Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 12, 1994                   TAG: 9407060001
SECTION: HORIZON                    PAGE: E1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: A. JAMES RUDIN RELIGIOUS NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

COULD IT BE POSSIBLE THAT ANNE FRANK WOULD HAVE TURNED 65 TODAY?

No, it is not possible because for millions of people throughout the world Anne Frank will forever remain the Jewish teen-ager with the dark hair and touching smile who stares out at us with piercing eyes from old photographs.

No, it is not possible because Anne Frank will forever remain the youthful author of the extraordinary diary she wrote between July 1942 and August 1944 when she and seven other people, including her parents and sister, hid from the Nazis in an Amsterdam office building.

No, it not possible because Anne Frank will forever remain the symbol of the 1.5 million Jewish children who died during the Holocaust. She is forever young, vulnerable and hopeful. That is the eternal Anne Frank of our hearts.

But inside our heads there is another Anne; the one born in Frankfurt, Germany, on June 12, 1929. We know that she and her sister, Margot, died of malnutrition and typhus in the Bergen- Belsen death camp in Germany in March 1945 two months before World War II ended in Europe.

We know that she and her fellow Jews were kept alive in Amsterdam by the courageous actions of four Christians who hid them for 25 months. But we also know that Anne and her fellow Jews were betrayed by a Dutch Christian, and we know that Anne and her fellow Jews were arrested by the despicable Dutch Nazi ``Green Police.''

We know that the Dutch Nazis turned Anne and her fellow Jews over to the German occupiers of Holland, who transported them to death camps. We know that only Anne's father survived the Holocaust while the other seven, including young Peter van Daan, Anne's boyfriend, all died in the camps.

There is a clash between the poignant memory of the Anne of our hearts and the aching knowledge that, had she lived, Anne Frank today would probably be bragging about her grandchildren and worrying about her husband's lack of exercise and his high cholesterol.

How much Anne missed!

She was rounded up and sent to her death at age 15, just when her writing talents and her sexuality were beginning to blossom. Literary critics have praised not only Anne's immortal diary, translated into more than 50 languages, but have also recognized the excellence of her unfinished novel, "Cady's Life," and the dozen short stories she wrote while in hiding.

Anne experienced her first romantic kiss from Peter during their moments alone in the attic of 263 Prinsengracht, their Amsterdam hiding place. But she was never to know the joy of mature love, the ecstasy and pain of growing up, and the often banal, but precious, activities of daily life.

Anne wrote: ``Believe me, if you have been shut up for a year and a half, it can get too much for you. ... In spite of all justice and thankfulness, you can't crush your feelings. Cycling, dancing, whistling, looking out into the world, feeling young, to know that I'm free - that's what I long for.''

But there was, of course, one emotion she did experience - fear: ``I cannot describe it. ... I recall only that all day long I did nothing but shake with fear.

``My parents tried to reassure me ... but nothing helped. ... My fear vanished under the spreading sky [the view from a window of her hiding place]. ... Fear does not help and is useless. ... I will look at nature and see that God is much closer than most people imagine. ... Since that time ... I never felt fear again.''

``Blurry,'' the story of a naughty runaway bear who wanted to ``discover the world,'' is one of Anne's finest and most revealing stories. It is the desperate cry from the heart of a brilliant young woman whose world for 25 months was limited to a window looking out upon a chestnut tree, a small street, a canal and a few neighboring houses.

When the young bear returns home to his mother, Anne wrote:

``Blurry, why did you run away?''

``I wanted to discover the world,'' Blurry answered.

``And did you discover it?''

``Oh, I saw a lot, a great deal, and now I am a very clever bear. ... But I could not find the world!''

Sadly, an evil world did find Anne Frank, and it killed her. But every time we remember her and each time we read Anne's splendid and delicate writings, she is forever a part of our world. May her memory be an eternal blessing!

Rabbi A. James Rudin is national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.|