Our educational programmes and products are designed to encourage young people to reflect on the social developments then and now, particularly when it comes to prejudice, discrimination, racism, and antisemitism. These programmes and products are always based on Anne Frank’s life story.
The 40th Anne Frank Magazine
On 19th March, the 40th Anne Frank Magazine (Anne Frank Krant) was issued. Since 1979, primary schools have been using the Anne Frank Magazine in the run-up to the 4th and 5th of May (Remembrance Day and Liberation Day) in their lessons about Anne Frank, the persecution of the Jews, and the Second World War. The 2019 Anne Frank Magazine was dedicated to Anne Frank's 90th birthday.
The first Anne Frank Magazine was published in 1979, around Anne Frank's 50th birthday. It was a success from the start, with an annual circulation of over 100,000 copies. The focus is always on Anne Frank's life story, which links to the persecution of the Jews and the Second World War. The meaning of this part of history for today was, and is, an important focal point of the magazine. The magazine is only available in Dutch.
Exchanges between the Dutch and Belgian police forces
In April, 45 Dutch and Belgian police officers met at the Anne Frank House. We organised this exchange in cooperation with Kazerne Dossin in Mechelen (Belgium). After a visit to the museum, the officers reflected on the past and on the role of police officers during the Second World War. Later that day, they talked about current themes such as polarisation, discrimination, human rights, and diversity in the police force and beyond. In May, the Dutch police officers made a return visit to Kazerne Dossin.
Following the exchange between the Dutch and Belgian police forces, there was an exchange between teachers from both countries in April. The participating teachers took part in a one-day programme with various workshops on identity, diversity, prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination.
The Dutch-Belgian exchange was the result of a broader collaborative project between the Anne Frank House, Kazerne Dossin, and the Museum of Jewish History in Warsaw. The three institutions exchanged expertise and published guidelines for teachers and the police. The results of the project were presented at the final conference in Warsaw in December, in which the teachers and police officers participated as well.
Study programmes
In cooperation with Gedenkstätte Haus der Wannsee Konferenz, we organised a conference for professionals in Berlin in May. The conference was open to everyone whose work touched on themes linked to the history of the Second World War and the persecution of the Jews. The topics covered included the approach of and vision on education about National Socialist history, cultural and political influences on remembrance, and teaching and learning at historical sites.
Meeting of the coordinators of the Youth Teams
In June, the coordinators of the International Anne Frank Youth Network (AFYN) from fourteen different countries met in Berlin to take workshops on Holocaust education in times of polarisation in Europe. The five-day programme resulted in lively exchanges on topics such as education in times of great change, new challenges for Holocaust education, civic education, and non-violent communication. The participants exchanged best practices and visited memorial sites.
Workshops for primary school pupils
The workshop My First Impression for groups 5 and 6 (8-to-10-year-olds) introduces pupils to the concepts of stereotypes and prejudice. The workshop ran 21 times and 575 pupils participated. The primary school teachers received a story about Anne Frank for reading to their class, as well as a set of talking cards about prejudice and discrimination.
Workshops and professional development for teachers
In 2019, we organised a total of 166 meetings for a total of 4,500 teachers from secondary schools and intermediate vocational schools. The meetings included study days on the online toolbox Stories that Move - Tools against Discrimination, skills training courses Responding to discriminatory comments, and guest lectures on dealing with prejudice and discrimination.
Blended learning with Stories that Move
The online toolbox Stories that Move - Tools against Discrimination offered 13 lessons for pupils aged 14 and over that schools could choose from to compile their own programme. Seventeen study days were held to introduce the toolbox to more than 300 Dutch teachers from secondary schools.
The Anne Frank House is a partner of eTwinning, an online community of schools in over 40 European countries. The 150,000 active participants are involved in exchange projects between schools. Stories that Move was presented in various languages at conferences and in webinars to over 800 teachers.
Karen Polak, project coordinator of Stories that Move, wrote about the free online tool developed by the Anne Frank House to talk to students about antisemitism, racism, and other forms of discrimination.
Teaching about the Holocaust
From 1 December to 5 December 2019, the 33 member states of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance met in Luxembourg City. The Dutch delegation, including a delegate from the Anne Frank House, spoke on the topics of commemorating, teaching and researching the Holocaust in various working groups. A great deal of attention was paid to the launch of the new Recommendations for Teaching and Learning about the Holocaust.
