Anne Frank was a royal lover, says charity after patronage honour

THE Queen has been named the first royal patron of the Anne Frank Trust in a nod to the teenage Holocaust victim’s love of royalty.

Tim Robertson, the charity’s chief executive, said Ms Frank’s passion for royalty was one of the hobbies that gave her hope as she hid from the Nazis.

As such, he said it was “heartbreakingly poignant” to imagine how much the Queen’s patronage would have meant to her. The charity said it was “deeply honoured” to welcome the Queen as patron, which it said demonstrated her “deep commitment to commemorating the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis and overcoming prejudice today.”

Nicola Cobbold of the trust said: “The devastating events in Israel and Gaza have led to unprecedented levels of anti-Semitism here in Britain, as well as a significant rise in Islamophobia. Her Majesty’s support could not be more timely as we all work to challenge hatred and build social cohesion.”

The Queen, 76, marked the 75th anniversary of the publication of Anne Frank’s diary in Jan 2022 by urging the public not to be “bystanders” to injustice or prejudice.

As Duchess of Cornwall, she delivered a passionate speech to guests including the 92-year-old step-sister of Ms Frank, who survived Auschwitz, at an event in London.

“After all, surely our personal values are measured by the things that we are prepared to ignore,” she said. “Let us therefore learn from those who bore witness to the horrors of the Holocaust, and all subsequent genocides, and commit ourselves to keeping their stories alive, so that each generation will be ready to tackle hatred in any of its terrible forms. And let us carry with us the words and wisdom Anne Frank – a child of only 14 years old – wrote on May 7 1944: ‘What is done cannot be undone, but at least one can prevent it from happening again.’”

Ms Cobbald said that as a youth charity, whose key educational tool was

Anne Frank’s Diary, they could not be more delighted to have the Queen as patron, noting her long standing interest in young people and literacy.

Mr Robertson added: “The cruelty with which (Anne) was robbed of her future is what drives us to make a difference today, engaging young people of Anne’s age in learning the crucial lessons of the Holocaust. It is tremendously heartening to know that we have Her Majesty’s support.”

One of Anne Frank’s hobbies while in hiding was to trace the family trees of European Royal families. On April 21 1944, she recorded in her diary the 18th birthday of “this beauty”: Princess Elizabeth of York, later Elizabeth II. Her pictures of Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret are on the walls of her bedroom in the Anne Frank House Museum.

The Queen’s Reading Room, her online book club, has recommended two Holocaust memoirs to mark Holocaust Memorial Day on Saturday. It suggests

by Ivor Perl, and by the Nobel Peace Prize-winning author Elie Wiesel.