This week I added Amsterdam to the ever-growing list of places I have been fortunate enough to visit during my time abroad. Between the canals, the Van Gogh museum and a generally amicable and liberal city, Amsterdam easily makes the top five list of my favorite places in the world. By far the most moving attraction I saw in Amsterdam was the Anne Frank House. I had read her diary multiple times throughout school, even found it boring at times. This time, however, not only the reality of her situation, but the importance of her story, hit me hard.
As I walked through the house, I remembered her diary and whole moments and days came back to me as I saw the space her family had hidden from the Nazis in. What hit me hardest was the tragedy of her story. Sure, she achieved her dream of being a celebrated writer — her diary has sold over 35 million copies — but it didn’t do her any good. She died in an internment camp days before its liberation. She was never around to see her own dream come true.
As I walked through her house, I tried to think about how to make sense of something as meaningless as the slaughter of the holocaust. Anne Frank’s diary means nothing if we don’t learn from it. At one point, as we walked through the house, I questioned why the Frank family had stayed in the city. Would it not be easier to hide in a more remote location? And for that matter, I thought, why did they stay in Amsterdam? The city was so close to Germany, where they knew they would be persecuted.
One room held the answer: the Frank family had applied for refuge in the United States but were denied. I can only imagine how different things may have been for the Franks had they managed to cross the ocean, but the Anne Frank House did convince me of one thing. The Diary of Anne Frank is a story about immigration. It illustrates exactly what happens when people are not allowed to move freely, even when they are in danger.
Immigration is so often reduced to an economic question and the conversation centers on the implications within the United States’ borders. If there’s one thing we should learn from Anne Frank, it’s that the conversation needs to be about what’s happening outside the country in question. It’s not like doing nothing is a neutral stance. It doesn’t make the problem go away, it just displaces it. In Anne Frank’s case, the United States’ lack of action was a direct contributor to the Anne’s death. Now, we look back at her story and talk about her bravery, her talent, her spirit, but none of that means anything unless we can look forward and talk about how the next Anne Frank will live to see her books published.
So let’s talk about immigration and the migrant crisis in a holistic way. Let’s start the conversation by understanding exactly why and what they are leaving behind before we dismiss them as a burden on the economy.
