Remembering Anne Frank

Those planning to visit an upcoming Anne Frank national exhibit should be forewarned - prepare for a life-changing experience.

The exhibit, Anne Frank: A History for Today, is hosted by the Barness Family East Valley Jewish Community Center, 908 N. Alma School. It starts Friday, April 4 and ends Thursday, May 1.

"We feel like we've changed the discussion within the community already," said Steve Tepper, executive director of the JCC. "The exhibit gives a better understanding of the situations inside the society that helped cause the Holocaust. The event itself hasn't been replicated, but there have been a number of genocides and ethnic cleansings that have taken place since then, so in a way, history has repeated itself."

The month-long exhibit has historical implications to Arizona - it's the first time it's been shown in the state, and only the second time it will be viewed publicly.

Tepper said the exhibit will require the help of 150 volunteers, eight staff members and eight members of a steering committee.

Hadassah Baldinger, who has volunteered at the center since 1974, said Anne Frank: A History for Today is the most exciting event that has ever taken place at the JCC.

"The Holocaust is too much for some people to digest, but everybody can relate to Anne Frank and her diaries," Baldinger said, whose parents became orphans as a result of the Holocaust. "Anne writes about people in the house, her first kiss, and it's a story where we really don't see the end."

Born in 1929, Anne Frank was a German-Jewish teenager who was forced to go into hiding during the Holocaust. She and her family, along with four others, spent 25 months during World War II in an annex of rooms above her father's office in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Frank's first diary entry is on June 12, 1942, which was her 13th birthday. Three weeks later her family received a call-up notice and was summoned to a labor camp in Germany. They chose to go into hiding rather than face certain death.

After being betrayed to the Nazis, Anne, her family and the others living with them were arrested and deported to Nazi concentration camps. In March of 1945, nine months after she was arrested, Frank died of typhus at Bergen-Belsen. She was 15.

Frank's diary was saved by Miep Gies, a family employee who helped get it published in 1947. It has since been translated into 67 languages and is one of the most widely read books in the world.

The exhibit addresses prejudice and discrimination from a historical and current perspective using Frank's story as a common thread. It includes 11 informational panels in chronological order, starting in 1914 and ending in 1945.

"It gives all the key dates regarding the rise of Germany and the date of Anne Frank's death," said Steve Gerard, volunteer coordinator for the exhibit. "Our goal is for 40,000 to 50,000 members of the public and 10,000 students to see this exhibit."

The display will also include informational panels on atrocities that occurred in Kosovo, Rwanda, Cambodia and Uganda. Additional exhibit features include a Holocaust quilt by Dani Solomon, a student at Arizona State University. The 90-inch-by-105-inch quilt features the faces of survivors and people who perished during the Holocaust as well as Nazi propaganda. Faces of Tolerance, a wall of plaster faces by artist Jennifer Forman Weinstein that include six Holocaust survivors, will also be on display during the 34-day run.

The exhibit will be led by docents trained by the JCC and take approximately 45 minutes to view and about 15 minutes for debriefing.

Docent Joyce Paul said she felt compelled to volunteer for the exhibit because she has had a lifelong fascination with Frank and had relatives who died during the Holocaust.

"I read Anne Frank's diary when I was her age, and I put myself in her place many times," Paul said. "I hope the community will become aware of the freedoms we have and not take them for granted. I also hope the younger generation will understand that genocide still exists and not be afraid to speak up when they see it occur."

For more information and exhibit hours, call (480) 897-0588 or visit www.evjcc.org.