The message in The Ignored Lessons of Anne Frank In Bettelheim's essay, The Ignored Lessons of Anne Frank, Bettelheim criticizes Anne Frank's father for the way he kept all the his family in a family's attic. Bettelheim says he isn't criticizing Mr. Frank, he just wants his readers to reexamine how we read history. In his essay, Bettelheim convinced me that we, as readers, should revisit the text and realize all the possibilities the Franks had. In the essay, the author points out that most of the other Jewish families who decided to go into hiding did so separately, so if one family member were to be captured, the others might still have a chance. As Bettelheim points out, the Franks' main desire was to continue living together as if they were free, in the same way they lived before. At the time I was reading The Diary of Anne Frank, I never thought there was another way they could live. I never thought they should split up. Another important issue that the author raises is the fact that the Franks were better informed than other Jews about the extermination camps. The other Jews were unaware of these camps, which made it a little more reasonable that the others would want to stick together as a family. The Franks, however, knew this and still did nothing to prepare for the Nazis. The author also had some ideas for the Franks to prepare for the invasion when the Nazis arrived, even though they stayed together. He suggested that Mr. Frank might have had some form of protection, such as a gun; Mr. Frank could have tried to hold off the police when they arrived, while his family could have tried to escape to safety. Sure, Mr. Frank would have been killed or beaten, but he could have done a better job of protecting his family. The biggest point Bettelheim makes is why he thinks the film and play are such a huge success. He states that the ending in which Anne says, "Despite everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart," is fictional. She says this sentence is unlikely considering she starved to death, had seen her sister meet the same fate before her, knew her mother had been murdered, and had seen countless thousands of adults and children be killed..