Why Should I Despair

(From Diary of a Young Girl_Anne Frank, Wednesday, 3 May, 1944)

We're having a holiday from politics

absolutely nothing to announce

Boche has disappeared- in cat's heaven

we have to last out of one cup of porridge

Vegetables- rotten boiled lettuce

with these, rotten potatoes

A delicious combination!

What, oh what, what is the use of the war?

Why can't people live peacefully together?

Why all this destruction?

Millions spent daily on war

Not a penny available for medical services, artists, or for poor people

Oh, why are people so crazy?

I don't believe that the big men, the politicians, the capitalists alone, are guilty of the war.

Oh no, the little man is just as guilty.

Destroy. Kill. Murder. Rage.

Everything that has been cultivated, grown -

destroyed and disfigured.

Mankind will have to begin all of again.

Why then should I despair?