person on Earth.

People here ask why does this keep coming up? I guess some people just will never understand the cruelty of some men.

[cfin5]

I think Anne Frank is a great Dutch hero along with Corrie Ten Boom. Glad I got to go through Anne''s home when I was young. Got to go into Corries parents'' clock shop too.....I will always be good to the Hebrews.

[puzzler125]

The reason the book is "always in the news" is for several reasons not limited to: it''s an excellent and well-written book, it''s a true story, it''s about a remarkable young girl, we need to be reminded and NEVER forget what happened in Nazi Germany, and new generations come along who need to hear the stories of our forefathers and foremothers so that we can at least TRY not to repeat the atrocities or to help prevent these atrocities from happening again.

[opedanderson]

ampsanne!

Pls. read a book. 3 million??

The Nazis murdered from 15,003,000 to 31,595,000 people, most likely 20,946,000 men, women, handicapped, aged, sick, prisoners of war, forced laborers, camp inmates, critics, homosexuals, Jews, Slavs, Serbs, Germans, Czechs, Italians, Poles, French, Ukrainians, and many others. Among them 1,000,000 were children under eighteen years of age.1 And none of these monstrous figures even include civilian and military combat or war-deaths.

You pray it won''t happen again? Ever heard of Cambodia? Rwanda? Kosovo? Burma? Dafur?

Wake up. It happens all the time....