A February quote from Anne Frank's Diary

“Whenever you’re feeling lonely or sad, try going to the loft on a beautiful day and looking outside. Not at the houses and the rooftops, but at the sky. As long as you can look fearlessly at the sky, you’ll know that you’re pure within and will find happiness once more.”

Wednesday 23rd February 1944

ANNUAL LUNCH 2024

At this year’s Annual Lunch, held on January 18th 2024 to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, we welcomed Sir Michael Morpurgo OBE as our guest speaker. His moving address can be watched by clicking here.

The Annual Lunch also featured a poignant candle lighters ceremony which included Kindertransport refugee Eve Kugler BEM and Alphonsine Kabagabo, a survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. It also included the premiere of new short film about our work which can be watched here.

    Photos from the lunch can be seen by clicking here.

At this critical time, with unprecedented levels of antisemitism and a surge in Islamophobia, we are extremely grateful for all who supported our work to build a world free from prejudice and discrimination. We are pleased to announce that we have currently raised over £430,000 to support our essential work. We are grateful that donations are still coming in!

If you would like to donate, please do so by clicking here.

Would you like to talk to us about supporting our future work? If so, please contact our Director of Development Ruth Berenblut at [email protected] or on 07878 987 648.

You can read more about the Annual Lunch here:

The Jewish Chronicle

The Jewish News

Jewish News - Sir Michael Morpurgo

HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY 2024

The theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2024 was the ‘Fragility of Freedom’. 

Anne Frank wrote in her diary on Saturday 20^th June 1942, reflecting back on May 1940 when the Germans arrived in the Netherlands:

‘That is when the trouble started for the Jews. Our freedom was severely restricted by a series of anti-Jewish decrees.’

We are immensely proud of our Anne Frank Ambassadors who contributed to Holocaust Memorial Day events around the country. We know that the leadership of our young people will ensure that this history is never forgotten and never repeated.

You can read more about the East Renfrewshire Council Holocaust Memorial Day event by clicking here.

We are grateful that Kirsten Oswald MP thanked our Anne Frank Ambassador Lexie for her contribution to the East Renfrewshire Council event in Parliament. This can be watched by clicking here.

Our Anne Frank Ambassadors Enoch and Jana spoke at the Holocaust Memorial Day event at The Scottish Parliament.

In her speech, Jana said, “Like crystal, freedom is fragile, it is delicate. Humanity constantly stands at the breaking point between privilege and responsibility. The fragility of freedom should not scare us but fill us with a sense of accountability. Each step we take, each word we speak, should be a promise to protect the delicate beauty of freedom.”

Reflecting on this opportunity, Jana said, ‘Presenting at parliament did make me feel nervous, however everyone was very friendly, and my Anne Frank Trust Mentor was especially supportive and kind, which I really needed in that moment. I was proud to present my speech, and lots of people after the event congratulated me, saying how much it moved them. I am honoured to have had the opportunity to come to parliament, which is just another step for me to fight discrimination.  

You can watch their speech in the Scottish Parliament by clicking here.

Our Anne Frank Ambassadors from the West Midlands were invited to read their own poems at the Birmingham Council event for Holocaust Memorial Day. Their poems were inspired by the story of Anne Frank and the theme for this year, 'the fragility of freedom'.  The event was attended by 200 local dignitaries and faith leaders. 

After the event, the Ambassadors met the Lord Mayor and Holocaust Survivor Mindu Hornick. (Pictured above).

INDEPENDENT REVIEW UPDATE

We are pleased to publish an independent review of our education programme, together with our response to it. This can be read in full here.

The review was carried out by consultant Paula Kitching. It looked specifically at our education programme in relation to Jewish life and antisemitism.

We are grateful to an advisory group of Holocaust survivors and Jewish community leaders who provided help and comments on the review. The advisory group was chaired by Marie van der Zyl OBE, President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews.

We have accepted all Paula’s recommendations – as per our action plan.

The report will now inform many of the developments in our policy and practice for the foreseeable future.

We welcome your comments or questions: don’t hesitate to get in touch with us [email protected]

We are particularly heartened to see the independent review confirming that:

·       our multi-prejudice educational model is grounded in substantial learning about Anne Frank and the Holocaust;

·       our programmes are effective in teaching diverse young people about antisemitism and inspiring them to speak up against it;

·       our Ambassadors programme is making a real difference to young people’s lives;

·       our front-line staff deliver our programmes with expertise and commitment;

·       we have learnt from our mistakes about due diligence and organisational culture “helping ensure that previous criticism would now be unjustified”.

LGBT+ MONTH

At a time when the LGBT+ community is experiencing a rise in hate crime, we are committed to address Homophobia and Transphobia. We have taken workshops to schools across the country to empower LGBT+ students and others to learn and stand up to this prejudice.

Over the last few months, we have been delighted to have Hal Maitland-Jones volunteer with us at the Anne Frank Trust. To start off our new blog series from members of the ‘Anne Frank Trust Community’, Hal has written a piece about the importance of LGBT+ History Month and why he is enjoying volunteering with us.

You can read Hal’s blog by clicking here.