Just to make clear: The Doctor and other Doctor Who related things, like the Tardis, the Sonic Screwdriver etc. are owned by the BBC. Anne Frank I suppose is owned by herself. And also the speech delivered by the man on the platform at the Memorial for the murdered jews of Europe, is the actual speech which was held that day. So obviously I don't own that either. All the persons mentioned in the speech are real people, who again own themselves... I think thats it. Well, on with the story!
ps. Since I had to translate the speech from German, it's probably not completely correct, so sorry for any mistakes.
Anne woke up because she thought she heard a weird sound. Like the wind. But that couldn't be real. At this time of night no one should be here. What if it was the Germans, she thought. She got up, almost too scared to walk, but she didn't want to wake up her family. She slowly walked towards the closet that divided the attic and the door to the real world. As she pushed the closet away and opened the door slightly she saw a man standing outside in a peculiar outfit. He was wearing a suit with red braces and a bow tie. He wasn't a German that's for sure. He looked at her and when he saw her frightened look he spoke.
"Don't be scared Anne, trust me I'm the Doctor."
She looked at him a little funny and then stepped out of the doorway.
"Doctor who?"
He smiled at her like a little kid who had just been offered ice cream.
"I do love it when people say that." He muttered almost to himself. "Just the Doctor." He then said to Anne.
"You name is Doctor?" she asked confused.
"Yes I just told you that." He said
"Okay Doctor, why are you here? No one is supposed to be here. Is that your telephone box? How did you get it up here?"
"Hold up, that's a lot of questions. I am here to show you something. Yes that is my telephone box. And I teleported it up here."
"Teleported it, how? Not even the Nazis have that kind of technology."
"It's because I'm from the future and this is a Tardis, the most powerful ship in the universe." the Doctor beamed.
"The future! How exiting. Tardis, that's a funny name. What does it mean?" she asked exited
"Oh you're a quick one. T-A-R-D-I-S, Time and Relative Dimensions in Space, Tardis. Now come one so much too see, lets start."
"What do you mean, so much to see? Were are we going?" She said worried.
"To the future of course." He cheered
"But I can't leave my family, they will know I'm gone and think the Nazis took me." She said sadly
"You know the thing about a time machine is, that no matter how long you run, you can still be home before you leave." The doctor assured.
Anne looked at him for a moment and then went to the telephone box and opened the door. When she stepped in she looked around her. The Tardis was much bigger on the inside.
"How, but, it's not the same size. It's bigger on the inside." She marveled.
She turned towards the Doctor and asked:
"Why are you doing this, and how did you know me?"
"Because Anne I can't save you, no one can. You're a fixed point in time. But I can give you the most important thing in the world. Hope. You're giving in, you're almost giving in to the hatred, and you must never do that."
"But how can I go on when everyone I knew is telling me that I'm wrong, that I'm not worth as much. Just for being born this way. How can you believe in humans when they tell me that God hates me? If God hates me why did he create me this way?" Anne sobbed.
Tears were starting to run down hear cheeks and she looked as if she was about to break down. The Doctor took her into his arms to comfort her.
"Then then, little one. God doesn't hate you. God doesn't hate anyone, that is the whole idea of him." He said quoting one of those American talk show hosts that Amelia had liked so much.
"Really?" Anne asked hopefully.
"Of course!" the Doctor reassured, "now come on we must be going or else we'll miss the guided tour!" The Doctor cheered.
"I thought you said it was a time machine." Anne smirked to him
The Doctor just kept on fiddling with the controls to the Tardis and soon it started spinning. Anne gripped the thing closest to her, trying to avoid falling.
"Is it supposed to do this?" Anne yelled as the Tardis continued throwing itself from side to side.
"Of course it is! It wouldn't be fun if it was a quiet trip would it."
Anne just rolled her eyes and smiled to herself "This man must surely be crazy." She thought. Not that she minded, this was the most fun she'd had in a long time.
"So where are you taking me?" She asked after the Tardis had steadied itself.
"Berlin, December, 2012."
Anne looked at him confused, but before she got a chance to speak up, the Tardis landed. Rather roughly she thought, but she wasn't about to criticise a man who had just flown thought the fabric of time and space in a police box. The Doctor led the way to the door and as he opened it, the sight of lights everywhere met her. Kurfürstendam, as the sign read, was filled with Christmas lights, people smiling and Christmas baking everywhere. As she stepped out of the Tardis she could smell the cookies and hear laughter all around her. Some man came up to her and offered her Glügwein.
