A daycare centre in north-eastern Germany named after Anne Frank, one of the most well-known victims of the Holocaust, is set to be renamed in accordance with the wishes of parents from “migrant backgrounds,” German media outlets reported. The kindergarten in the town of Tangerhütte has been named after the Jewish girl for fifty-three years but parents launched a petition to change it because they find it difficult to explain Frank’s significance to their children. Employees also allegedly took issue with the name, saying something more “child-friendly” was needed, something that was “better suited to their concept.” Anne Frank is apparently no longer aligned with the “new focus on diversity.”
Anne Frank was a German-born Jewish girl who kept a diary in which she documented her life in hiding from 1942 to 1944, during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. Following her and her family’s arrest in August 1944, they were transported to the concentration camps in Auschwitz and later Bergen-Belsen, where they died a few months later. She gained fame posthumously with the 1947 publication of The Diary of a Young Girl.
The head of the kindergarten said small children find it difficult to understand Anne Frank’s history. Mayor Andreas Brohm—most likely referring to the war between Israel and Hamas and the ensuing pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Western Europe—stated that the desires of many parents to rename the daycare center held more weight than the global political situation. “Tangerhütte, with its educational institutions and all its civic engagement, stands for an open-minded Germany,” the mayor said. The kindergarten will most likely be named “World Explorers.”
Reports did not mention whether the children’s parents were Muslims, but Germany has had an influx of migrants from Muslim countries in the past decades, with hundreds of thousands arriving within the context of the European migration crisis since 2015.
Max Privorozki, head of the Jewish community in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, highlighted this fact by saying that the aforementioned parents, who have no understanding of the significance of Anne Frank, have not been successfully integrated into German society. Miteinander—Netzwerk für Demokratie und Weltoffenheit in Sachsen-Anhalt, an organisation battling antisemitism and racism, also disagreed with the decision. They emphasised that there are effective and age-appropriate educational concepts for teaching children and young people about Frank’s life, and “renaming the daycare center sends the wrong signal, especially in a time marked by increasing antisemitism.”
There has been an alarming rise in antisemitic incidents and attacks all around Europe in the wake of Hamas’ attack on Israel last month. “If one is willing to dismiss one’s own history so carelessly, especially in these times of new antisemitism and right-wing extremism, and if Anne Frank’s name is perceived as unsuitable in public space, one can only become fearful and anxious when it comes to the culture of remembrance in our country,” Christoph Heubner, Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee said.
