Anne Frank - Aotearoa New Zealand
Annelies Marie Frank (1929 - 1945) was a German-born Jewish girl who kept a diary in which she documented life in hiding in Nazi-occupied Netherlands from 1942 - 1944. Her family and all in hiding in the Secret Annex were discovered and arrested on 4 August 1944. Anne and her sister Margot died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp shortly before it was liberated. Anne's father Otto was the only one of the secret annex to survive the war, being liberated at Auschwitz by the Soviet Army. Otto had Anne's diary published in 1947.
Anne Frank's diary has been translated into over 70 languages with te reo Māori being the 73rd language translation.
Anne Frank's diary has been translated into over 70 languages with te reo Māori being the 73rd language translation.
Read below on the three Anne Frank projects in Aotearoa New Zealand
Anne Frank Memorial, Wellington, New Zealand
Unveiling, 13 June 2021
On a cold, windy Wellington day about 200 people gathered in a park – a former quarry – to see the Deputy Prime Minister unveil a challenging new Anne Frank memorial. The creation of university design lecturer Matthijs Siljee consists of three chairs – two facing each other, the third facing away, excluded.
Wording on the chairs and plaque, in te reo Māori and English, explains how depicting prejudice and exclusion links to Anne Frank and the Holocaust. Siljee spoke of the frightening speed with which Anne Frank was overtaken by Nazi Germany’s genocide of the Jews: “Within 15 years she was born into democracy and died in barbarity.”
He also commented that, as the chairs are made of not only steel, but a tough recycled plastic, “You have all contributed by handing in your soft plastic bags.”
Unveiling the memorial, Deputy PM Grant Robertson told the audience that the Holocaust was the worst example in our times of discrimination and hatred. “Yet we see examples of that around us every single day. So every single day it’s our job to call that out, to say it’s unacceptable. We have to stand up for the values that Anne Frank wrote about – a world of hope, courage, respect and inclusion.”
On a cold, windy Wellington day about 200 people gathered in a park – a former quarry – to see the Deputy Prime Minister unveil a challenging new Anne Frank memorial. The creation of university design lecturer Matthijs Siljee consists of three chairs – two facing each other, the third facing away, excluded.
Wording on the chairs and plaque, in te reo Māori and English, explains how depicting prejudice and exclusion links to Anne Frank and the Holocaust. Siljee spoke of the frightening speed with which Anne Frank was overtaken by Nazi Germany’s genocide of the Jews: “Within 15 years she was born into democracy and died in barbarity.”
He also commented that, as the chairs are made of not only steel, but a tough recycled plastic, “You have all contributed by handing in your soft plastic bags.”
Unveiling the memorial, Deputy PM Grant Robertson told the audience that the Holocaust was the worst example in our times of discrimination and hatred. “Yet we see examples of that around us every single day. So every single day it’s our job to call that out, to say it’s unacceptable. We have to stand up for the values that Anne Frank wrote about – a world of hope, courage, respect and inclusion.”
To read the full article and for more photos go to NEWS
Below: 8 minute video
Location of the Anne Frank Memorial, at the top of Ellice St, Wellington.
Te Rātaka a Tētahi Kōhine
(The Diary of a Young Girl, in te reo Māori), Anne Frank,
translated by Te Haumihiata Mason, 2019
Available in paper back and e-book
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“Anne Frank's diary provides a powerful message against discrimination, a message that is just as relevant now as it was when it was first written. I welcome this new translation ..."
Rt Hon. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern Anne Frank Diary translation launch - June 12 2019
The commemoration of what would have been Anne Frank’s 90th birthday, had she survived Bergen-Belsen, was a double event for the Wellington Jewish community.
As well as planting the first 15 trees in a planned Grove of Remembrance for Anne, close to the capital’s centre, there was the launch of the first translation of her Diary of a young girl into the Māori language. Over 200 guests packed into Rongomaraeroa, the Māori marae at the national museum Te Papa, for a heartwarming coming-together of the Jewish, Māori and Dutch aspects of the diary, its translation and its publication. |
Top row and bottom left & middle photo credit: Woolf Photography Above Image: Stuff.co.nz
Media Links
- Newshub: 12/6/19 Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl has been translated into Te Reo Maori
- Stuff: 23/4/19 Anne Frank's Diary translated into te reo Māori
- NZ Herald: 11/6/19 Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl to be launched in te reo Māori
- Stuff/DomPost: 13/6/19 Wellington remembers Anne Frank - and the years she could have lived
- Online Listener - NOTED: 11/6/19 Why it's significant Anne Frank's diary has been translated into Te Reo Māori
- Māori Television - Te Ao Māori News: 13/6/19 World's most well-known autobiography translated into te reo Māori Excellent comments by the translator, with video footage.
- Te Hiku Radio: 7/6/19 Whaea Girlie Clarke speaks with Rotorua based kaiwhakamāori (translator)Te Haumihiata Mason. (6 min 24 sec)
Anne Frank "Let me be myself" Exhibition
Touring New Zealand Since 2018
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2023 VENUES Watch this space |
Created by Anne Frank House (Amsterdam), this exhibition connects Anne Frank's life story and the events of World War ll and the Holocaust, with the present in a personal and palpable manner.
Having a contemporary section, this exhibition explores antisemitism, discrimination and prejudice during the 1930s and 40s with discrimination today, through the use of personal experiences told by a cross section of young people.
The exhibition is in the format of large photos and text, and also has several objects on display, among them a replica of the diary of Anne Frank, a yellow star, and a scale model of the hiding place.
Having a contemporary section, this exhibition explores antisemitism, discrimination and prejudice during the 1930s and 40s with discrimination today, through the use of personal experiences told by a cross section of young people.
The exhibition is in the format of large photos and text, and also has several objects on display, among them a replica of the diary of Anne Frank, a yellow star, and a scale model of the hiding place.
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Commissioned in 2010 as part of the previous touring Anne Frank Exhibition, this documentary features interviews interspersed with images from the Anne Frank House archive.
Interviewer Ian Fraser speaks with Holocaust survivors: Bob & Freda Narev (Germany / Poland) Steven Sedley (Hungary) Dora Suuring - a member of the Dutch resistance whose rescue efforts involved forging identity cards (The Netherlands) Also interviews with Hermina (Mieke) van der Schaaf (Righteous Among the Nations) the Netherlands), and Joel Porus (Bob & Freda Narev's grandson) |
NEWS: Parliamentary Dinner - Anne Frank New Zealand. November 30, 2022
A dinner was hosted by Hon. Grant Robertson, Deputy Prime Minister at Parliament on 30 November 2022 to recognise and celebrate Boyd Klap's significant 13-year contribution to Anne Frank NZ, and his passing of the management baton to the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand, and to sincerely thank Boyd and the sponsors and supporters of the "Let Me Be Myself" exhibition over this time.
It was a memorable evening reflecting the long and successful journey of the exhibition in Aotearoa New Zealand and the importance of sustaining "Let Me Be Myself" at the heart of our Holocaust education programme well into the future.
It was a memorable evening reflecting the long and successful journey of the exhibition in Aotearoa New Zealand and the importance of sustaining "Let Me Be Myself" at the heart of our Holocaust education programme well into the future.
