Prometheus stole fire, the basis of all human achievement and industry, from the gods, and presented it to humanity, borne by a Torch of fennel. Prometheus had no undue respect for the gods, and openly defied their false logic. When a sacrificial gift was demanded of man against his wishes, Prometheus tricked Zeus, for which mankind was punished by the deprivation of fire. By recovering that which was unjustly lost, the Torch is the weapon by which Prometheus and humanity fight back against the unreasoned tyranny of above.

To defy Power, which seems omnipotent;
To love, and bear; to hope ’til Hope creates
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates;
Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent;
This, like thy glory, Titan, is to be
Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free;
This is alone Life, Joy, Empire, and Victory.
- Percy Shelley: Prometheus Unbound (1820)

The Torch is held aloft by the Statue of Liberty, whose proper name, ‘Liberty Enlightening the World’, stands as a testament to its purpose and the purpose of the nation to whom it is dedicated. Possibly the most famous structure in the world, fittingly,

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
- Emma Lazarus: The New Colossus (1883)

It is fitting that our inaugural This Day in Liberty is taken from the darkest chapter in human history, at a time when liberty, and therefore all of civilisation, came closest to being extinguished. Into that darkness, light was cast by the forces of freedom, who fought - and won - in North Africa, in the Pacific, in Burma, and in the skies over Europe. However, none was shed on the oppression of the human spirit more than by a single Jewish girl in Amsterdam.

On 12th June 1942, Anne Frank was given a small black and red book as a birthday present from her father. From that moment, she kept it as a diary, adding entries compulsively. At first, she discussed relatively ‘normal’ events, but, as the family was forced into hiding, and the occupation became more intolerable, Anne moved to more moving matters: the role of God, the nature of liberty, and the insurmountability of the human spirit.

On 4th August 1944, Anne and her family were arrested, the SS having been tipped off of their whereabouts by an unknown informant. In a fate to be shared by six million fellow Jews, they were murdered in the Nazi death camps. However, long after her death, her tale, and that of her yearn for freedom, lives on. We owe it to her memory to advance its cause, and never to endanger it allowing ourselves to be ruled by tyranny.