Anne Frank Exhibit Opens Oct. 25 at Keene State
KEENE, N.H. 9/27/01 - “The Anne Frank Story,” an exhibit of family photographs and diary passages, will open Thursday, Oct. 25, in the Young Student Center at Keene State College.
The exhibition, which continues through Monday, Nov. 19, is sponsored at Keene State by the Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery in cooperation with the Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies and the Young Student Center. It coincides with the History Department’s Symposium “The Second World War: A Legacy Remembered,” running November 8-10. A collection of World War II memorabilia will complement the Anne Frank exhibition.
The Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery will host an opening reception on Thursday, Oct. 25, at the Young Student Center. Dr. Paul Vincent, director of the Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies, will address the topic “Reflections on Anne Frank” at 7 p.m. in the Student Center’s Mountain View Room. The reception will follow the lecture.
“The Anne Frank Story,” sponsored by the New York-based Anne Frank Center USA, Inc., uses family photographs and diary passages to explore the life of Anne Frank, from her birth on June 12, 1929, through her death in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March 1945. The exhibit tells a universal story of how people sometimes treat one another and what can be learned from such inhumane acts as the mass murder and genocide practiced by the Nazis during World War II and continued by other nations through the remainder of the 20th century.
Especially in light of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks upon the United States, Anne Frank’s story provides a testament of hope and human dignity in the face of such atrocities, says Maureen Ahern, director of the Thorne gallery.
After Anne’s German-born family was forced into hiding in Holland, she received a red-and-white plaid diary for her 13th birthday. For nearly two years she recorded in this diary the details of her life in hiding.
Anne’s remarkable diary has been translated into 55 languages and read by generations of people around the world. It has touched so many because the diary provides a human voice for the almost 1.5 million Jewish children systematically murdered under Hitler’s regime. It reveals the depth of Anne’ s hopes and dreams, thus serving as a pathway to her uncommon humanity, says Vincent, whose Cohen Center works to preserve the historical record of the Holocaust and to teach students about the costs of prejudice and hatred.
Prejudice and hatred are learned behaviors that can be unlearned, which Anne realized even as a young teen, when she wrote: “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are good at heart.”
“The Anne Frank Story” exhibition and reception are free and open to the public on the third floor of the Young Student Center. The Student Center is open from 7 a.m. to midnight Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to midnight Saturday, and 10 a.m. to midnight Sunday. During the Veterans Day Weekend Nov. 9-12, the Student Center will be open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, and noon to midnight Monday.
For information, call 603-358-2662 or 603-358-2720, or look on the Internet at www.keene.edu/tsag. For more information on the World War II symposium, go to www.keene.edu/events/ww2.
