The Guilt of Being Safe

¨I feel wicked sleeping in a warm bed, while my dearest friends have been knocked down or have fallen into a gutter somewhere out in the cold night. I get frightened when I think of close friends who have now been delivered into the hands of the cruelest brutes that walk the earth. All because they are Jews!¨ -The Diary of Anne Frank, p. 54

This quote tells me that Anne really felt guilty that she was safe and so many others like her were not. She felt like she didn't deserve to be safe and she felt bad for her friends who were suffering much more than her. The thought of what had happened to the people she knew really scared her. This quote also shows what she thought of the Nazis, she just thought they were the most ferocious creatures that ever lived! She didn't understand why they did what they did to the Jewish people. I can't imagine going through what she did.

I think this quote connects to the theme guilt. Anne felt very guilty that she had a warm bed to sleep in, yet her closest friends were suffering. She felt like she was cruel for not being in pain like the rest of the Jews. Many people during the Holocaust felt guilty like Anne because they didn't know why they survived, and others didn't. Sometimes we Americans take things for granted as well, without even realizing it. This quote also connects with the poem America by Tony Hoagland http://www.poetryfoundation.org /poem/171302. I think these two connect because sometimes Anne thinks she has it bad because she is in hiding, but she doesn't realize always think about those in the death camps and concentration camps who have it much worse. Same with us in America, we complain over the littlest things and we don't even consider that there are people in other countries with much bigger problems.