We haven’t learned anything from Anne Frank’s diary
Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2024 Blog #35
September 1, 2025
We haven’t learned anything from Anne Frank’s diary
On Friday we took a trip into New York City to see the Anne Frank exhibit at the Center for Jewish History. It was a moving experience as I learned more about the story of Anne, her family, and the good people who risked their lives by hiding them as long as they were able to.
Of course, I knew the basic story of Anne and her diary, although I have never read it. Somehow, it was not a book that was assigned to us in school. I knew some girls who were interested in reading the diary, but we boys never seemed to be interested in reading a young girl’s diary. I was surprised to learn that it has been translated into 70 languages, sold 30 million copies, and that there is more than one version of it. I bought a copy of the book and have started to read it.
Even not knowing all the details of the Frank family hiding, and the ultimate deaths of everyone except Otto who was Anne’s father by the Nazis, the basic story is the same. One madman, who thought he was divinely inspired and early on, received encouragement from the church, caused the death of millions as he sought to purge Jews out of Europe, one way or another. Killing others, and land-grabbing, seems to be an old story that we are constantly repeating.
The Holy Crusades of the Middle Ages which attacked the Holy Land was endorsed by popes and kings. The Christian west, it was believed, had a divine mission from God to purge Arabs from the land that was sacred. How many people died and were displaced because, it was said, “God told us to throw those other people out”? Did God really tell the crusaders this message or were they just pretending for the sake of economic gain?
The story of the United States and our treatment of Native Americans is very similar to this story. It was believed that it was the divine destiny of Northern Europeans to rule this continent. If necessary, Natives could be moved or killed and their land seized. Many missionary societies at this time, stood against this idea of God-blessed expansion, but many Christian groups participated in forced assimilation or cared nothing about the plight of the indigenous. Many Christians believed that these Indigenous Pagans must be purged so that we can have a “Christian” nation.
More recently, there was endorsement of Putin by the Russian Orthodox Church. In the spring of 2024, this church declared that Putin’s efforts against Ukraine was a Holy War and Putin continues to ravage Ukraine with the endorsement of a Christian Church. I, and many people like me, seriously question whether or not God wanted Putin to start that war and cause so many deaths and so much suffering.
This story repeats itself every day in the Middle east. I heard much of this rhetoric almost three years ago when I toured Israel and the West Bank. The Israeli version of this story was that God had given this land to Jews. After a forced diaspora and an absence of almost two thousand years, it was God’s will to return to Israel and restore the boundaries of the ancient Davidic kingdom. After the Nazi holocaust, I can’t blame Jews for wanting a safe place to live. Such a thing should never have happened and must never be allowed to happen again.
Palestinians who I spoke with on the West Bank had similar opinions. After the Roman diaspora, the land was controlled by Arabs and later by Muslims. For almost two thousand years, with the exception of the time of the crusades, Muslims lived on this land. They believe that God gave them this land, fulfilling the promise made to Abraham’s descendants through Ishmael. Two groups, each divinely ordained are now battling for control of this small piece of land.
It seems to me that in all of these cases that I have cited, whenever a group of people believes that God wants them to conquer land, and push people out, maybe we are not listening to God carefully. When God created the earth, humans lived with one another, walked with God, and had prosperity. I wish that we all held onto that message from God. We were meant to live in harmony with God and each other. We were meant to see prosperity for every human on the earth. The first murder even caused the whole earth to “groan.”
We are not listening to God when we seize the land of other people.
We are not listening to God when we bomb and starve civilians.
We are not listening to God when we plant bombs to terrorize a population.
We are not listening to God when we invade a land and seize hostages.
We are not listening to God when we hold captured territory and force citizens to live in sub-standard conditions.
Maybe it is time to start listening to God and stop such horrible behavior.
The story of the Frank Family is horrific and tragic. What makes it worse is that the Nazis believed that they were inspired by God to do such evil. Too many times, we have repeated this story. It is time that we who seek to walk with God, speak out against those who claim that they are committing atrocities under the blessing of God. No land grab, no ethnic cleansing, no acts of oppression are ever endorsed by God.
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