For decades, the life and imagery of Anne Frank have served an array of political and personal agendas, some quite far removed from their original context of the German-occupied Netherlands of World War II. Over time, Frank’s writings and likeness have inspired comparisons to the siege of civilians during the Balkan wars, the events of the Rwandan genocide, and the suffering of political prisoners incarcerated in Apartheid-era South Africa. And now, influencers and pundits on both the political right and left arearguingabout whether Frank and her family would be considered “undocumented” and therefore subjected to ICE detention—if they were living and hiding in the contemporary United States.

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The Frank family was considered stateless according to the standards of the time. But her story importantly shows us today that when a certain population is being targeted by a state government, few officials parse out the particulars of one’s immigration status—and whether a person is stateless or not ultimately ceases to matter as the crackdowns escalate.

Shortly after Hitler and his government seized power in early 1933, the