Recently I picked up “The Diary of a Young Girl” from the library. That’s the official name, but I’ve always known it as “The Diary of Anne Frank.” Anne Frank was a Jewish girl, a teenager, living during the height of Nazi occupation and World War II. She lived with her family as well as another family in a secret attic in the Netherlands. Unfortunately, Anne and the people she lived with were found out, and most of them did not survive the concentration camps they were sent to.

I picked it up because I had never actually read through it before. I’ve always been told stories about Anne, but I’ve never really read her story. It wasn’t due to my school not teaching it; they definitely did. I’m guessing because I was on an advanced English and history path, I wasn’t able to read it.

Through the first couple of entries I read, I experienced a slew of many different emotions. Fear struck my heart, along with a certain sadness each time she mentioned the words “after the war.” It also sent me into a bit of my own existential crisis. I started asking questions like, “Did she know she was going to die?” “Did she think she was safe?” Perhaps we’ll never know, or perhaps I just need to keep reading to find my answers.

Another thought hit me when I was reading it, as well. This is a book that people want to ban from schools along with countless other books. I read things such as “1984” and “Animal Farm” and “Fahrenheit 451,” all of which I recently learned could be on many schools’ lists of banned books.

To me, it’s sad. Most of the lessons I’ve learned throughout my life are from literature. Whether it be fun fictional books such as “Percy Jackson” or educational books such as the classic literature of “1984” and “Hamlet.” They were important contributions to my understanding of the world and what can happen if we let the scenarios we see in the books play out in real life.

However, the history I learned in class is probably a far cry from the history kids learn in class now. With all the stories of how people want certain subjects banned from the classrooms and the history books, it’s hard to watch. I’m always asking myself, “Why would they want to prevent their children from learning about these subjects?” “Why would they want kids to not know these things until they’re stuck in a circle of peers not knowing why something in the news is so controversial?”

Let’s face it. There’s no way to paint a rosy picture of the Holocaust or slavery or what happened to Indigenous peoples when colonizers came to the country. The things I watched in class were graphic, and I understood very well that these subjects in history were not meant to be taught in a fun way. Many people died and were treated as subhuman just because of their race or their ethnicity. It’s not pretty, and it shouldn’t be taught as something that was pretty.

Of course, these subjects need to be taught at age-appropriate levels. I’m not saying show a kindergartener graphic movies about these subjects. The best way is to ease children in slowly. Use age-appropriate videos about these subjects until they get to high school where they’re fully able to grasp the concepts taught and the messages they should get. I learned about slavery as early as fifth grade and about the Holocaust as early as the eighth.

This is a lot different from the columns I usually write, but if there’s one thing I’m passionate about it is history and the way it is taught. We shouldn’t let these stories go untaught and we should give voices to those who lived through the most terrible times in history such as Anne.

Alyssa Ochss is the page designer at The Alpena News. She graduated from Oakland University and loves pop culture and all things nerd. You can reach her at aochss@thealpenanews.com.