Your retelling and comments about Anne Frank and her family touch me very deeply because both my mother and aunt survived the holocaust. My mother was separated from her parents, who were shot and killed, and she endured a 'labor' camp. After the camp was liberated she met my father, a WWII veteran, in Sweden and they married and immigrated to the U. S. Both had died by 2017.
My aunt, who is 96 years old, often speaks with me by phone. She abhors DJT, and knows that his father was a Nazi sympathiser and they refused to rent to non-white applicants. She once said of DJT, "that apple didn't fall far from the tree". I replied, " that apple never fell from the tree!"
Thank you for your interest. My mother's maiden name was Magda Burger and my aunt's name is Martha (don't remember her maiden name). They both were born in Hungary and were in their teens when they were removed from their homes by Gestapo.
This is powerful and speaks to all the feelings many of us have. I've considered many times moving to Norway or Denmark, where four generations ago, my ancestors left to find a brighter future in the United States. If it weren't for a grown daughter who lives here, I would have moved long ago. So, I stay and fight for justice in electing Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Not long now. Thank you for this article.
Great piece and much needed but sadly in these days, the people that need to see it will not read it or believe it. I’m with you. I was an immigrant to America as well and held their virtues high but now they ring hollow and I have moved back to Europe,, where yes, I can feel safe.
Thank you for reading, and I'm sorry you, as I did, felt compelled to leave America. As for who might be swayed by this piece, I only partly wrote it for that reason. I'm not sure if anything I write could sway anyone. But I do think there are a lot of so-called progressives and liberals who purity test every candidate they encounter. As an American citizen, I've never been able to vote for a presidential candidate who wasn't flawed to begin with or didn't leave office a mass murderer and/or complicit in war crimes. I don't know if I will ever get to in my lifetime; I certainly won't be in this election. I hope these potential "voters" are reachable. Whether they like it or not, a misplaced vote or even refusing to vote is an action that bloodies your hands all the same. People will still die all the same. None of us in the West (and most other parts of the world) can escape the horror of what our countries do.
Yeah, I am with you on that, I feel, of course whatever happens in America affects the whole world so I am still making sure I vote from overseas because if a certain someone gets back into the White House, it would be a danger to the whole planet. 😞
A great piece. I wish your script for The Secret Annex had been picked up and filmed.
The feeling when we heard that Trump had won….. never want to feel that again. At the time, I thought him a buffoon. Now, I fear he is just the puppet head of a much darker beast with many tentacles. The spread of that evil is becoming apparent even here, as he opens the door and ushers through those who embrace his bile. What happens in the USA is felt around the world.
People love to believe in conspiracies with no proof. Then, there are the ones where the conspirators just keep telling you what they're doing and nobody believes there's a conspiracy.
However, you dived into Brexit, supported by the same funders and nations that still power Trump. On the plus side, as you say, Britain has less guns, but 14 years of Tories made it a grim and divide shadow of America. Starmer is a mile better than the Tories, but we need to go muddy further to fix it. I write this as a Brit living in the Netherlands.
We've actually moved on to Australia, where I am a citizen. But I will say, the UK on its worst day for us was light years better than any day I spent in the US in the past decade - and I include living through the Tory Government's indifference for the masses dying from Covid.
I'm glad my anxiety came across in the read. Juxtapositions are my stock in trade, I think. You've read PSALMS, so you know this is something I've been working at for a while now.
I think this is the most powerful creative nonfiction you have ever written. I really haven't even begun to absorb it all, but just a few VERY random (some writing related) observations, as I will need to read it several times.
a.) Love the use of the time-shifting structure. It is absolutely fitting to the deeper themes here.
b.) Just FYI....One of my favorite book bloggers (academic and English Lit teacher Simon Lavery) is the most incisive dissector and fillet-er of POLEMICS I have ever read. He is brutal but does it in an incredibly cordial and erudite manner! I recommend his blog MOST highly. I see ZERO polemic here! His link: https://tredynasdays.co.uk/
b.) I felt so sad reading about your Dad's reaction.
c.) I will never feel the same about either political party after Gaza. It wiped away any shred of innocence about what we really were. I am going to vote to PREVENT Trump but feel so differently than I did working on the Harris primary in 2019.
d.) To be honest, if I were not caring for my 92-year-old Mom, I think I would already be back in Rennes, France* for good. I have dual citizenship (an EU passport) and I simply feel more comfortable there, and ironically, MORE able to help and visit far-flung family with the much lower cost of living of a home base there.
* I think what capped it was two summers ago, having a bullet pass thru my real passenger window by me and out the other window after working late, while in an Uber home from my subway in the Washington DC region. Living here is basically like living on a gun range. And I don't see how I can get old and afford all three of food, housing, and going to a doctor with our crazy prices.