"Danke" She said as she accepted it.
He smiled at her and turned towards his other costumers. Anne turned towards the Doctor, who had already bought several Christmas cups. She smiled at him and laughed. How could she be unhappy now! Anne looked at her feet and suddenly she started feel a little tired and before she could say anything the Doctor was leading the way back to the Tardis. When they stepped in the Doctor locked the door and then turned towards Anne.
"Now lets find somewhere you can..."
He stopped himself when he saw Anne was already fast asleep. He picked her up and carried her to a room in the Tardis where she could sleep. He laid her down on the bed and took of her shoes. He then put the covers over her and closed the door.
When Anne woke up, she looked around, not recognising the room she had slept in. At that moment she heard someone knocking on the door.
"Yes?" she gulped a bit scared, not knowing who it was.
Then she saw The Doctor's head peeking through the door.
"Oh hi, did you sleep well?" he asked. But before she could answer he continued. "Great, now lets go. I'm going to show you something exiting! You're going to love it! This time we're in Berlin on May 10th 2005."
Anne laughed and got up. She put on her shoes and left the room with The Doctor. As they walked down the halls of the Tardis, she could see a giant library and next to that a swimming pool. As she kept looking in wonder observatories, dining halls and forests passed by and The Doctor's head didn't even turn! I wish I lived his life. Traveling through time and space, never looking back. Just being able to be wherever you wanted to,she thought. When they got to the control room The Doctor gave her a coat, so she wouldn't be cold, and then they walked out the door.
Anne and The Doctor walked down the snow-covered streets. In the day light Anne could really see the beauty of future Berlin.
"Here's the bus. Come on hurry!" The Doctor did as he said, hurried, towards the bus and Anne followed as fast as she could. They walked up to the bus door and a man asked for the ticket. The Doctor took out some identification and showed it to the man.
"Oh, sorry sir. We didn't expect you. Please take a seat." the man smiled nervously and continued to ask for others' tickets. The Doctor and Anne sat down in the back of the bus, waiting for the driver to start. Anne looked out one of the windows when a girl, about her age, started talking to her.
"You remind me of someone." she said, "Have I met you before?"
"Um, I don't think so. I haven't really been here before." Anne answered.
The girl looked at her, obviously confused. Like she could tell that Anne was both lying and telling the truth.
"Oh, okay. Sorry for bothering you." She then turned back to herself and started talking to some woman sitting next to her. It was almost as if the moment Anne stopped focusing on their conversation, they started talking a different language. But as soon as Anne started listening again, they went back to talking German. Anne tried not to be too confused. She had just travelled trough time, but still she asked The Doctor:
"Doctor, which language are we talking?"
The Doctor looked at her and then said:
"Depends. That girl right there", he said and pointed at the girl who had just spoken to Anne, "is talking Danish so is the guide and the rest of the bus. I am talking Gallifreyan and I suspect you are talking German."
"But how is that possible?" Anne protested. Everyone sounded German to her.
"Because of this thing." The Doctor took out I small sort of metal stick, that definitely looked like something from the future.
"It's a sonic screwdriver", he continued, "It is a multi-functioning sonic tool, that can do about anything you would want. Very useful, except for on wood, I really need to upgrade it so that it'll work on wood." The last sentence The Doctor mumbled more to himself than anyone else, but Anne was to busy marvelling at this new technology. How amazing! She thought. A frown appeared in her face when she remembered something The Doctor said before.
"Doctor what is Gallifreyan?"
"It's the language of the Time Lords, I am a 1200 year old Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous at galactic co-ordinates 10-0-11-0-0 by 0-2 from the galactic zero centre."
"That sounds fantastic. Gallifrey is a very pretty name." Anne remarked joyfully
"Yes, and I guess very fitting, the shadow has always been the best place for a Time Lord." Anne didn't really listen. She was more focused on how it looked.
"Is it very beautiful there?"
