Margot
I’m a survivor yet I am still haunted by my past. Any footsteps behind me, I hear boots… loud and heavy, I quicken my pace for I’m sure it’s Nazis, I hear “Walk, Jood,” whether anyone else can hear it or not. Oh, how your memory can haunt you. I’ve changed my name as that was what our plans were when we parted many years ago, Peter and I. And now I wait. I wait in Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love for Peter while working at a law firm for Josh. There are Jews all around me but when I came here; I tried to put my past behind me. Working in the law office, the client’s cases got a bit too close for comfort, they brought up past issues and current struggles for me and it was hard to be professional when I was hiding behind a mask. My sister is famous, I’m sure you have heard of her. I don’t know what happened to my diary, but I can only hope someone still has it. Sure, I’ve read my sister’s diary even before it was published in book form. My book copy is worn and shabby from use. The marquee down the road, cries out in red bold lettering, my sister’s book which was just made into a movie. I’m hesitating about going; everyone is talking so much about it. I don’t know if I can sit through it, the poster boards are wrong, the title is the only thing that’s right, The Diary of Anne Frank.
I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was interesting how Anne Frank had a sister and how she struggled to hide herself even though she was free. Working at a Jewish law firm, she still did not want to be identified and she hid in so many different ways. Her lies, one right another until the truth was buried so far under. Her sister was a powerful figure and here she was hiding out, I thought that was incredible. Working in a law office of all places, where people want justice or where you’re having to defend individuals who are in the wrong, what a struggle she dealt with every day. Her past was still haunting her. The story is not a powerful, dramatic story but one that quietly creeps up on you and leaves you shaking your head and filling your heart. Great passion and grace lifted me. A wonderful story.
“What would happen to a Jew who pretends not to be a Jew?” “Well, this is America in 1959. Not Germany during the war. The Nazis are gone now.” Are they? Are they ever gone?.......”Miss,” the rabbi calls after me and I stop and turn and look at him again. “God knows,” he says. “You can’t hide from God.”
