Second Anne Frank exhibition comes to Whangārei

Anne Frank, before going into hiding. (Photo collection of the Anne Frank Stichting.)

Whangārei Museum is a priority stop for a widely travelled exhibition that has visited 80 countries and been seen by more than 10 million people globally.

Next week, Whangārei Museum-Kiwi North will open Anne Frank: Let Me Be Myself, which was brought to New Zealand in January by the Wellington-based Holocaust Centre of New Zealand (HCNZ).

It opened at the Auckland War Memorial Museum where more than 35,000 visitors saw it in just three months.

But in recognition of the powerful response from Northland to previous exhibitions about The Holocaust, Anne Frank: Let Me Be Myself will be on display in Whangārei for four months from this coming weekend.

It uses a combination of excerpts from Anne Frank's diary, historical artefacts, pictures, video and testimony, to walk viewers through the life of the Frank family and the history of the era, and engage them in a discussion about how the same themes affect the modern world.

About persecution of all kinds — disability, prejudice, homophobia, racism and more in the 21st century — the exhibition challenges visitors to examine their own core moral values.

In 2010, the Holocaust Centre's exhibition Anne Frank - A History for Today also showed in Whangārei. The message behind that exhibition was ''Never lose hope, keep fighting against racism, keep fighting against religious discrimination.''

"We must learn from that history so it will never be repeated,'' Boyd Klap, QSO, chairman of Anne Frank Exhibition New Zealand and president of the Holocaust Centre, said at the opening.

"The moment that one race feels superior to another race you've got the Holocaust.''

Anne Frank's diary, written with the innocence, hope and intuitive wisdom of a bright 13-year-old, has long been a touchstone for persecution, whether religious, cultural, personal or political.

The day-to-day story of the Jewish girl's experiences as her family hid from the German Gestapo in a secret room in Amsterdam during World War II has been read by countless millions of people.

The Anne Frank House, which compiled Anne Frank: Let Me Be Myself was established in 1957 in co-operation with Otto Frank, Anne Frank's father. The house where the Franks hid from July 1942 to August 1944 is now a museum.

Following their capture by the Gestapo in August 1944, the family was transported to concentration camps. In October or November 1944, Anne and her sister Margot were transferred from Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they died— probably of typhus — a few months later.

In 1947 Otto, the only one to survive, published Anne's journal under the title The Diary of a Young Girl.

Anne Frank: Let Me Be Myself will be at Whangārei Museum, Kiwi North from October 1 to February 3.