Thank you for this incredibly thoughtful and lovely note, Moe. I'll never be able to work out which of these pieces is the most powerful or this or that. I don't know if I'll ever have that perspective. To some degree, each is a gamble I take, sharing with the world. Readers kind of take it from there. I'm glad this one resonated with you so much. It was...difficult to write.
I’ve been telling my non-Black friends that only Blacks and to a degree Japanese know first hand how treacherous the U.S. can be to its own citizens.
What we’re seeing now with DJT and the MAGA movement will play out over the next 15 to 20 years of increasing political violence and a betrayal of the ideals of the U.S.
The Democrats failed utterly and shamefully. They might never get back in power and the party could get outlawed.
Far too many have plain forgotten about stories like Anne Frank or the Schindler Jews or any of the horror stories from a mere 80 years ago.
Cole, I just returned from filming a walkthrough at Buchenwald yesterday January 25th, 2025.. Reading your words feels like standing in the shadow of those moments, the weight of history pressing against my chest. “Nie wieder ist Jetzt” — Never Again is Now — echoes through Germany in this moment, and your reflection sharpens the edges of what that means.
I can’t imagine how difficult it was to write about The Secret Annex while holding the weight of Otto Frank’s story and its unrelenting intersections with our present. Your choice to leave America after 2016 resonates with a decision I might have made myself if circumstances were different. Watching the rise of authoritarianism, here and abroad, demands choices of all of us. Some, like leaving, are tectonic shifts. Others, like writing, become acts of resistance. Both require courage.
Your reflection on belonging and safety resonates deeply. It’s not just the big decisions but also the quiet ones—the small acts of choosing humanity over indifference—that define who we are and who we’ll become. Thank you for laying bare this story with such vulnerability and conviction.
Thank you so much for this lovely, thoughtful note, Jay. It's comments like these that continue to justify my decision to publish this piece despite great apprehension about it. As for THE SECRET ANNEX, it was a brutally difficult project to write and I cried quite a bit. But it also was a gift in these dark times. In some ways, I think Otto made me a better father, which is a small miracle all by itself.
Cole, thank you for sharing that. Knowing how deeply this piece touched you makes your decision to publish it even more profound. I can only imagine the emotional toll of writing The Secret Annex, and I deeply respect the courage it took to engage with Otto’s story so fully.
That he could guide you toward being a better father speaks volumes about the enduring power of his humanity, even through unimaginable loss. What you’ve created isn’t just a reflection on history—it’s a testament to how stories of dignity and resilience can shape us in ways we don’t expect.
I’m grateful you chose to share this with the world, even amidst the apprehension. It matters, Cole. It really does.
I sat in the coffee shop on the ground floor of the Anne Frank House last December and thought about what life would look like leaving the United States for a place like The Netherlands, or somewhere else in Europe, or wherever, after touring the house and seeing the incredible displays and presentations about the Holocaust and fascism. My conclusion was “…we get so soon old and so late smart…” and the thought of leaving our children and grandchildren at this point in our lives precluded that possibility. More interesting is that I had never even considered the possibility of emigrating at any prior time. Thank you for sharing your story about principled courage. Happy to hear it’s working out for you and your family.
Leaving one's country for a new future is incredibly difficult and not for everyone. It hasn't been without its challenges. But I never question whether I made the right decision. Thank you for reading.
This is the most gripping story I’ve ever read! Reading it is life-changing! To say it’s alarming and terrifying is an understatement. Every detail should be absorbed by all Americans so they might realize the consequences of voting for a Fascist by or on November 5‼️
What an extraordinary thing to read about anything I wrote. Thank you for the note, Anthony. Share the story far and wide, if you think it will make any difference. I'm less inclined to think anything on the internet does, except cruelty and cynicism, but who knows?
I’ve read horror stories less chilling than this. Wow. If there was any sanity left in any journalistic forum here this would be in large type of the first page of every newspaper and their websites tomorrow morning. It would be read aloud. Regular programming would be interrupted for the recital of your words.
What an extraordinary thing to read about your own writing, Patris. I just wish I'd never felt inspired to write a word of it. Thank you for reading and for sharing it. One can only hope it changes a mind or two.
Your retelling and comments about Anne Frank and her family touch me very deeply because both my mother and aunt survived the holocaust. My mother was separated from her parents, who were shot and killed, and she endured a 'labor' camp. After the camp was liberated she met my father, a WWII veteran, in Sweden and they married and immigrated to the U. S. Both had died by 2017.
My aunt, who is 96 years old, often speaks with me by phone. She abhors DJT, and knows that his father was a Nazi sympathiser and they refused to rent to non-white applicants. She once said of DJT, "that apple didn't fall far from the tree". I replied, " that apple never fell from the tree!"
Thank you so much for sharing your family's story. Do you mind if I ask your mother's and aunt's names?
