Anne Frank, Meant to Be?

          Along with another book, I am currently reading, "The Diary of Anne Frank" written by Anne Frank. I have also recently just been cast in the MS51 production of Anne Frank, so I am also looking over the script. Needless to say, I've been thinking about this story a lot recently. Throughout her diary, Anne Frank mentions that she wants to be a writer quite a bit. It's really unbelievable how her dream came true, though not I'm guessing, how she thought it would.
          During Anne Frank's time in the Secret Annexe, she lived with many other people such as her parents, Edith and Otto Frank, her sister Margot Frank, family friends Hermann, Petronella, and Peter van Daan, and a dentist, Albert Dussel. In the end, all of them perish except for Otto Frank, Anne's father. When he returned to Holland after being released from a concentration camp, he had to wait awhile to find out what had happened to the rest of his fellow Annexe members. During that time, he received Anne's diary. Once he found out what had happened to his family and friends, he spent the rest of his life devoted to getting her diary published. Now, Anne Frank's diary is probably the most well-known document of the Holocaust.
          To me, it seems almost unreal that Anne wrote her diary without knowing what would become of it. Her writing was exceptional; the members of her family and life play out such a string of events that it seems as if they were actually written as a fictional story; most of all, the fact that her diary made it's way back to Otto Frank and were then eventually published is incredible. I don't quite know how to put it, but it's almost as if Anne's story was meant to become so infamous. The way that she documented her life, and what she chose to document had ample potential for a story. There's so much detail about the setting, her emotions and thought processes, information about the Holocaust, and such details and quotes from the fellow members of her life that it continuously astounds me that this was a diary she kept without knowledge of what a big piece of history it would become.
          In the very beginning of her diary she writes, "It's an odd idea for someone like me to keep a diary; not only because I have never done so before, but because it seems to me that neither I -- nor for that matter anyone else -- will be interested in the unbosomings of a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl." That line gives me chills. It's almost as if she's foreshadowing the rest of the life of that precious diary that she's writing in. She also writes, "There is a saying that 'paper is more patient than man'... Yes, there is no doubt that paper is patient and as I don't intend to show this cardboard-covered notebook, bearing the proud name of "diary," to anyone, unless I find a real friend, boy or girl, probably nobody cares." Yes, to her, paper was more patient than man. Little did she know that later there would be millions of patient men and women choosing to read her diary, taking in every page. I think it's definitely safe to say that there are tons of people who care about Anne Frank.
          The story of Anne Frank and her diary is astonishing. The many factors of Anne Frank's life and time in the Annexe contribute to an extremely substantial primary knowledge document of the the Holocaust. Out of over six million Jews, Anne's story became famous. Out of all of the members of the Secret Annexe, only Otto Frank survived. Anne's diary made it's way to Otto Frank, the only surviving member of the family, and the Annexe, and because he survived, he was able to work extremely hard to get her diary published. There were so many events that brought Anne's diary here today -- was it meant to be?