Today, June 12th, is Anne Frank’s birthday – and this year she has been especially near my heart.

First, back in February, I reread her The Diary of a Young Girl shortly after Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Reading it again as a woman plenty old enough to be her mother, it was even more devastating, as so much of it contains the ordinary thoughts of a teenaged girl, in terrifyingly extraordinary circumstances. Knowing the end of the story makes it difficult to turn each page.

Having revisited her story, first, I want to say that it came to my attention – again and again – as I set out a month later to begin my Banned Books project. Though her book is not on the list I am reading through, it shamefully appears on many banned book lists. There is no justification for this.

Second, after I reread Diary, and with Holocaust Remembrance Day on my mind, I set out to *slowly* work on something else related to the Holocaust – I’m not sure the shape of it yet – only that I’m in it.

Remembering also a patient I cared for, a Holocaust survivor with the tattoo heartbreakingly on her wrist, I have been reading more, make notes, wanting to write more about this.

So far I’ve read:

• Elie Wiesel’s Night (another moving reread)
• Esther Safran Foer’s I Want You To Know We’re Still Here: A Post Holocaust Memoir
• Victor E. Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning
• Tova Friedman’s The Daughter of Auschwitz

I have many more on my to read list, in my library holds, and on order.

As I continue on, today, we remember Anne Frank on this, her 95th birthday.

Rest well, sweet girl.

Be well, everybody. Take care of yourselves and each other.

Grace and Blessings.