Thank you for your interest. My mother's maiden name was Magda Burger and my aunt's name is Martha (don't remember her maiden name). They both were born in Hungary and were in their teens when they were removed from their homes by Gestapo.
A moving piece of writing. I think you've put into words what many of us feel, but have a harder time saying.
Thank you for reading and the kind words. I wish this piece had never been necessary.
Dude. Wow.
Thanks, Josh.
This is powerful and speaks to all the feelings many of us have. I've considered many times moving to Norway or Denmark, where four generations ago, my ancestors left to find a brighter future in the United States. If it weren't for a grown daughter who lives here, I would have moved long ago. So, I stay and fight for justice in electing Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Not long now. Thank you for this article.
Thank you so much for reading and for the lovely note, Kate.
Great piece and much needed but sadly in these days, the people that need to see it will not read it or believe it. I’m with you. I was an immigrant to America as well and held their virtues high but now they ring hollow and I have moved back to Europe,, where yes, I can feel safe.
Thank you for reading, and I'm sorry you, as I did, felt compelled to leave America. As for who might be swayed by this piece, I only partly wrote it for that reason. I'm not sure if anything I write could sway anyone. But I do think there are a lot of so-called progressives and liberals who purity test every candidate they encounter. As an American citizen, I've never been able to vote for a presidential candidate who wasn't flawed to begin with or didn't leave office a mass murderer and/or complicit in war crimes. I don't know if I will ever get to in my lifetime; I certainly won't be in this election. I hope these potential "voters" are reachable. Whether they like it or not, a misplaced vote or even refusing to vote is an action that bloodies your hands all the same. People will still die all the same. None of us in the West (and most other parts of the world) can escape the horror of what our countries do.
Yeah, I am with you on that, I feel, of course whatever happens in America affects the whole world so I am still making sure I vote from overseas because if a certain someone gets back into the White House, it would be a danger to the whole planet. 😞
A great piece. I wish your script for The Secret Annex had been picked up and filmed.
The feeling when we heard that Trump had won….. never want to feel that again. At the time, I thought him a buffoon. Now, I fear he is just the puppet head of a much darker beast with many tentacles. The spread of that evil is becoming apparent even here, as he opens the door and ushers through those who embrace his bile. What happens in the USA is felt around the world.
People love to believe in conspiracies with no proof. Then, there are the ones where the conspirators just keep telling you what they're doing and nobody believes there's a conspiracy.
Well written and said.
However, you dived into Brexit, supported by the same funders and nations that still power Trump. On the plus side, as you say, Britain has less guns, but 14 years of Tories made it a grim and divide shadow of America. Starmer is a mile better than the Tories, but we need to go muddy further to fix it. I write this as a Brit living in the Netherlands.
Here's hoping with you for a better future.
We've actually moved on to Australia, where I am a citizen. But I will say, the UK on its worst day for us was light years better than any day I spent in the US in the past decade - and I include living through the Tory Government's indifference for the masses dying from Covid.
It was for moments such as this the grimace emoji was invented 😬
Whoa. That is a truly great piece, and a very timely and important one.
Thank you for saying so, Michael. It was a difficult one to write and left me more than a little nervous as I worked on it.
Gosh! Thank you for your honesty here. Not sure what to say about this except that I found it an anxiety-inducing read which made it very effective.
Your point is simple but also thought-provoking. There are so many juxtapositions here, I’ll be thinking about it for a while.
I'm glad my anxiety came across in the read. Juxtapositions are my stock in trade, I think. You've read PSALMS, so you know this is something I've been working at for a while now.
Wow, Cole,
I think this is the most powerful creative nonfiction you have ever written. I really haven't even begun to absorb it all, but just a few VERY random (some writing related) observations, as I will need to read it several times.
a.) Love the use of the time-shifting structure. It is absolutely fitting to the deeper themes here.
b.) Just FYI....One of my favorite book bloggers (academic and English Lit teacher Simon Lavery) is the most incisive dissector and fillet-er of POLEMICS I have ever read. He is brutal but does it in an incredibly cordial and erudite manner! I recommend his blog MOST highly. I see ZERO polemic here! His link: https://tredynasdays.co.uk/
b.) I felt so sad reading about your Dad's reaction.
c.) I will never feel the same about either political party after Gaza. It wiped away any shred of innocence about what we really were. I am going to vote to PREVENT Trump but feel so differently than I did working on the Harris primary in 2019.
d.) To be honest, if I were not caring for my 92-year-old Mom, I think I would already be back in Rennes, France* for good. I have dual citizenship (an EU passport) and I simply feel more comfortable there, and ironically, MORE able to help and visit far-flung family with the much lower cost of living of a home base there.
* I think what capped it was two summers ago, having a bullet pass thru my real passenger window by me and out the other window after working late, while in an Uber home from my subway in the Washington DC region. Living here is basically like living on a gun range. And I don't see how I can get old and afford all three of food, housing, and going to a doctor with our crazy prices.
