Anne Frank Center at USC campus will give SC residents a lesson in the Holocaust

Tears are inevitable.

Walking through an exhibit devoted to the life and death of Anne Frank without experiencing some extreme emotion - sadness, anger, grief - seems nearly impossible, but the four rooms that make up the Anne Frank Center on the University of South Carolina Columbia campus are not designed simply to evoke an emotional response.

They prompt visitors to remember, reflect and respond.

Thoughtful design makes that possible, explained my guide, graduate assistant Diana Serhal, who previously worked at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

The first room offers a timeline tracing the events in the lives of the Frank family, the rise of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party, and the world around them.

It is structured in a way that children who visit will be at eye level with Anne and her family as they celebrate milestones and are photographed on happy occasions. Just above that level, specific dates or time frames mark events in each of those worlds, and above them the series of actions taken by Hitler and his followers unfolds, leading to World War II and the Holocaust.

For instance, the menacing cover of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” sits high on the wall. Below it, Otto and Edith Frank smile in their wedding photo surrounded by ladies dressed in elegant gowns and men in fine black and white tuxedos. The year is 1925.

The other rooms detail the impact of Anne Frank’s diary, first published by her father in 1947. It has since been translated into 73 languages, Greek, Japanese and Serbian among them, and copies of many of those translations are on display.

Along the way, details of the diary, which Anne received as a gift on her 13th birthday, on June 12, 1942, are displayed.

“Maybe one of my nicest presents,” Anne wrote on June 14, 1942.

Remember.

That same year, on Jan. 20, 1942, 15 high-ranking Nazis gathered in a suburb of Berlin where they discussed their plan to murder 11 million European Jews.

The list they used to guide them is pictured on the timeline. Below it, the delicate red and white check cover of Anne’s beloved diary.

The exhibit’s guest book, made to look like the diary, holds warm wishes and notes of thanks from those who have been fortunate to visit before the official public opening on Sept. 15.

Also among the other exhibits are photos of the helpers - the six people who brought those in hiding food, supplies and friendship. Two of them, Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl, are the women who collected the family’s papers including Anne’s diary after the family was arrested.

Another room, lined with life-size photographs of the Anne Frank House, features a replica of the diary and authentic period furnishings like those once found in the secret annex where eight people, including the Franks, lived in hiding from July 6, 1942 until Aug. 4, 1944, an astounding 761 days.

The last room traces the events of Aug. 4, 1944 - the day Anne and the others in hiding were arrested - to her death at age 15 in the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp.

Reflect.

With the overhead lights turned off, sunlight illuminates squares lined with images of Anne on a far wall. The photos document her growth from a small child in 1934 to a young woman in 1942, but the last two squares for 1943 and 1944 are blank.

Here, the impact of Anne Frank’s death is felt. Otto Frank was the only one of the eight to survive the war and when he returned to Amsterdam he was handed the documents left behind, including Anne’s diary.

Serhal noted one of his best known quotes, “Don’t teach history. Teach the lessons of history.”

Serhal said that means understanding the events and actions that allowed Anne Frank and 6 million other Jews to be murdered.

“We need to learn how words lead to damaging and cruel actions,” she said.

A portrait, contributed by local artist Mary Burkett, of a smiling Anne sits in the hallway outside the last room. What might Anne have become were she allowed to live?

“The Holocaust was not inevitable,” Serhal says as she concludes our tour. “It was a series of choices.”

Respond.

This story was originally published August 31, 2021 at 10:05 AM with the headline "Anne Frank Center at USC campus will give SC residents a lesson in the Holocaust."