The Holocaust remains a significant chapter in world history, as it epitomizes the impact of fascism and bigotry. The Jews, Romanis, Soviets, homosexuals, and other countless individuals who perished during this period are unknown to many people. However, even in 2022 books about the Holocaust are being censored and high-profile TV presenters have courted controvery over their views about it.
Since its publication and subsequent popularity among school curricula, schools have been teaching Anne Frank’s diary to students. Typhus eventually led to Frank’s death at age fifteen in a concentration camp but her legacy lived on. Her father Otto Frank published her diaries years after her demise. He was the only member of his family who survived World War II. Only recently has their potential betrayer been informally identified as a Jewish notary.
My Best Friend Anne Frank is an account that tells Anne’s story from another perspective less known than hers – Hannah Goslar, her best friend also known as “Hanneli”. As of 2022 Hannah is still alive having survived through the Holocaust. My Best Friend Anne Frank is notable for being the first Dutch movie dealing with aspects of Anne Frank’s life since she herself was German/ Dutch. At four years old her family moved to Holland; when Germany occupied Netherlands many Jews found themselves caught within its borders at that time. It was adapted into a movie from the book Memories of Anne Frank: Reflections of a Childhood Friend by American author Alison Leslie Gold published in 1997 which was written with Goslar.
The beginning shows them at home like ordinary girls might look like one day before they will be confined forever between walls and sealed doors. They play hide-and-seek looking for nooks to fit themselves into and this is an ill omen for their future lives in hiding places that smell bad and contain all sorts of dirtiness or filth . Out there Germans are beating up a Jew. That sound is heard by the girls from their house and they cannot step away from it. It has shattered any illusion of peace and tranquillity that might have existed before. This becomes the setting for the film, and while many will already know Anne’s outcome, this time it will be seen through new eyes.
The movie demonstrates female companionship in the wake of Holocaust. Girls apply makeup in front of mirrors as though they don’t notice the golden stars on their chests that identify them as Jews and skip down brightly lit streets in flowery dresses. There are petty fights between young girls: friendship changing into indifference, being lonely and out-of-place. Sometimes Anne can be a little mean to Hannah; she ignores her to hang out with other cool kids, leaving Hannah without any friends or Anne talks about boys too much at times.
Anne Frank is the complete opposite of Hannah; Anne however, while running away laughing before kissing boys in movie theaters. But it doesn’t take long before life at this downtown section becomes sour again. Yet still, the outside universe can be viewed as a medium that reminds people of their present reality. The inside world serves as an arena where girls are free to play and make prank-calls only in their lives outside the camps though. In cold barracks where Hannah presents a stuffed animal to a child, there is no reciprocal welcome like the freezing downpour.
“Another time, I’d love seeing all countries in our world just like an actress or writer,” says Anne Frank in one scene with Hannah talking about being possibly a nurse too. The screen shows them a film. At that moment when it is just her and another boy sitting beside Anne silently, they have got the world by its balls. They talk about passports and leaving this place behind them. When this story finally ends for good, yet then viewers believe into both girls’ beauty which unfolds normal dreams of someone anywhere else in this world. A famous writer meant globally was what she meant after her previous statement as such according to Anne Frank. That does not change such tragic irony.
However it is during these times that dawn on you gradually: these are simply ordinary teenage girls who came of age during World War II, especially when they don’t have stars on their dresses so that they can be whatever they want to be and dream any dream in the world for themselves. Neither do we recognize Hannah Goslar nor Anne Frank here as victims or survivors of holocaust respectively but merely two teenagers existing in a world without labels defined by religion or ethnicity then reading My Best Friend Anne Frank feels so true because we see what could have been if those two had grown up normally.
The first period begins with 1942 moving into 1945 at concentration camps for girls as well. Their playful friendship changes when Hannah finds out that instead of Switzerland, the Frank family was held in this concentration camp all along. On the other side of the wall, Anne is frail and alone while her sister is dead. In these moments, however, the movie starts to break up a bit with awkward panning back into time sometimes too far and spinning away from the introductory scenes which are set in the future.
There is an instant contrast between the harsh colorization at exchange camps and cool colors with brighter happier tones used previously in their lives. An emotional film really, it can be seen by its topic as well as who its characters are but only through coloring does one see how much their lives changed. Until Hannah had realized that Anne is here at the same camp where she is; there was still a little naive hope within her that Anne has made it safely to Switzerland thereby escaping this catastrophe. The Nazis do not seem to care that they are human beings; for example, they could even beat a pregnant woman’s belly during war times like these.
It is a film that has violence lurking in the background, but in reality her father arranged for the family to be given Palestinian papers which gave them certain privileges while in the camp. She explained during an interview that they were not immediately killed only because they had those papers and a passport from Paraguay. Thus, they were sent to an exchange camp rather than a death camp like Auschwitz. This is opposed by Anne Frank who didn’t have such connections, and Goslar threw food and socks over barbed fence walls to aid her friend. This was the last time that she saw her.
My Best Friend Anne Frank is an ambitious film, but it falls short of expectations on characterization. Hannah Goslar’s character lacks substance without Anne Frank being present in the story line. The English title alone suggests that the movie will concentrate on Hannah’s story but when both her story starts and ends with Anne, there seems to be a deliberate lack of meaning for Hannah outside of Anne’s presence in her life. If Anne Frank wasn’t who she really was, maybe this movie would not have had enough depth or plot points to hold onto its entire structure.
However, how Anne Frank is portrayed also shows where its source material comes from: Frank’s diaries. For instance, Anne ditches Hannah for popular girls at school, chases boys around in My Best Friend Anne Frank as if she owns every one of them 52 . Those who view this pity Hannah as shown by the fact that she has no other friends besides this one girl she calls best friend (Hannah). Even though Hannah might consider herself as being friends with Ann; watching the movie may mean something else.
The movie is very ambitious, aiming too high too fast and offering new perspectives on the life of Anne Frank.. It could be argued that some creative liberties were taken with regards to drawing actual people who lived just several generations ago; however it provides an emotional and heartwarming depiction of female friendship that is gentle and touching. Today, as the remaining Holocaust survivors die off, it becomes even more important to remember that tragedy and trauma.
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