"Yes, very, you couldn't imagine. From space it looked very rust coloured, but when you landed the sky was a beautiful orange. It was full of snow-capped mountains, red grass and trees with silver leaves that reflected the morning light and made it seem like that forest was on fire. Of course we also had green forests. There were golden fields and even red deserts. The climate was like the Serengeti all year around. We had two stars, the main one was in a golden red colour. The second would rise from the south and light up the mountains so that you could barely look at them. Oh and you should have seen Pazithi Gallifreya, one of our moons, it was so bright it would shine even during the day." The Doctor was lost in memories of his old home and didn't notice Anne frowning because the fact that he used past tense.
"Why are you talking like it doesn't exist anymore?", Anne asked.
"It's because it doesn't." The Doctor suddenly looked several hundred years older. He looked out of the window in the bus, and his normally so cheerful and childlike eyes were heavy with the knowledge of an old man. Suddenly 1200 years of living didn't seem so desirable. But as fast as The Doctor's mood had changed, it changed again. He was back to the cheerful child Anne had grown to like quite a lot.
"Oh oh, close your eyes!" He said excited, "We're there now." Anne did as he told her and closed her eyes, excited to see what it was The Doctor had wanted to show her. She could feel the bus stop. Then The Doctor took her hand and back and led her out the bus. He suddenly stopped and Anne asked:
"Can I look now?" she was getting impatient and really wanted to see was in front of her. The Doctor turned her 30 degrees and then said:
"Okay, open your eyes."
Anne opened her eyes and the first sight that met her was a sign that read:
"Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas"
Memorial for the murdered jews of Europe
Anne looked up at a man who was standing on a platform. She then looked around her. Big stone rectangles, all grey and the ground was wavy, as if you were walking on the sea. The man started speaking and Anne, who was very confused at this point, turned her attention towards the man.
"Dear guests from all parts of Europe, representatives of the Jewish communities and families, ladies and gentlemen!
Two days ago, on May 8th the Federal Republic of Germany, celebrated the end of war and the liberation of our country and our continent from Hitler's barbarism.
Today we open a monument that recalls the worst, the most heinous crime of Nazi Germany, the attempt to destroy an entire race. This monument is dedicated to the murdered Jews of Europe.
This is a monument at the border, a memorial in transition - in more ways than one.
This monument is, the highest decision that is made in this republic: a decision of the German Bundestag. As the decision of Parliament with large bipartisan majority fell on June 25th 1999, it was preceded by years of intense debate - initiated by a group of citizens from the centre of society and supported by their unwavering commitment.
The decision for the memorial in Berlin was one of the last passed by the Bundestag in Bonn before moving. It was the decision of the first commemorative project of a reunified Germany and a confession that this united Germany acknowledges it's history, namely by remembering in it's capital, in it's centre, remembering the greatest crime in it's history. The centre of that city, although it was not the place of the mass murder, was the place the systematic murder of millions of people, was planned, organized, and administered.
"No other nation has ever undertaken", wrote the American Judaic scholar James E. Young, "to reunite on the stony ground of the memory of their crimes or to place the remembrance of these crimes at the geographic centre of their capital,"
Maybe the intensity of the debate around the monument explains and justifies some resistance. Contradiction and debate will no doubt accompany the memorial.
The Holocaust affected the "limits of our understanding," has been aptly said. This memorial operates at this level. It is the expression of the difficulty of finding an artistic form that could ever be adequate to the incomprehensible, monstrosity of Nazi crimes, and the genocide of the European Jews. It blurs the line between a memory that cannot in any way "be handled" and a memory, which must have meaning for the present and future.
This should be a place of remembrance, and should therefore exceed the limit, which is on one hand, between cognitive information and historical knowledge, and on the other hand, an empathy with the victims, mourning for the dead - so both surely belong together. This monument - the location of the information - could allow us today and for future generations to make the head and heart of the inconceivable event, which can still recount eyewitnesses with great emphasis, it must in the future museums, and art have convey. We are currently in a generation, a sea of change, as some say, Nazism, war and organized genocide are becoming less living experiences of remaining witnesses and more and more the events of history; switching from personal, individually certified memory and to a collective memory. The monument is an expression of this transition.
It is not, as some fear, the end, the stone endpoint of our public engagement with our Nazi history. Rather, it transfers this disturbing memory into the cultural memory of the Germans, without diminishing it's power to unsettle. The monument will remain a bone, the dispute over it will continue, I am sure. It does not refute all the arguments that have been leveled against it. It makes no monopolistic claim to remembrance, for information you should visit the authentic places where the murderous events happened and other memorials.
