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Trace the Information: Are these inspirational words really Anne Frank’s?

SKILL: Trace the Information

DIFFICULTY: Simple

SUBJECT(S): History

Posted: October 13, 2022

Students will trace this inspirational quote closer to its original source to learn that Anne Frank did not say or write these words.

Related Lesson

Verification Skills Lesson 4: Trace the Information (sign-in required)

Link to Example

Anne Frank quote (Pinterest)
Phone of Anne Frank with text reading “Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!” 

Background

Anne Frank, famous for her posthumously published The Diary of a Young Girl, was a German-Dutch woman of Jewish heritage and Holocaut victim. In her diary she documented her life in hiding from 1942 to 1944 during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. The book is included in several lists of the top books of the 20th century and is full of wisdom and candor, with her words often quoted to inspire positivity and hope in the face of hardship.



About the Example

Teacher note: If you cannot access Pinterest, click here for a screenshot of the post that you can share with your students.

The following quote attributed to Anne Frank has widely circulated online:

“Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!” 

A simple search to trace the quote back to its original source will reveal that there is no evidence that Anne Frank said or wrote these words. 



Activities 

  1. Ask students to read the quote.
  2. Have students perform a search using a phrase from the quote, such as: “Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news” Putting the phrase within quotation marks will ensure that only exact matches are shown in the search results.
  3. In the first few results should be a Snopes article: The Anne Frank ‘Good News’ Quote Is Fake. Have students review the findings of the article and answer the following questions:
    • Did Anne Frank say or write the quote? If not, what is the original source?
    • How did Snopes come to their conclusion?
    • Snopes previously debunked two other viral quotes misattributed to Anne Frank and the spokesperson from the Anne Frank Fonds foundation described it as “an ongoing battle.” Why do you think people attribute quotes falsely to Anne Frank? Is it important to identify and stop using these false quotes, even if their message is positive?


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