In case you missed it, Justin Bieber stopped by the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam on his Eurotour and wrote the following message in the guest book:
“Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a belieber.”
First reactions to this note can be summed up with some combination of, “What?” “Really?” “Seriously?” and “Who’s Anne Frank?” (depending on the age group). Most commentators and tweeters viewed the remark as narcissistic and inappropriate. Others, however, have pointed out that Anne Frank was a fan of popular music. In fact, Frank wrote in her diary about her dad bringing her posters of contemporary artists that she hung up while in hiding. These posters are still displayed in the museum, and Bieber surely saw them during his hour-long tour.
Among Bieber’s defenders was Abraham Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League, a group committed to calling out anti-Semitic sentiment wherever it exists (and sometimes where it really doesn’t). As a rule of thumb, if Foxman says it’s not anti-Semitic or offensive to Jews, it’s probably not.
I have to agree with Foxman here. As a Jew and non-belieber, I have no interest in defending anyone who takes the tragedies of the Holocaust lightly. But I’m not sure what more Bieber, as a decidedly un-scholarly pop artist, could have contributed to Frank’s memory than a reminder that, in addition to being a beautiful, inspiring author who was wise beyond her years, she was a young girl, too. The tragedy of the Holocaust, and the power of her diary, derives from precisely this truth: the victims were people like everyone else, targeted for no good reason whatsoever.
Anne Frank was a persecuted Jewish child, but she was also just a child. She could well have enjoyed mediocre, transient pop music in cute man-boy form. Bieber honored her memory by reminding us, in today’s terms, just how truly cruel the Holocaust was.
So I’ll say, for the first and probably last time, thank you, Justin Bieber.
