Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
In this 1976 clip from the long-running BBC children’s show Blue Peter, the UK presenter Valerie Singleton travels to the now-famous Amsterdam house where the teenage Anne Frank hid from Nazi persecution in a secret annex alongside seven other Jews, including her immediate family. The UK presenter Lesley Judd then interviews Anne’s father, Otto Frank, who was the only person hiding in the annex who survived the Holocaust. In conversation, he discusses how his daughter’s diary came to be, his decision to publish it, and what he learned about Anne after her death through her written words.
While impactful for viewers of any age, the archival clip draws out how Anne Frank’s story continues to be an important way to teach young people about the Second World War and the horrors of the Holocaust, personalising the unfathomable magnitude of the tragedy via her powerful story, eloquent words and relatable worldview. It also highlights the gentle, enduring heroism of Otto Frank, whose decision to carry on his daughter’s voice into the future, beyond her all-too-few years on Earth, continues to reverberate long past his own death in 1980.
Video by BBC Archive
video
Animals and humans
The wild tale of a young animal keeper, an angry tiger and a torn circle net
10 minutes
video
Technology and the self
Why single Chinese women are freezing their eggs in California
24 minutes
video
Beauty and aesthetics
Can you see music in this painting? How synaesthesia fuelled Kandinsky’s art
10 minutes
video
The ancient world
Petty squabbles and bloody battles – the life of an ancient Roman soldier
18 minutes
video
Astronomy
The remarkable innovations inspired by our need to know the night sky
5 minutes
video
Knowledge
Why it takes more than a lifetime to truly understand a single meadow
11 minutes
video
Art
Why Diego Velázquez needed a lifetime to paint his enigmatic masterpiece
31 minutes
video
Earth science and climate
There’s a ‘climate bomb’ ticking beneath the Arctic ice. How can we prepare?
8 minutes
video
Political philosophy
The radical activist couple who fought for social change in the courtroom
21 minutes