Anne Frank memorial unveiled
In a grass clearing overlooking Wellington, a memorial in the form of three steel chairs has been installed.
Unlike a typical memorial consisting of a park bench and a plaque with an idyllic view of the city, the chairs engaged in simple object theatre, designer Matthijs Siljee said.
“If new visitors were to walk up the path and their eye level comes level with the grass, they will all of a sudden think ‘hey, someone has left some chairs behind.’
‘‘It is in that unassuming way that the memorial will introduce itself to the visitors,” Siljee said.
Located in Ellice Park in Mt Victoria, the memorial is the first of its kind in New Zealand, commemorating Anne Frank and the 1.5 million other children who were killed during the Holocaust.
The chairs are modelled on those found in the annexe where Frank, who would have turned 92 on Saturday, hid from the Nazis for 761 days with her family during World War II. Two of the steel chairs face each other, while the third faces away, excluded.
The layout represented discrimination and prejudice, said the chairman of Anne Frank Projects and the driver behind the project, Boyd Klap.
‘‘It is a commemoration of what happened in those days, when a 15-year-old girl was taken to a death camp. We need to learn from that. People need to learn what happened and need to make sure this doesn’t happen again.’’
Behind the new memorial are 15 ko¯whai trees that were planted two years ago to commemorate Frank’s 90th birthday, with the number representing each year of her short life before she was killed at BergenBelsen concentration camp in Germany.
Wellington central MP Grant Robertson and Klap unveiled the memorial yesterday afternoon in front of a crowd of 150 people, including the Netherlands
‘‘People need to learn what happened and need to make sure this doesn’t happen again.’’
Boyd Klap
ambassador Mira Woldberg and Wellington Mayor Andy Foster.
Robertson told the audience that the Holocaust was the worst example in our lifetime of discrimination and hatred.
‘‘Yet every single day we see elements of it around us . . . So every single day it’s our job to call that out, to say it is not acceptable, to strive to build the world that Anne Frank talked about: the world of hope, courage, love and beauty.’’
Holocaust Centre of New Zealand chairwoman Deborah Hart said the memorial fulfilled the objectives of the organisation, which were to witness and remember the Holocaust, as well as educate and inspire action against hatred, prejudice and anti-semitism.
An exhibition on Frank’s life, Let Me Be Myself, is touring New Zealand. Klap helped to bring the exhibition to life, and to have Frank’s diary translated into Ma¯ori.