Bearing Witness: A Deepened Study of The Diary of Anne Frank in Middle School English

This spring, Grade 6 students at Friends Seminary have been engaged in a powerful and multifaceted exploration of Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. As part of their English 1 curriculum, students have been reflecting on the enduring importance of personal narratives and what it means to serve as a witness to injustice. The unit has been grounded in a broader understanding of history, language, and empathy—integrating instruction with moral inquiry and historical reflection.

At the heart of this work is English teacher Yuxi Lin, who completed a four-day professional development trip to Amsterdam in the summer of 2024. While there, she visited key historical and cultural institutions including the Anne Frank House, the Jewish Cultural Quarter, the National Holocaust Museum, the Jewish History Museum, and the Verzets Resistance Museum. She also explored the topic of looted Jewish art and post-war recovery efforts. Yuxi documented her journey with photographs, videos, and daily journal reflections, all of which she has since incorporated into her curriculum.

Yuxi’s experience has proven especially meaningful as students grapple with questions about Anne’s world—what life in the Annex might have felt like, what was happening outside its walls, and how Jewish families in the Netherlands experienced Nazi occupation. Her firsthand insights have allowed students to engage more deeply with the diary’s content, and to better understand the stakes of bearing witness to history.

On Wednesday, April 16, the entire sixth grade visited the Center for Jewish History to view Anne Frank: The Exhibition, thanks to the coordination of English teacher Leanna Phipps. The exhibition featured a full-scale recreation of the Annex, furnished to resemble how it would have appeared during the two years Anne and her family were in hiding. Students explored Anne’s life from her early years in Frankfurt, through the rise of the Nazi regime, the family’s move to Amsterdam, their arrest, and Anne’s eventual death at Bergen-Belsen at the age of fifteen.

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