ELUL 24 · DAY 24 of 29 · SEPTEMBER 4, 2026

After translating my parents’ love letters from Westerbork and Bergen-Belsen, I put the Holocaust away. If it was a book, it went into the basement. I stopped watching Holocaust movies and, embarrassingly, never even saw Schindler’s List. But you can’t put away what’s in your blood and your soul.

When I was 25 and had the great fortune to meet Elie Wiesel, he said to me, “I don’t envy your responsibility.” At the time, I had no idea what he meant.

Now I understand. To truly honor my father and mother, my work would not end when they were gone. In some ways, it would only begin.

My father, Jack Polak, died with me holding his hand at age 102 in 2015. As his faculties declined, my sense of responsibility deepened. Right before he died, he sat up straight, reached out, and called for his sister, who had died on the train from Bergen-Belsen to Tröbitz. Since then, he visits me in prophetic dreams and visions.

In 1977, he started the Anne Frank Center USA with Otto Frank. In 2020, my daughter, my husband, and I started Anne Frank LA.

Even though history repeats itself, and I no longer believe that “Never Again” is possible, I do know that we can teach young people that all acts and words of hate are unacceptable. Through action, they can help others understand the same.

Perhaps this is the responsibility Elie Wiesel saw in my eyes: that I must bring forward lessons from a tragic past, to help create a more holistic world.