My great, great uncle was killed in Auschwitz for stealing a turnip from a field. He was shot dead. His last words were, “I do not deserve to die for a turnip. All of us in the camp are starving.” He, like Anne Frank was Jewish and was a victim of prejudice.

75 years from then, some prejudice still remains. Although improvements have been made, we are yet to conquer the world with equality and peace.

The Black Lives Matter movement has gone on despite a global lockdown, does this not show how much people crave change? The little and the loud voices are constantly speaking, it’s our job to listen, and then, in our turn, follow suit.

Anne Frank wrote her diary throughout hiding, we have been blessed compared to her. We can call one another, text, video call and learn as a community over social media. I think this shows that although we have a virus pandemic, Anne Frank had a war. And we don’t have to obscure ourselves because there is no war, there is a moderate amount of serenity. The only war we are fighting is the one outside our windows that has been brought to the streets, we are not fighting against other humans, no, we are fighting against discrimination. BLM!

My great, great aunt taught a young Jewish woman the Lord’s Prayer when she was called to be questioned by the Gestapo police, to find out if she was a Jew. And potentially put her in a camp. But since the young woman knew the prayer she was not captured. And my great, great aunt probably saved her life.

My great, grandpa saved 10,000 Polish soldiers from being killed by the Nazis. By taking them all to Marseille and training them amongst the Allies.

My other great, great uncle, translated the Nurenburg Trials.

And I, am only a child. But that does not mean I can’t do great things. Lockdown has taught me countless lessons. For instance, I understand now how important friendship is, or how much we take for granted or even how much I miss the 6:30 alarm clock that signals the beginning of a school day.

Lockdown has been an adventure, not your typical climbing Mt. Everest adventure, I’m thinking a diverse adventure. Albeit we can’t travel the world, we can travel ourselves, and find something really worth while. We can find family, an opinion, a way to tackle endless technology issues and as I said before, an understanding of diversity. What Anne Frank went through was terrible, and we’ve learned never to let something like that happen again, compared to her, we are thusly lucky. Even with all the things going on now, we cannot be too grateful that we are not experiencing what she did.

By ANNE, 12

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