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'Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife' by Francine Prose

"Last week, a video went up on YouTube that shows the only motion picture images ever taken of Anne Frank. It's just a quick glimpse, a few seconds of film.

A newlywed couple leaves an Amsterdam apartment building. People hover on the sidewalk, watching them go. Then the camera pans upward -- and there, gazing down from a balcony, is Anne Frank.

The date is July 22, 1941. She's 12 years old. It's a year before she and her family will go into hiding, less than four years before she will die of typhus at Bergen-Belsen in the waning days of World War II. We watch her watching, watch her look back over her shoulder, quick and coltish, as if in response to someone inside."

So begins a piece and book review on Anne Frank in The LA Times - who would, had she lived, turned 80 this year.

Read the full piece here.

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