AUCKLAND: Ann Frank Exhibition:

“We must not forget.”

Those are the words of Holocaust Centre of New Zealand chairman Boyd Klap as the centre prepares to unveil an exhibition about Anne Frank and her diary, which is now over 70 years old.

But it’s not just about the past either, as the exhibition also tells the tales of teens who have suffered through their own discrimination.

The Holocaust Centre of New Zealand has welcomed a touring exhibition called Anne Frank: Let Me Be Myself, which will be at Auckland War Memorial Museum until May 13.

“Discrimination is a terrible thing but it happens all the time,” Klap said.

“But the discrimination by the Nazis – it was really was discrimination – destroyed a whole race, killing six million Jews, homosexuals, handicapped people,” Klap said.

The exhibition is wildly popular and has already been seen by more than 80 million people around the world.

There was much to be learned from the 14-year-old Anne Frank, who was extremely wise for her age, Klap said.

“I was a courier in the Dutch resistance when The Netherlands was liberated.

“It seems to me the message of the Holocaust has never been more important. We still have much to learn from stories like Anne’s.”

Frank was just 12 years old when she went into hiding with her family in a factory annexe in Amsterdam.

The family lived in secret for three years, helped by non-Jewish friends, but were finally discovered and sent to concentration camps.

Only her father Otto survived.

He had the diary published a few years after the war in the hope people
would learn from his daughter’s innocent words.

Since discimination was still so prevalent in modern times the centre had expanded to tell the stories of modern teens who were subject to discrimination, Klap said.

“Bullying, youth suicide is a major issue that concerns us all.

“We have added an aspect of teenagers who explain their own situation in an environment where discrimination takes place.”

The exhibition followed more than 12 months of preparation by the Holocaust Centre.

The team behind the tour are hoping 100,000 Kiwis aged 14 to 25 will see the exhibition.

After Auckland the exhibition will head to Wellington and Christchurch and will finish the year in Whangarei.

Next year, the exhibition will visit the National Army Museum in Waiouru, Waikato and Dunedin, and other locations across both islands are still being confirmed for 2020.