CONTRIBUTION: The dangers of removing Anne Frank from classrooms
Contributed by Kate Gaddis, alumnae
Anne Frank’s Diary is one of the most banned books in the entire United States.
The Holocaust diary was first published in English in 1952 and was not introduced into classrooms until much later. Some states found the diary too inappropriate for young students, due to the book’s discussion of sex and other things that a thirteen-year old girl would write about.
What sparks this discussion is when schools like the Keller School district in Texas removing Anne Frank from their classrooms. The Holocuast is a subject that is slowly being taken out of classrooms and removed from history.
In the spark of the rise in antisemitism, taking Anne Frank out of schools can be dangerous. Why? Well for starters, Anne Frank is slowly becoming the center of mockery, and a person that teachers are doing their best to educate their students about.
In a recent video on tiktok, a man asked several people what the Holocuast was or certain questions pertaining to the Holocuast. None of the people knew what it was or any of the answers, they all seemed surprised. They did know what Nazis were, because they are still prevelant in the United States. But the fact that they didn’t know what the Holocuast was is alarming. The hardest and most scary part is that none of the people who were asked the question “Who is Anne Frank?” no one could answer. It is becoming alarming. In the rise of racism, antisemitism and hatred against Jews and against other people, Anne Frank is that one teen who students need to understand the Holocuast on their level. The Holocaust is a pretty heavy subject for students, but if they have someone like Anne Frank, they can learn about the events that happened during the Holocuast.
Anne Frank being removed from schools is nothing new. Across the nation, libraries are having to remove Anne Frank’s diary from their shelves. The Holocuast is being drowned into the depths of nothingness, and it’s becoming even more dangerous, and to Holocaust survviors, they are struggling to tell their storeis as quickly as they can.
Anne Frank has been dead since 1945 and her voice is loud, but there are so many that are ignoring her screaming. Anne Frank hid during the Holocuast from 1942-1944, and then was sent to two concentration camps, and died of Typhus. Anne’s diary has become iconic, and it’s one of the diaries that have been debated for years since it was published in English in 1952.
With Anne Frank being the target and the center of Holocuast extortion and Holocuast distortion, it is important to get the diary back into the hands of students and educators before the Holocuast becomes a subject that no one knows about.
The danger of removing Anne in the first place was their first mistake, misusing her is dangerous and it could be detrimental to the history of the Holocuast and it could be detrimental to the education of students to not know what the Holocaust is, so that the world could stop the repeating, before it’s too late.
