Anne Frank Exhibition opens in Melbourne
The Anne Frank – A History for Today exhibition which tells the remarkable and inspirational story of Anne Frank and her family under Nazi rule in Amsterdam during World War II has opened at the Jewish Holocaust Centre in Melbourne.
Ronald Leopold, director Anne Frank Foundation in Amsterdam, Boyd Klap, Chairman, Anne Frank Exhibition Australia, Pauline Gandel and John Gandel. Photo: Simon Shiff
The diary of Anne Frank has inspired millions of people worldwide – it is a story of hope and resilience.
The exhibition tells the story of the Frank family against the political climate of the day. The 11-panel exhibition presents an historical timeline, parallel with the personal story of Anne and her family. Central to the exhibition will be a replica of Anne’s diary along with a large scale pictorial representation of her bedroom in the annex.
Ronald Leopold
Olga Horak
The Short Life of Anne Frank, a film produced by the Anne Frank House will be shown. All visitors will receive a catalogue with space to record their thoughts and reflections
On 6 July 1942 Anne Frank and her family went into hiding in an annex behind Otto Frank’s office. The entrance to the annex was hidden behind a bookcase. On her thirteenth birthday Anne received a diary, in which she meticulously wrote what was happening around her, her thoughts, desires, dreams and hopes, from June 1942 until August 1944.
In August 1944 the hiding place of the Frank family and their friends was betrayed by an unknown person. They were arrested, separated from each other, and sent to different concentration camps. Anne died, aged 15, in Bergen-Belsen. Only her father survived the war and, upon his return, decided that his daughter’s diary should be shared with the rest of the world.
Anne Frank – A History for Today was created by the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam (the Netherlands), established in 1957 to preserve and maintain the secret annex, where Anne and seven other Jews hid for more than two years during the Second World War. The Anne Frank House maintains the annex as a museum. The exhibition closes on April 28.
Gandel Philanthropy is the principal supporter of the exhibition.
In Sydney, Ronald Leopold the executive director of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam spoke at the Sydney Jewish Museum which will host the exhibition in 2014. The audience which included a high proportion of Dutch survivors or their descendants heard Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen survivor Olga Horak talk about her time in Bergen-Belsen where she was held captive at the same time as Anne Frank.