Antisemitism in football
The Football Chanting Project had football supporters follow an intensive one-day programme in which they were made aware of the antisemitic chants that can be heard inside football stadiums and out. Football clubs Feyenoord and FC Utrecht collaborated with the Anne Frank House. The supporters learned about the Jewish history of their club and their city, visited various local sites, and met with Jewish fellow supporters who felt hurt by the chants. ‘We are united in our love for the club, but the chants you sing hurt us terribly,' they said. ‘By chanting those lines, you're reminding us of the fact that half of our family was gassed.’ This made an impact. The anti-Jewish chants were the primary reason for the tour, but other discriminatory expressions were discussed as well. After the tour, the majority of the participating football supporters indicated that the experience had changed their outlook and that they would no longer participate in the chants.
In order to prevent antisemitism and other forms of discrimination, a number of football clubs held workshops for young players based on the educational game Fair Play. In total, 49 workshops were held with 1742 participants between 12 and 15 years old.
We set up a research project in the Netherlands and Germany to compare effective interventions and to make recommendations that will help football associations, clubs, supporters, and governments in the fight against antisemitism.
Joram Verhoeven and Willem Wagenaar from our Educational Projects department wrote about the Football Chanting Project.
Youth Team, Teachers Team, Police Team
The Anne Frank House has had a Youth Team since 2014, a Police Team since 2017 and a Teachers Team since 2019.
Ten new members of the Anne Frank House Youth Team took a training course that ran from March to October, and carried out various projects for their peers, at their schools, at their sports clubs, and among their friends.
The Anne Frank House Police Team is made up of team leaders from across the Netherlands who aim to open up discussion on dilemmas related to equal treatment and diversity in police work. Ten new members started on a training programme.
Twelve secondary school teachers from across the Netherlands took part in a four-day programme with a focus on exchanging experiences in dealing with discrimination. All teachers then worked on their own projects in their own classrooms.
Theater project Back to Back
We continued the Back to Back tour with theatre group DEGASTEN. Some three thousand pupils from dozens of secondary schools were challenged to think about the differences between people and how important it is to open up to the other person’s story. In small groups, the pupils went on to discuss prejudice and the dilemmas presented by the actors.
Teaching about the Holocaust
The Anne Frank House was represented in the Dutch delegation of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). This international organisation hosted working group discussions about commemorating, researching and teaching about the Holocaust. In the context of teaching about the Holocaust, the new Recommendations for Teaching and Learning about the Holocaust were launched in Luxembourg. These recommendations will contribute to the development of educational material.
Study programme in Berlin
In cooperation with Gedenkstätte Haus der Wannsee Konferenz, we organised a conference for professionals in Berlin in May. The conference was open to everyone whose work touched on themes linked to the history of the Second World War and the persecution of the Jews. The topics covered included the approach of and vision on education about National Socialist history, the cultural and political influences on remembrance, and teaching and learning at historical sites.
Travelling exhibitions
Since 1996, the international travelling exhibition Anne Frank - a history for today has been on display in at least 4,462 places in 80 countries. The exhibition Let Me Be Myself - The life story of Anne Frank has been shown at 233 venues in 20 countries since 2015.
The Anne Frank House trains young people to show their peers around the exhibition. The new guides learn about the content and background of the exhibition, how best to transfer information, and how to address current social developments. This format, known as peer education, is highly successful in involving the young people visiting the exhibition.
A selection of the international travelling Anne Frank exhibitions:
Canada (CA)
Over the past eight years, since its opening in 2011, more than 120,000 people have visited the travelling Anne Frank exhibition in Canada. A total of 2,250 young people took training courses to become tour guides. In 2019, the travelling Anne Frank exhibition was on display at eleven venues across Canada, also in the province of Alberta. Alberta was the fifth province to join our educational projects in Canada. Dr Eva Olsson, who survived Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, told her story to the students of the first school in Alberta that participated. An unforgettable experience, not least for the guides who showed Eva Olsson around the exhibition.
Sri Lanka (LK)
Dutch ambassador Joanne Doornewaard and district secretary Nagalingam Vethanayagam opened the travelling exhibition Anne Frank - a history for today in Jaffna, Sri Lanka on 7th March. The exhibition was part of a joint project of the Anne Frank House and War Child and contained stories of young people who have lived through the conflict in Sri Lanka. The purpose of the project was to get visitors to think about human rights, tolerance, and mutual respect. Students, young people, teachers, and volunteers from all over Sri Lanka were involved in the project.
Colombia (CO)
From 6 to 15 September, the Anne Frank - a history for today exhibition was put up at the Medellín book fair. A group of thirty students from Llanaditas in Medellín showed more than 2,000 visitors around the exhibition. Dutch ambassador Jeroen Roodenburg was present at the official opening.
Argentina (AR)
The Centro Ana Frank Argentina (CAFA) in Buenos Aires celebrated its 10th anniversary on June 12, 2019 with the spectacular opening of a new theater on the grounds of CAFA. The Centro has never before attracted so many visitors (over 37,000) and so many exhibition presentations - in 35 Argentine cities: see the website of the Centro.