The Year 7 class were asked pretend that Anne survived the concentration camps and to write an account of what she did when she grew up. Levi wrote the following fantastic piece.
Anne Frank WHAT-IF Rough Draft:
The 15th of April 1945 is a day that has been engraved into my memory. It was at dawn that we felt the ground vibrate and shake. As we huddled out of the barracks, the penetrating daylight scorched our eyes. Skeletal figures, flesh and bone surrounded me. My skin was raw from the scabies. Through blistered eyes I could see the cause of the tremors. There were columns of tanks entering Bergen-Belson: The Union Jack on each one flapping in the wind. Our tormentors, the vicious S.S. guards were nowhere in sight. Free at last, free at last. Thank you God almighty, I am free at last!
After being liberated I went to live with my cousin in Amsterdam. Adjusting back to normal life was difficult. The scabies had scarred my skin but thank God not my face. I had nightmares for many years. The starving, the working, the beatings. Every night when I cleansed myself I stared at the number on my forearm: 98288. Our persecutors reduced us to numbers. I am not a number; I am Annelies Marie Frank! I was hardworking and as I had dreamt, I graduated from the University of Utrecht in 1953 with a degree in journalism. Through the help of the Association of Holocaust Organizations, I found my father in a convalescent home in Eindhoven in 1954. The day was surreal. My father was old, his body worn out, but his eyes had a spark. We tremored as we clutched each other. Even Auschwitz cannot break the everlasting bond between a daughter and her father.
My journalism career set off at the Utrecht Dagblad as a news journalist. 50 million dead which included 6 million Jews and yet humanity could not stop fighting after World War II. The Cold War was in full swing and everywhere little tin gods were trying to establish their regimes. One of them was the Butcher of Uganda, Idi Amin. Just like Hitler, he unleashed a genocide on his country, and I covered this human tragedy. For a full week we were trapped inside a cold, dark, damp basement in a church located in the Ugandan Capital. Father DaSilva had to smuggle provisions past the army roadblocks to help us survive. The exposé I wrote on this tragedy helped me to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1981. I settled in Brussels with my husband and two kids, Margot and Otto. The refreshing winds greeted us every day as we walked in the park.
Editor’s Note: On the 14th of May 2019, Annelies Marie Frank died peacefully in her sleep at the age of 90, surrounded by her children. She was a wife, a mother, a journalist… and a Holocaust survivor. On the 14th of May 2019, Annelies Marie Frank died peacefully in her sleep at the age of 90, surrounded by her children. She was a wife, a mother, a journalist… and a Holocaust survivor.
