Dr. Ruth Westheimer

Dr. Ruth Westheimer is the psychosexual therapist who pioneered the field of media therapy.

Anne Frank’s diaries have had a tremendous impact on how I’ve tried to live my life. This year I turned 75, the same age Anne would have been. Like me, Anne was born in Frankfurt am Main. Had the Nazis not come to power, we might even have met and become friends. I lost all of my immediate family to the Holocaust, but because I was one of 300 children from Frankfurt sent to a school in Switzerland, I survived, while Anne, like so many millions of others, did not.

Her diaries touched me because of her optimism. I have tried to have a similar positive attitude in my life, which I take as a duty on behalf of all those whose young lives, both Jews and non-Jews, the Nazis snuffed out. Anne would want to see us forge a new future filled with as much happiness as possible.