Ladies and gentlemen, the opening of such a memorial is not a cause for festive celebration. But it is for me as a supervisor but an occasion to thank all those involved - that the decision of the Bundestag is now realised.
The impetus for this memorial came from a society initiative. I want to on behalf of Lea Rosh and Eberhard Jackel thank the Sponsors and - for their patient impatience, and their unwavering, stubborn dedication with which they have carried the project to date.
My thanks go to the architect Peter Eisenman for his brilliant design and, yes, - also for his patience.
My thanks to Dagmar von Wilcken, the quiet, sensitive and meticulous designer of the information.
My thanks go to the Yad Vashem memorial and all other friends who have supported us in many ways. That Yad Vashem honours us; it challenges us for the future.
My thanks to the Jewish families, the survivors of the Holocaust who have opened their personal archives to us and provided us with the memories of their lives and suffering.
My thanks to the Board of Trustees, the Advisory Board, and the office of the Foundation who have all worked diligently and discussed.
And last, but not least, my thanks to all who were involved in the very practical realisation of the construction: the supervising construction companies, craftsmen and construction workers.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Memorial of the Murdered Jews of Europe is a walk-in sculpture, which - in my experience - radiates a great emotional force; it is an architectural symbol of the incomprehensibility of the crime.
It is - in the true sense of the word - an open art. Open to the city, the physical environment in which it goes. Open to its many individual uses. It provides a sensual and emotional sense of isolation, distress, and threat. It enforces nothing.
I hope that people, especially young people, feel the indefinable expressive power of this monument and will be affected and touched by it and asking to visit the Information Centre.
Here, the victim's names, faces and fates. And then go back through the field of stone and remember the victims.
So it is meant for: Not a kind of negative nostalgia, but a commemoration of the sacrifice, and that we in the present and future have an obligation: to a culture of humanity, recognition and tolerance in a society, in a country where we can be different than others without fear."
At this point Anne was crying, she now understood why The Doctor had taken her here. Her world was a broken one and it looked as if there were no hope. Anne now knew that she was going to die by the Nazi's hands, but that wasn't why she was crying she was crying because of the beauty of the future. And now that she saw her world in a different light, she was ready to go back.
"Doctor I would like you to take me back now." Anne said steadily.
The Doctor looked at her and then nodded. He took his arm around her and they started walking back to the Tardis. Anne never once looked up; she just kept walking, not because she didn't care where she was going, but because her thoughts were all swarming inside of her head. They reached the Tardis and Anne looked up to see where she was going. She positioned herself so that she wouldn't fall when the Tardis started spinning, and in a matter of seconds The Doctor announced that they were back. The Doctor walked over to Anne and kissed her forehead.
"Now, you remember to stay strong right." The Doctor pulled her in for a hug and put his hands on her shoulder, and shook her a bit to wake her up. "Right?"
Anne looked at The Doctor and smiled.
"Of course Doctor, you too. And always remember me Doctor, please. I would like for my memory to live on somehow."
"Oh my sweet Anne, you have no idea." The Doctor said to himself as Anne walked out the Tardis. She had just gotten out when she stopped and turned towards The Doctor.
"Doctor I think it would be a good idea if you found someone to travel with, you don't seem like the kind of alien who'd be better of alone. And I think it would be good for you."
The Doctor just smiled at her and waved goodbye, he knew he wasn't going to be able to travel on his own much longer, but he just hadn't seen anyone he would like to take on a journey.
Anne walked through the door into the attic and pushed back the closet to cover her tracks. The clock revealed that she was back at the exact same time she left. Almost as if it didn't happen, she thought to herself. She snuck back to her bed and laid down with the covers over her. She then took out her diary and thought about her journey with The Doctor. She thought about how much the world had changed. She then thought about Nazi Germany and awful world that she lived in. "I guess the people from the future and the people from today aren't that different. They were just born in different times. I don't think half the people who are Nazis now would be it if they were born in the future. Maybe the world needs this, so it can grow."
"…Because despite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart."
After that Anne fell asleep and a couple of hours later the sound of German shouts, and the scared faces of her family, waked her up.