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A) Anne Frank was Dutch, not German.
B) If I'm writing a story set in a particular country, and I want to use very authentic-to-that-country names, I usually go to that country's Parliamentary website and pick ten or twelve last names, and ten or twelve first names, and mix them up. I recommend this as a technique (although in countries where religious and cultural groups have very specific naming conventions, one might want to be careful--"Michel Saint-Denis al-Hadjj" is a character name that's bringing a lot of baggage and backstory along with it!)
On the thread's main topic, I like the "beginning in the midst of a press conference" as an opening much more than a chunk of exposition.
B) If I'm writing a story set in a particular country, and I want to use very authentic-to-that-country names, I usually go to that country's Parliamentary website and pick ten or twelve last names, and ten or twelve first names, and mix them up. I recommend this as a technique (although in countries where religious and cultural groups have very specific naming conventions, one might want to be careful--"Michel Saint-Denis al-Hadjj" is a character name that's bringing a lot of baggage and backstory along with it!)
On the thread's main topic, I like the "beginning in the midst of a press conference" as an opening much more than a chunk of exposition.