Anne Frank statue in Amsterdam desecrated by pro-Palestine vandals
Outrage as 'Gaza' scrawled in red paint defaces historic monument to young diarist murdered in the Holocaust
An Amsterdam memorial statue of Anne Frank has been defaced with the word ‘Gaza’ in red paint.
The young diarist lived in Merwedeplein Square, the site of the monument, from 1933 until she and her family went into hiding from the Nazis in 1942. They were discovered by police officers on 4 August 1944 and sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp.
Anne Frank died in March 1945 at Bergen-Belsen. She would have been 95 years old on 12th June 2024.
Mayor of Amsterdam Femke Halsema took to social media to appeal for anyone with information to speak to police. She wrote: “How can you get it in your head to make her memory so violent? Whoever it was, shame on you! There is no excuse for this. No Palestinian has been helped by smearing her precious statue.”
The Holocaust Educational Trust wrote on Instagram: “Scrawling ‘Gaza’ on a statue of Anne Frank – a Jewish teenager murdered by the Nazis – is not activism, it is antisemitism.”
The European Jewish Congress wrote: “Defacing a statue of Anne Frank—a Jewish teenager murdered by the Nazis—by scrawling “GAZA” on it is not activism, but antisemitism. Such acts disrespect her memory and the 6 million Jews murdered during the Holocaust. We hope the perpetrators are brought to justice swiftly.”
Independent Dutch foundation CIDI says that a report has been filed with the police.
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