Was Your 13th Birthday Present This Monumental?

On this day (June 12) in 1942, a young girl in Amsterdam turned 13 years old. For her first birthday as a teenager, she asked for and received a small book which was meant to hold autographs. The girl had noticed the red and white plaid book in a nearby shop window a few days earlier. She intended to use the book as a diary.

The girl's name was Anne Frank. Based on an early entry in the diary, the prospect of writing her thoughts down on paper was somewhat strange and novel to young Anne. Who could possible care what a 13-year-old had to say, she ponders: For someone like me, it is a very strange habit to write in a diary. Not only that I have never written before, but it strikes me that later I, nor anyone else, will care for the outpouring of a thirteen year old schoolgirl.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. The words written in the girl's simple handwriting would open the eyes of millions of people to the sad realities of racial hatred.