Cultural depictions of Anne Frank

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The following lists some references to the Holocaust-era Jewish diarist Anne Frank in popular culture.

Image of 5535 Annefrank taken by the Stardust space probe
Image of 5535 Annefrank taken by the Stardust space probe
  • Time magazine considered Anne Frank one of the most influential people 20th century.
  • A picture of Anne Frank appears in LIFE's 100 Photos that Changed the World.
  • 5535 Annefrank — an asteroid named after Anne Frank
  • Philip Roth — U.S. novelist whose novel The Ghost Writer (1979) imagines Anne Frank surviving World War II and living anonymously as a writer in the United States.
  • On their 1980 album Fig. 14, Boston college rock band Human Sexual Response included a song called "Anne Frank Story", which relates the unusual emotional experience of viewing the Anne Frank House as a tourist.
  • Winona Ryder's character in the movie Mermaids (1990) is asked by Christina Ricci's character what she wishes for, to which she replies, 'I wish I'd known Anne Frank.'
  • The Bernard Kops play Dreams of Anne Frank (1993) re-imagines her concealment in Amsterdam, using elements of fantasy and song.
  • Neutral Milk Hotel — US indie rock band whose 1998 album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea was inspired by the lead singer Jeff Mangum's affection for Anne Frank. It includes the songs, Holland 1945 ('The only girl I ever loved/ Was born with roses in her eyes/ But then they buried her alive/ One evening 1945/ With just her sister at her side/ And only weeks before the guns all came and rained on everyone'), In the Aeroplane Over the Sea ('Anna's ghost all around...'), Oh Comely ('I know they buried her body with others/ Her sister and mother and five hundred families/ And would she remember me fifty years later/ I wish I could save her/ In some sort of time machine'), "Ghost" ("She was born in a bottle rocket, 1929"), and many other songs on In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.
  • A Punk rock band from Boulder, Colorado named themselves Anne Frank on Crank, which by their explanation suggests they are "disenfranchised, yet somehow empowered."
  • Marc Chagall — illustrated a limited edition of The Diary of Anne Frank.
  • Outkast — US hip hop band whose track So Fresh, So Clean from their album Stankonia, makes a reference to Anne Frank('I love who you are/ I love who you ain't/ You're so Anne Frank/ Let's hit the attic and hide out for two weeks').
  • Anne Frank Conquers the Moon Nazis, a tongue-in-cheek webcomic by Bill Mudron, about a resurrected Anne Frank rebuilt cybernetically to defend the Earth from an extraterrestrial Nazi assault, ran online until 2003. [1]
  • Geoff Ryman's novel 253 features an elderly Anne Frank as a passenger on the London Underground
  • In 2004 Robert Steadman composed a twenty-minute musical work for choir and string orchestra entitled Tehillim for Anne which commemorated Anne Frank's life with settings of three Psalms in Hebrew.
  • The comedy show Robot Chicken ran a tongue-in-cheek sketch depicting a preview for a teen film about Anne Frank. It referenced many teen film clichés (such as casting Hilary Duff as Anne, and having her dot the letter i in her diary with hearts) and included a teen pop song. It ended with the tagline "Nazis are so uncool".
  • The Animated show Family Guy had Peter discussing how his appetite had previously gotten him into trouble. The scene cuts to black and white footage of Anne Frank and family crouched in an attic, with the Nazis downstairs looking for them, only to hear a loud crunch. They look over, to find Peter loudly and slowly eating potato chips, (implying he might alert the Nazis to their presence.)
  • The city of Boise, Idaho erected an Anne Frank memorial in response to concerns about neo-Nazis making a home in northern Idaho cities such as Coeur d'Alene [2] [3]
  • In one episode of the 1990s TV show My So-Called Life, Angela, after her class read The Diary of Anne Frank, says she thinks Anne Frank was lucky because "she was trapped in an attic for three years with this guy she really liked".
  • In one episode of Arrested Development, Michael suspects that "[his] son is hiding Ann in the attic". He voices this suspicion to his sister Lindsay, who replies "From who, the Nazis?"
  • In the film Clerks II, Randal Graves constantly says that Anne Frank is "the deaf, dumb, and blind girl" despite repeated statements by Dante Hicks that he is referring to Helen Keller.
  • In the animated film, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Ike Broflovski is hid in the attic by his brother Kyle Broflovski during the American/Canadian War. Ike was a Canadian child adopted by the Broflovskis.
  • In the film Wag the Dog, European sirens are referred to as "Anne Frank sirens".
  • In Douglas Coupland's book Generation X, two of the characters have a discussion about World War II. Anne Frank is brought up as an example (the only one given) of someone who became famous because of the war but didn't personally profit from that fame.
  • In The Venture Brothers Episode Tag Sale! You're It, Henchman 21 and Henchman 24 have a debate on who would win in a fantasy fist fight, Anne Frank or Lizzy Borden.
  • In The Sarah Silverman Show Sarah recites a portion out of the diary in the Little Miss Rainbow Pageant.
  • In an episode from the first season of Six Feet Under, when Ruth wakes Claire up early so they can surreptitiously leave their relatives' house in order to get out of having to attend a spinning class with them, Claire says "Jesus, mom, I'm starting to feel like Anne Frank!"
  • In an episode of 8 Simple Rules Bridget gets the role of Anne Frank in the school play.
  • The book The Freedom Writers Diary (and its 2007 film adaptation) biographs the lives of high school students whose English teacher encourages them to read The Diary of Anne Frank. Through their experience with the book, the students then raised funds to bring Miep Gies, the woman whose house Anne Frank hid in, to their high school to speak with them of her experience with Anne. The events portrayed in the book and the film are actual events due to the impression caused by reading the diary.
  • The Indonesian progressive rock band have Discus in their second album ...tot Licht a 19 minute track titled "Anne" adapted from the diary.
  • American Songwriter Ryan Adams wrote a song about Anne Frank entitled "Dear Anne" which has yet to be released on an album

[edit] References

  1. ^ Excelsior Studios Retrieved March 17, 2006.
  2. ^ Idaho drafts Anne Frank to fight Neo-Nazi image Reuters, April 11, 2000. Retrieved March 17, 2006.
  3. ^ Idaho Human Rights Education CenterRetrieved March 17, 2006.
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