Anne Frank Award Acceptance\u00a0 (February 2026)<\/p>\n
Thank you VERY MUCH for this incredible honor.<\/p>\n
Anne Frank wrote a DIARY that she hoped one day would be a book\u2026
\nShe wrote: \u2018Imagine how interesting it would be if I published a novel about the Secret Annex.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
It was discovered by Miep Gies who gave it to her father who DID turn it into a book. A book that has been read by millions worldwide. And if you\u2019ve visited the Anne Frank Center here then you may have seen the display where the diary was translated into 70 languages<\/u>.<\/p>\n
I am eternally grateful to the Anne Frank Center for embracing our book. I\u2019ve heard from SC teachers who tell me: we\u2019ve used \u201cThe Diary of Anne Frank\u201d and Elie Wiesel\u2019s NIGHT, but now we have YOUR book and it\u2019s more meaningful because it is a South Carolina story.<\/p>\n
Folks: I would not be standing here tonight if it weren\u2019t for the trust the Goldberg family put in me to share their parent\u2019s story. So I\u2019d like to ask Henry, Karl and Esther to stand and be recognized<\/u>.<\/p>\n
IF YOU WILL INDULGE ME FOR A MOMENT With the family\u2019s blessing, I created an education website about both Felix and Bluma (which we have shared with hundreds of educators) and our book for young adults\u2014WE SURVIVED THE HOLOCAUST– was a natural next step.<\/p>\n With my royalties from the sales of our book, we have distributed books now to every middle and high school library in the state. And with my occasional speaking fees, we\u2019re giving educators classroom sets of the book to use in instruction.<\/p>\n Often I am invited into those classrooms to answer student\u2019s questions. But I always start with MY OWN series of questions: who was Adolph Hitler; how many Jews died in the Holocaust; who knows who else collaborated with the Nazis; what is propaganda; what is antisemitism?\u00a0 It is these last 3 questions that students don\u2019t know the answers to.\u00a0 That\u2019s when I hold up our book and say: the answers are here, in this book.<\/p>\n With antisemitism on the rise here and around the world, we cannot rest on our laurels\u2026as you can imagine we have much more work to do. My mission\u2014and that of the Anne Frank Center continues.<\/p>\n 4 Years ago, upon first learning of the Anne Frank Center\u2019s existence, Doyle Stevick asked me: \u201cwho else needs to know about us\u201d I gave him a lengthy list (as I recall) and I am willing to bet all of you are here tonight.<\/p>\n Thank YOU for being here. Thank you for acknowledging our work.<\/p>\n I have one simple request: if you have not YET read our book please consider it.<\/p>\n Thank you to my family and friends. Lastly, they say behind every successful man is a strong woman. That woman, my wife is Melanie Baker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Anne Frank Award Acceptance (February 2026) Thank you VERY MUCH…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-41758","page","type-page","status-publish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/41758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41758"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/41758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41761,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/41758\/revisions\/41761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIn May of 2000, Felix Goldberg (of blessed memory) described his harrowing<\/u> Holocaust experience at the annual Yom HaShoah ceremony. He handed me his speech and said (in that beautiful Polish accent)\u00a0 \u201cFrankie\u2014do something with this.\u201d\u00a0 Little did I know at the time, how meaningful his request was<\/strong>.<\/p>\n