Anne Frank exhibit visits Seattle from Amsterdam

Through May 31, Seattle’s Holocaust Center for Humanity is hosting the traveling exhibit “Let Me Be Myself: The Life Story of Anne Frank.” The exhibit, developed by Amsterdam’s renowned Anne Frank House, marks the 80th anniversary of liberation of the Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentration camp in Germany, where Anne Frank was killed in 1945 because she was Jewish.

“We talk about the victims being largely innocent,” said museum manager Michael Langberg. “But Anne Frank is maybe the most innocent of them all. She’s a young schoolgirl just finding her way in the world when all this hits her.”

Holocaust survivor and longtime Seattle resident Laureen Nussbaum, who knew the Frank family, describes Anne as lively and talkative — a “chatterbox.” Nussbaum, who was closer to Anne’s sister, Margot, said the exhibit will give young people “a chance to confront what happened and identify with Anne as a teenager.”

The exhibit, intended for visitors ages 11 and older, will immerse visitors in Anne’s life story, educate them about the impacts of the Holocaust and engage them with contemporary issues of discrimination. Throughout the year, the museum broadcasts the stories of local survivors, with a collection of nearly 10,000 artifacts, photographs and oral histories. 

“Anne Frank is a unifying story,” said Ilana Cone Kennedy, CEO of the Holocaust Center for Humanity, who helped bring a sapling from the chestnut tree outside Anne’s window to the Peace Garden at Seattle Center about a decade ago. “We felt like this would be a great time for us to host an exhibit like this, when it feels like things in our world are very polarizing and divided, and we need to find things that bring people together.”

The Seattle Times spoke to Kennedy about the exhibit, why it’s so timely and what makes Anne Frank’s story so important in Holocaust education. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Why is it timely for Seattle to host this exhibit now?

Anne’s story truly resonates with so many people around the world. In part, it resonates with people because she’s such a typical teenager writing in very nontypical circumstances. She’s an incredible writer, and in very difficult circumstances, she tries hard to remain hopeful and optimistic, which is such an inspiration to so many of us when times are difficult. We’re seeing the history unfold in real time through her words and through the information that she’s getting. It’s so different than a memoir, where it’s colored by the knowledge that someone already has and is looking back; she is only writing with what she knows and is experiencing in the moment. Her story is so hopeful and terribly tragic at the same time.

Has the process of hosting the exhibit changed the way you think about Anne’s story?

We have our own small installation that’s kind of a dedication to Anne Frank in our (permanent) exhibit. It includes a bookcase that opens, and it kind of is modeled after the bookcase that opened into Anne Frank’s hiding place. That really brought to light for me (that) we talk a lot about Anne because she’s the diarist and the central person in the diary, but I feel like we should also always mention Miep Gies and the people who risked everything to hide Anne and her family. They are just remarkable human beings who, for more than two years, kept eight people hidden in an attic. It’s unbelievable. 

What role do modern narratives — such as the stories of young people facing discrimination today — play in the exhibit?

The exhibit is called “Let Me Be Myself,” and (Anne) has a quote in her diary where she says just that: “I know what I want, I have a goal, an opinion, I have a religion and love. Let me be myself and then I am satisfied. I know that I’m a woman, a woman with inward strength and plenty of courage.” And I think that’s what this exhibit is trying to get to: the reminder to all of us to see people as individuals who are complicated and not black and white, even though we’re quick to make assumptions about people.

I find that inspirational, hopeful. As we’re busy talking about other people, if we reminded ourselves (that) they might have a lot more going on in their lives than I can see, then maybe we would give people a little more grace. Maybe we would be a little slower to judge.

There are several survivors based in Seattle. Tell me about their presence at the museum.

We have many survivors who live in Seattle who’ve experienced this history firsthand and can talk about it, and that is what our center is founded on and based on — their stories and their artifacts, and their real desire to bring these stories to the community and to the greater public.

We have a speakers bureau of Holocaust survivors, and there are fewer and fewer Holocaust survivors still alive, and even fewer who are still able to share their stories. But there are still several in Seattle. Our speakers bureau also consists of children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors who now share their family stories. There’s something very powerful about hearing something firsthand and from a living human being, saying, “This happened to me,” or, “This happened to my mom.” It just makes it human and personal and not something far away and out there.