Justin Bieber is a talented singer, dancer, and large-gold-chain wearer, but his guest-book-signing skills can use some work. “Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl,” he wrote in the guest book of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam over the weekend. “Hopefully she would have been a belieber.”
The message was at once confusing and self-absorbed. Would she be a Bieber fan as an elderly woman? Or as a young girl in 2013, had she been born decades later? Or as a young girl in 1945, had Bieber existed back then? And why are you even talking about yourself right now? This is not about you, Bieber.
As a reminder that not all famous people are only capable of viewing the events of the Holocaust through the lens of their own celebrity, here are ten of them who managed to sign the guest book of the Anne Frank House without controversy.
Steve Spielberg: "Never forget! In life and even more in death Anne Frank has held the world in the innocent spell of her truth and wisdom."
Jamie Foxx: "Thank you so much... A day I will not soon forget."
Sharon Stone: "With honor for those in whose memory I visit."
Madonna: "Thank you so much for your time and attention. We learned a lot"
Lenny Kravitz: "Let love rule. It's an honour to be here. Anne lives on."
Chris Noth: "To Ann. Still after all this time - we hear your voice."
Mary Steenbergen: “It is so wonderful to see the care that all of you take to honor Anne’s book, the most eloquent anti-war book ever written.”
Whoopi Goldberg: "So happy to return to the place of peace.”
Kelly Osbourne: "Anne, thank you for telling your story and showing the world what really happened. You changed the world. Thank you for your bravery."
Hillary Clinton: "Thanks for showing me through this 'House with a story' ... a story that needs to be told again and again in honor of Anne Frank and to remind all of us, especially young people, about the terrible cost of hatred among people."
