Lesson from history for today (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Lesson from history for today

9:59am Friday 13th March 2009 in Search By Emma Clayton

A group of schoolchildren with Jewish star badges stitched on to their jerseys stare out of a black-and-white photograph, sitting in an Amsterdam classroom in 1942.

Further along is a group photograph of 21st century students from a London school who’ve set up an anti-bullying movement.

Other images include Zimbabwean cricketers wearing black armbands during the cricket World Cup in South Africa, 2003, in protest at the abuse of human rights in their country, children posing next to Catholic and Protestant murals in Belfast, and jeering crowds chanting racial abuse at black footballer Sol Campbell.

The air is filled with the recorded voice of a young girl reading from a diary.

The centrepiece of the Anne Frank And You exhibition at Cartwright Hall is a replica of Anne’s bedroom in the secret annexe where the Frank family and four other Jews hid from the Nazis between 1942 and 1944.

What’s also striking is the link between Anne’s experiences and issues of racial hatred and identity relevant today. Contemporary images are interspersed with quotes from Anne’s diary. One reads: “I long to ride a bike, dance, whistle, look at the world, feel young and know I’m free.”

Developed by Education Bradford and the Anne Frank Trust UK, the exhibition is accompanied by a teaching pack created by Bradford schools. Called Stand Up To Hatred, it’s being used by education authorities nationwide.

Specially-trained pupils are guiding school parties around the exhibition.

Working with Lucy Glennon of the Anne Frank Trust UK, the youngsters learned about Anne Frank and the Holocaust, and identified human rights issues affecting Anne and those relevant today.

Lucy described the youngsters as “an inspiration”.

“They’re mature, bright, sensitive; an honour to work with,” she said. “This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship between Anne Frank and Bradford.

“Anne said in her diary, ‘It only takes a moment to start to change the world’. These young people have given many moments.”

The exhibition includes footage from a DVD featuring schoolchildren discussing race, democracy, rights and responsibilities.

“They used the exhibition as a starting point, linking these themes to Anne’s diary,” said Diane Hadwen, Education Bradford’s diversity and cohesion manager. “A group recently visited the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam as VIP guests and presented the schools pack to the museum.

“This is a 21st century exhibition looking at the past and asking, ‘Could this happen again?’ The response from these young people is, ‘Yes it could’.

“The ‘Anne Frank ambassadors’ are doing a wonderful job. There’s been great feedback from general visitors as well as school parties.”

Shannen Lang, 15, of Queensbury School, said visiting the Anne Frank House gave her an insight into the young diarist’s experiences. “It made me appreciate how cramped it was, especially with eight people living there,” she said. “What happened was a long time ago. Kids might think it has nothing to do with them, but racism exists today in things like bullying and football.”

Jade Holmes, 16, from Tong School, said: “Going there was emotional. Walking down the streets I thought I might have been tracing footsteps of Nazi soldiers.”

The exhibition includes montages created by schools, under headings such as ‘H8U?’ and ‘Who R U?’ featuring images of Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and President Obama, with details about their contribution to change.

At the heart of the exhibition is the replica of Anne’s room and chilling Holocaust images.

Standing in the bedroom gives you a sense of the hidden world she endured for two years, until the secret annexe was discovered and its inhabitants sent to death camps. On the surface, it looks like any other teenager’s bedroom from that period.

Dotted about on the faded floral wallpaper are pictures of movie stars and fashion models which Anne cut out of magazines smuggled in by her father’s employee Miep Gies, who helped the family hide.

A window looks out on to footage of an Amsterdam street scene – Anne’s only glimpse of the outside world – and images of the annexe, concealed behind a movable bookcase.

The recorded voice of an actress reading from Anne’s diary is a poignant reminder of a young girl’s perspective of events beyond these four walls.

Rarely-seen photographs of the Franks include Anne and sister Margot with their grandmother on a beach in 1939, Anne laughing with schoolfriends, and her father Otto with his toddler daughters on his knee. Further along is a newspaper appeal Otto placed in 1945 for information about Anne and Margot, last seen in transit to Bergen-Belsen camp.

Artefacts include the Frank family’s registration cards from Dutch transit camp Westerbork, where they were sent after being discovered.

Also on display is a handwritten note pleading for help, thrown by a girl called Meta from a train deporting Jews to Westerbork. Jane Glaister, Bradford Council’s strategic director for culture, tourism and sport, described the exhibition as a “coup for Bradford.”

“When it was suggested that we might get it, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up,” she said.

“I read Anne Frank’s diary when I was 13 and it stayed with me a long time. I believed in standing up for rights, and when I left university that stimulated me to do voluntary service in Nigeria. It’s important that these young people go out as ambassadors and fight for what they believe to be right and true.”

Anne Frank And You runs at Cartwright Hall until March 26.