Anne Frank, whose poignant adolescent diary made her one of the most enduring icons of Jewish life during the Holocaust, would have celebrated her 80th birthday this Friday. To mark the occasion, an age-progression "photograph" was created to show what the young author might have looked like if she had not met her tragic concentration camp end.
The picture of a gentle-looking, elderly Anne was created for the Anne Frank Trust UK by Michigan firm Phojoe, according to a Sunday report by Britain's 'The Daily Telegraph'. Phojoe specializes in generating age-related pictures for use in missing persons cases in the United States.
The 15-year-old girl, along with her older sister Margot, died of typhus and starvation in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, just a few weeks before the camp was liberated by British forces.
The Trust will use the new image as part of its education campaign to encourage British students to consider what kinds of lives they want to lead, and to teach youngsters about the atrocities of the Holocaust as well as racism.
The Trust will also launch a competition for children to write a letter to their own 80-year-old selves in the future.
In an interview with Anne's childhood friend, Eva Schloss, Schloss stated that while she had a hard time coming to terms with an aged photo of her young friend, it made her think of Anne's leadership abilities and affability. However, Schloss also said she believes Anne would have been more embittered by the world and her own experiences had she survived, and would not have worn the pleasant demeanor represented in the photograph.
Schloss's mother married Otto Frank, Anne's father, after World War II, when it was clear that Otto's wife and daughters had been murdered by the Nazis. Schloss credits Otto with easing her out of the depression and hatred she felt after she survived Auschwitz.
Anne Frank's diary, which was returned to her father by Miep Gies, one of the Dutch family friends who hid the Franks in the attic of their office building, was first published by Otto in Dutch in 1947. Since then, it has been translated into over 60 languages, and read by millions of people worldwide.
On February 15, Miep turned 100 years old. Her son says she is healthy, and avidly follows world events.