Cheers, will be reading and rereading!
Maureen M. "Moe"
Thank you for this incredibly thoughtful and lovely note, Moe. I'll never be able to work out which of these pieces is the most powerful or this or that. I don't know if I'll ever have that perspective. To some degree, each is a gamble I take, sharing with the world. Readers kind of take it from there. I'm glad this one resonated with you so much. It was...difficult to write.
I’ve been telling my non-Black friends that only Blacks and to a degree Japanese know first hand how treacherous the U.S. can be to its own citizens.
What we’re seeing now with DJT and the MAGA movement will play out over the next 15 to 20 years of increasing political violence and a betrayal of the ideals of the U.S.
The Democrats failed utterly and shamefully. They might never get back in power and the party could get outlawed.
Far too many have plain forgotten about stories like Anne Frank or the Schindler Jews or any of the horror stories from a mere 80 years ago.
Yeah, I don't have to tell you that I've never had a Black friend tell me the U.S. wasn't capable of sliding into or even anywhere close to fascism.
Cole, I just returned from filming a walkthrough at Buchenwald yesterday January 25th, 2025.. Reading your words feels like standing in the shadow of those moments, the weight of history pressing against my chest. “Nie wieder ist Jetzt” — Never Again is Now — echoes through Germany in this moment, and your reflection sharpens the edges of what that means.
I can’t imagine how difficult it was to write about The Secret Annex while holding the weight of Otto Frank’s story and its unrelenting intersections with our present. Your choice to leave America after 2016 resonates with a decision I might have made myself if circumstances were different. Watching the rise of authoritarianism, here and abroad, demands choices of all of us. Some, like leaving, are tectonic shifts. Others, like writing, become acts of resistance. Both require courage.
Your reflection on belonging and safety resonates deeply. It’s not just the big decisions but also the quiet ones—the small acts of choosing humanity over indifference—that define who we are and who we’ll become. Thank you for laying bare this story with such vulnerability and conviction.
Never Again is Now, indeed.
Thank you so much for this lovely, thoughtful note, Jay. It's comments like these that continue to justify my decision to publish this piece despite great apprehension about it. As for THE SECRET ANNEX, it was a brutally difficult project to write and I cried quite a bit. But it also was a gift in these dark times. In some ways, I think Otto made me a better father, which is a small miracle all by itself.
Cole, thank you for sharing that. Knowing how deeply this piece touched you makes your decision to publish it even more profound. I can only imagine the emotional toll of writing The Secret Annex, and I deeply respect the courage it took to engage with Otto’s story so fully.
That he could guide you toward being a better father speaks volumes about the enduring power of his humanity, even through unimaginable loss. What you’ve created isn’t just a reflection on history—it’s a testament to how stories of dignity and resilience can shape us in ways we don’t expect.
I’m grateful you chose to share this with the world, even amidst the apprehension. It matters, Cole. It really does.
If I could get through the tears to say how moving this piece was, and thank you.
You're welcome. Of course, I wish the world hadn't given me any reason to write this and make you cry...
Alas, the world has given us a reason to despair (and always a reason to find joy. maybe this moment, meeting you.)
Right now, crying feels like the most authentic thing for me to do right now, so thank you.
Keep creating. 🙏🏼💙
I sat in the coffee shop on the ground floor of the Anne Frank House last December and thought about what life would look like leaving the United States for a place like The Netherlands, or somewhere else in Europe, or wherever, after touring the house and seeing the incredible displays and presentations about the Holocaust and fascism. My conclusion was “…we get so soon old and so late smart…” and the thought of leaving our children and grandchildren at this point in our lives precluded that possibility. More interesting is that I had never even considered the possibility of emigrating at any prior time. Thank you for sharing your story about principled courage. Happy to hear it’s working out for you and your family.
Leaving one's country for a new future is incredibly difficult and not for everyone. It hasn't been without its challenges. But I never question whether I made the right decision. Thank you for reading.
This is the most gripping story I’ve ever read! Reading it is life-changing! To say it’s alarming and terrifying is an understatement. Every detail should be absorbed by all Americans so they might realize the consequences of voting for a Fascist by or on November 5‼️
What an extraordinary thing to read about anything I wrote. Thank you for the note, Anthony. Share the story far and wide, if you think it will make any difference. I'm less inclined to think anything on the internet does, except cruelty and cynicism, but who knows?
Can’t hurt!
I’ve read horror stories less chilling than this. Wow. If there was any sanity left in any journalistic forum here this would be in large type of the first page of every newspaper and their websites tomorrow morning. It would be read aloud. Regular programming would be interrupted for the recital of your words.
What an extraordinary thing to read about your own writing, Patris. I just wish I'd never felt inspired to write a word of it. Thank you for reading and for sharing it. One can only hope it changes a mind or two.