While other students and teachers spent their Indigenous People’s Day at home, sheltering from the rain and sudden cold weather, I went with 10 others to see the Anne Frank exhibit. Everyone made sure to bring jackets, boots, umbrellas and an open mind to learn new things at the exhibit.
Despite already learning about the Holocaust throughout middle school and high school, Anne Frank: The Exhibition brought a deeper sense of history to what we already knew. Seeing the different rooms of the Frank family’s home felt like putting a face to the names we’d heard of for so long. Some artifacts were the authentic ones that Anne Frank actually lived with. Other pieces of furniture and objects around the home were replicas that no one would’ve suspected otherwise, as they were the perfect substitutions.
As we walked around the exhibit, we were given small devices that played audio, which we put close to our ears. The devices had sensors that reacted to audio players placed near different sections of the exhibit, which we would follow at our own pace. One of my favorite parts of the exhibit was how everything was entirely self-paced. I could listen to each section without any rush, and relisten to any section I didn’t understand or missed any details from.
Another compelling aspect of the exhibit was the information provided on the Holocaust as a whole, rather than just the Frank family. It included deeper details than what students are typically taught in school, and pushed me to understand the Holocaust on an emotional level, not just through numbers, statistics and general facts. There was a video that captured a timeline that expanded on the history of Germany through other European countries.
Along with the exhibit, the founders plan to include more attention to antisemitism into the NYC curriculum. One way they plan to do this is through distributing 20,000 copies of Anne Frank’s diary to NYC public schools for students to read. Although it’s always good to raise awareness for discrimination, it made me hope that discrimination towards other marginalized groups will be brought to attention as well.
The exhibit will be on display in New York through February. https://www.annefrankexhibit.org/
