Cardiff to commemorate Anne Frank

October 19, 2009 No Comments

The story of Anne Frank is known across the world and her story has helped to teach generations about the Holocaust.

On Wednesday Anne Frank will be officially commemorated in the city’s Alexandra Garden, when Cardiff Council Leader, Cllr Rodney Berman will plant a tree in memory of her.

As well as the special tree planting in Alexandra Gardens, Cardiff will also host a special Anne Frank Exhibition.

Cardiff Council and the Anne Frank Trust UK are bringing the new powerful and captivating exhibition, ‘Anne Frank + You’, to the Old Library, The Hayes from November 5-29.The dramatic multimedia exhibition will powerfully bring the messages and voice of Anne Frank firmly into the 21st Century.

‘Anne Frank + You’ will present contemporary issues, including racism in football, the right to wear religious symbols, bullying and the plight of child soldiers. The exhibition also includes interviews with British teenagers and photographic documentary evidence.

The exhibition has many audio visual experiences as well as a journey of fact finding and self exploration.

Cardiff Council Leader, Cllr Rodney Berman, said: “I’m very honoured to plant a tree in Anne Frank’s memory, with the tree having added poignancy as this year Anne Frank would have celebrated her 80th birthday.

“Anne Frank is a symbol of all those who lost their lives during the Holocaust, and her diary ensures future generations continue to remember them.”

“It’s a privilege that the Anne Frank Trust has chosen Cardiff to host the Anne Frank + You exhibition. The exhibition will help people understand a key point in history and will also tackle subjects that are relevant today.”

Annelies Marie “Anne” Frank was a Jewish girl who was born in the city of Frankfurt am Main in Weimar Germany, and who lived most of her life in or near Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. She gained international fame posthumously following the publication of her diary which documents her experiences hiding during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II.

Anne and her family moved to Amsterdam in 1933 after the Nazis gained power in Germany, and were trapped by the occupation of the Netherlands, which began in 1940. As persecutions against the Jewish population increased, the family went into hiding in July 1942 in hidden rooms in her father Otto Frank’s office building. After two years, the group was betrayed and transported to concentration camps. Seven months after her arrest, Anne Frank died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, within days of the death of her sister, Margot Frank. Her father Otto, the only survivor of the group, returned to Amsterdam after the war to find that her diary had been saved, and his efforts led to its publication in 1947. It was translated from its original Dutch and first published in English in 1952 as The Diary of a Young Girl.

The diary, which was given to Anne on her 13th birthday, chronicles her life from 12 June 1942 until 1 August 1944. It has been translated into many languages, has become one of the world’s most widely read books, and has been the basis for several plays and films. Anne Frank has been acknowledged for the quality of her writing, and has become one of the most renowned and most discussed victims of the Holocaust.

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