Saturday, June 06, 2009

Anne Frank, aged 80



This was in the Telegraph today and I found it quite interesting:

The 'age progression' image shows the diarist as she might have appeared today had she not died of typhus and starvation at the age of 15 in Bergen Belsen in March 1945, just a few weeks before the Nazi concentration camp was liberated by British troops.

Created for the Anne Frank Trust UK to mark her birthday on Friday - using the same techniques developed to artificially age missing people such as toddler Madeleine McCann - it is hoped the picture will help inspire Britain's school children to think about the kind of lives they would like to lead, and to remember the loss of six million people in the Holocaust.

The Trust will launch a competition for children to write a letter to their 80-year-old selves, one of a number of projects being run across the world to mark the anniversary and challenge racist attitudes...

Anne's half-sister Eva Schloss, a survivor of Auschwitz who played with her as a child in Amsterdam, saw the aged image for the first time on Thursday.

"I must say I was a bit shocked... I don't really know why," she said.
"It is a beautiful lady, very gentle, very kind-looking with this gentle smile.

Dr Schloss believes the loss of her mother and sister and Anne's experiences in Auschwitz and then Bergen Belsen would have left their mark if she had lived, however.

"Personally I think she would have been more bitter and disappointed. I don't see anything of this in the picture."