The Anne Frank Project

The session that I attended at The Anne Frank Project on September 11, 2009 was Beyond the Diary: Behind the scenes of a Jewish Family in Hiding with Sophia Veffer. Even though I learned some things about the Holocaust during middle school, there still were things that I did not know. The reason why I attended this session is because I wanted to know how some of the Jews were able to survive the Holocaust and I also wanted to know what Sophia’s experience was like actually being a child during the Holocaust. This session connected to the overall theme of the conference because Sophia talked about what she and Anne Frank both had to go through and how some people in different countries still go through similar situations. Today there are still people who get treated differently because of what they look lie or where they come from. Sophia said that if Anne Frank were still alive she would probably try to make a difference by putting an end to these genocides. I was very glad that I got a chance to sit in Sophia’s session because I got to learn about the Holocaust from an actual survivor. She told us how her and her family had eleven different hiding places. I couldn’t even imagine what her childhood must have been like. She had to get rid of everything she owned even her identity. She also talked about how some Jews were not able to go in hiding and the reason was is they had to have money. The only families that went into hiding had money and they knew non Jewish people who would let them hide in their homes. One thing that really upset me is when Sophia said that the Germens pretended as if they did not know what was going on with the Jews. This really made me sad because how could you know that someone is doing wrong and not care to try to change it and make a difference? There are many different issues going on in the world today. One global issue that is of concern to me is homelessness. Every time I see a person out on the street I always think to