The following premise sounds like something a history professor might ask students: What would happen if you combined the flu epidemic of 1918, the stock market crash of October 1929, and the hardships endured by civilians around the globe during World War II?
Unfortunately, it is not a mere hypothesis to discuss. This combination describes a stark new reality facing everyone, including tens of millions of young people in the United States. Nearly all have suddenly left college or their local school and are mostly confined to their homes.
Almost overnight, the world they knew has disappeared and been replaced by a twilight zone of locked classrooms, closed dormitories, empty sports arenas, and vacant sidewalks. It’s disorienting and depressing. They grapple daily with limitations in each aspect of their young lives.
People of every generation have important decisions to make in this crisis. Even routine transactions, such as buying groceries or visiting a loved one, come with risk. Some young people have resisted or ignored calls for “social distancing,” perhaps considering themselves invincible to COVID-19. Some enjoyed spring break regardless of the consequences. Photographs documenting their misguided adventures at bar crawls and beaches generated public outrage. A few even went online to taunt older and more vulnerable members of society by labeling the virus “#BoomerRemover.”
These bad choices endangered lives, but do these images represent the majority of teens and young adults? It’s more likely that the younger generation is scared and searching for answers amid the uncertainty. An excellent source for insights on this complex subject is a teenager that died 75 years ago.
It’s the perfect time to discover, or get reacquainted with, Anne Frank.
The Diary of Anne Frank is one of the most widely read nonfiction books in the world. Translated into around 70 languages, it’s been adapted many times for stage, film, and television and used in schools across the country to help children understand the meaning, and horror, of the Holocaust.
Her story is more relevant than ever. As the Nazis strengthened their grip on Amsterdam and its Jewish population in 1942, the Franks (including 13-year-old Anne, her older sister Margot, and their parents) and several others went into hiding. For 25 months, the group navigated the complications of a solitary existence in a secret annex. Anne chronicled her experiences and innermost feelings as they struggled to survive.
They endured until Aug. 4, 1944, when the German secret state police discovered and arrested them all. Everyone except Anne’s father, Otto Frank, died in concentration camps.
Anne’s timeless words, discovered in the annex and printed after the end of World War II, have outlasted the evil regime that took her life. It was the ultimate triumph over the enemy surrounding her.
Today, all of us are also surrounded. We can’t touch or see the coronavirus, but its deadly impact is evident. We are fighting more than one “invisible enemy.” Young adults must avoid harmful foes like complacency and apathy. While remembering never to put others at risk, they also cannot be paralyzed by fear. Striking the proper balance is a task that even their elders will find challenging.
Let’s hope the younger generation can capture the same spirit that emerged in the days after Pearl Harbor in 1941 and after Sept. 11. In this battle, the answer is not necessarily going to a recruiting office or wearing a uniform. There are countless other ways to enlist in the effort while minimizing the danger to themselves and others.
“Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news,” Anne wrote in her diary. “The good news is that you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can live! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!”
The young and the young at heart should strive to reach their full potential. That is more evident now than ever during this troubled spring and can be fulfilled by following in the footsteps of Anne Frank.
As Anne Frank wrote, “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.”
Kendall Wingrove is a freelance writer from Okemos, Michigan.
