00:00Thank you for saying that you find her a fascinating lady, because I find her fascinating too.
00:04I think she was this very progressive, modern woman who absolutely wanted to give her daughters an education to be
00:15freethinkers, to be able to debate, to be intellectuals in the world, to carry themselves with dignity, but to have
00:26a profession that even men could.
00:31She was a very solid person, you know, she came from, she loved music, she loved theatre, she loved opera,
00:39she encouraged Otto Frank to send their daughters to Montessori schools, she would make, the children were invited to come
00:48to the adults table, which in those days was very rare, and to be able to debate, bring in, create
00:55a conversation, disagree with.
01:00Although she sometimes found Anne very insolent, and you know, they created this, almost sometimes she's like, what is this
01:07little monster, you know?
01:08I think Mrs. Frank and Otto Frank knew how to nurture her talent, and also Margot, the other daughter, was
01:15extremely brilliant.
01:19So, they, they had this open-minded, circulatory kind of intelligence, where they wanted debate at the tables, and they
01:28were often criticised by friends who would say, come on, your daughters are insolent, why should they speak at the
01:32table?
01:33Well, you know, so it wasn't that they were making the children into enfants rois, which is awful, you know,
01:39but they were inviting their children to be very wise, and to invest them with thoughts, language, music, culture, literature.
01:51And I think, in a way, Mrs. Frank, you know, we know a lot about her through Anne, but it's
01:57through Anne's point of view that they had this turbulent, tumultuous relationship.
02:03And Rocky, very Rocky, it's a conflict, no? It had a conflictual kind of relationship.
02:08And then, on the other side, you have Miep's point of view, Miep, who became a daughter to Mrs. Frank,
02:17who also became like a mother figure, because when they were in the annex, and Mrs. Frank had her breakdown
02:23after, you know, two years of being locked up there, and not seeing light, not going out, being in the
02:31same room as their other daughter, Margot, having no intimacy, sharing a bathroom, sharing everything they had,
02:37and losing maybe sometimes belief in other human beings, because the other guests didn't always behave so well, you know,
02:43they kept the best pieces for themselves, they sometimes hid some of the rations for themselves, whereas the Franks didn't,
02:51they opened it up, they opened it up.
02:53So, Edith had a breakdown, and we know that a nervous breakdown, or a depression, voila, and Miep came and
03:02helped her, and was very much, I think, one of the only people Mrs. Frank could speak to.
03:08So, they became like a very, it was a symbiotic relationship.
03:12So, we wanted to give life to her.
03:14We wanted to give life to her.
03:15Sure, sure.
03:16To make her into someone real.
03:17You know, I think one has to be careful with all these iconic figures, like Anne, and the Frank family,
03:24and Otto, and Mrs. Frank.
03:26It's not to make them into ice figures.
03:31I think that this story resonates, because it's also through the point of view of an ordinary heroine, the everyday
03:41heroine,
03:42and all the Nazis were trying to do to the Jews was try to humiliate them, try to take away
03:47their freedom, take everything away from them.
03:50So, in a way, this story, for me, it's very important, because there are, all over the world, there are
03:57wonderful, wonderful resistance.
03:59There are lots of people who are do-gooders, and are trying to help people.
04:02But the problem is that we've never had more fascists than today, and the fascists are not hiding, as you
04:08know, in Italy.
04:08So, I'm very surprised that this is still happening today, that we, as human beings, are submitting and being submissive
04:22to this stupidity,
04:24because fascism is all about closing, closing down.
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