Symbol Of Life At Center Of Anne Frank Exhibit At Holocaust Memorial
FARMINGTON HILLS (WWJ) - Never forgotten, never again.
That's what the executive director of the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Stephen Goldman, said about a new Anne Frank exhibit at the center that was dedicated Sunday.
Goldman told WWJ's Beth Fisher that the exhibit includes a sapling from a white chestnut tree that she wrote about in her diary.
"When I look upon this growth, when I look upon this tree and it's blooming, how can you be sad? S ... it was her little bit of optimism and she was inspired by it and we are inspired by her and hopefully, by this, this little sapling."
Anne Frank died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945 after her family was betrayed and taken to camps. Someone who knew her, Irene Butter, of Ann Arbor, spoke at the dedication.
"It's a way for us to approach young people especially, in terms of the Holocaust and contextualizing the diary of Anne Frank , this wonderful book written by a 13, 14, and 15 year old ... over two years in hiding," said Butter.
Anne Frank and her family were discovered in hiding in Amsterdam during World War II and taken to concentration camps, where all but one family member died.
"We are the recipient of one of eleven saplings cut from the tree outside of Anne Frank's window , a white chestnut tree, and she looked out on that from the attic which was the third floor in their hiding place, the only window without a curtain, and she just watched it as the seasons changed and that was kind of her connection with the outside world."
Goldman says we've seen genocide going on recently in Syria where he says 1,400 people were killed by gas. Goldman says the center has about 85,000 visitors every year.
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