Focus on contemporary issues at the Anne Frank Exhibition launch

The Anne Frank Exhibition launched at Melbourne’s Jewish Holocaust Centre earlier this month, and will tour Australia for at least the next 14 months.

Curator Jayne Josem unveiled the exhibition to an audience of hundreds including Director of Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, Ronald Leopold, and Dutch Ambassador to Australia, Annemieke Ruigrok.

“Anne Frank’s story is not just about the Holocaust,” Ms Josem said.

“It’s about growing up, it’s about oppression, it’s about helping others in need and it’s about resilience and hope.”

The exhibition’s chairman, Boyd Klap, dismissed criticism over the historic nature of the exhibition, acknowledging that the exhibition has brought people together across generation divides in 55 countries.

“I hope that we can learn from this exhibition that we are responsible for our environment and our people, and atrocities like the Holocaust must never happen again,” he said.

“Bad things happen when good people do nothing.”

Director of Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, Ronald Leopold, acknowledged that the images of the past are “unfortunately quite current”.

“It is still happening in the world that we are living in – like exclusion on the basis of ethnicity or religion, isolation, expulsion, torture, murder and yes… mass murder,” he said.

“This exhibition raises the question how we can arm ourselves against the resurgence of Nazi ideology in contemporary disguise.”

Organisers of the exhibition thanked individuals and sponsors who have together conquered the logistical, financial, legal and production challenges to make the exhibition possible.

Two Men and A Truck is a sponsor of the Anne Frank Exhibition and will also transport the exhibition between its various locations in Australia.