4th grade was the first time I read “The Diary of a Young Girl.” Even as a ten-year-old without much exposure to world history, and U.S. history beyond its most basic level, I empathized with a young girl not much older than I who, as a result of persecution, had to go into hiding or would otherwise face death. In eighth grade, I read the play adaptation of this diary in my English class, and we were told to write an essay on this question: “If you were in the place of those in hiding, what would you miss most?” For some reason, this question has stuck with me throughout the years. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s a question most people want to avoid. But when you go to Germany, like I did, and you see a concentration camp and the graves of the unknown and the memorials and the bunkers; when you see neo-nazi groups not just in a square in Munich, but within your own country, and you see the bitterness and hatred and the “us and them” complex- you have to put yourself in the place of the persecuted. …show more content…
I read the diary of Anne Frank in fourth grade, I read the play out loud in an eighth grade English classroom, and now I am performing in an adaptation of this story as Mrs. Van Daan. All the years of this story sticking with me have led to this moment in my life. I am combining my love for theatre with the opportunity to share this true story, which is something I never imagined I would be capable of. And the question that posed to me when I was 13 years old, about the age of Anne Frank when she and her family went into hiding,