What Now? Anne Frank, Fascism, ICE, and Allyship

As ICE agents stormed into Minneapolis, Portland, and elsewhere, rounding up immigrant families and killing two protesters, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz noted the similarities between the raids and “that story of Anne Frank”—the young diarist who chronicled years in hiding before she died in a Nazi camp. He was promptly smacked down by spokespeople for some Jewish groups who criticized his "false equivalency." But how false is it, really? Join us for this discussion, book signing, and reception on fascism, ICE, allyship, and the lessons of Anne Frank for us today.

This event is part of Lofty Pigeon Books' What Now? series, where we convene local experts to talk with our community about politics, society, and more in the aftermath of the 2024 election. Copies of The Many Lives of Anne Frank will be available for purchase and signing.

Praise for The Many Lives of Anne Frank

Ms. Franklin has done a wonderful thing here. While giving an analysis of the obliterating phenomenon of ‘Anne,’ she continually points back to the real-life girl in a way that feels fresh and persuasive. . . . [Her] technique . . . gives verve and texture to this fine book.”—Meghan Cox Gurdon, Wall Street Journal
“With sensitivity and assiduous research, [Franklin] constructs a vivid cultural history that advocates for a reevaluation of Frank, not as a symbol or a saint but as a human being and a literary artist.”—New Yorker, “Best Books of the Year”
“Clearly and powerfully told. . . . One of the best accounts of the many lives—and afterlives—of Anne Frank.”—David Herman, Times Literary Supplement
“Humane, generous . . . a rare combination of lightness and equanimity. . . . It is unusual for a book to have a companion as faithful and elegant as the one Frank’s diary finds here. Franklin has performed an invaluable service—or, to put it another way, a mitzvah.”—Alexander Nazaryan, Los Angeles Times
“Trenchant. . . . An essential look at the diarist’s legacy.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A book that should be read and discussed for generations. . . . Read this book. You won’t regret it.”—John Warner, Chicago Tribune

Ruth Franklin’s criticism and essays appear in many publications, including the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, the New York Review of Books, and Harper’s. Her latest book, The Many Lives of Anne Frank, was one of the New Yorker’s best books of 2025 and has just come out in paperback from Yale University Press. Her previous book, Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life (2016), won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography and was named a New York Times Notable Book of 2016, a Time magazine top nonfiction book of 2016, and a “best book of 2016” by The Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle, NPR, and others. She is also the author of A Thousand Darknesses: Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction (2011), a finalist for the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Writing.

Michelle Goldberg has been an opinion columnist at the New York Times since 2017. She was part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize for public service for reporting on issues of workplace sexual harassment, and has also won a Front Page Award from the Newswomen’s Club of New York for opinion/criticism and the Hillman Prize for opinion and analysis. Her first book, Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, was a finalist for the Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism and The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power and the Future of the World won the J. Anthony Lukas Work-In-Progress Award and the Ernesta Drinker Ballard Book Prize.

Goldberg is an on-air contributor at MSNBC, and her work has appeared in publications including The New Yorker, The New Republic, The Nation and many others. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and children.

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