Anne Frank Exhibit Makes An Impression

Out in the sunshine, students from Carolyn Schafer’s class goofed off. The idea of waiting for their tour of the Anne Frank exhibit made them antsy. The thought of standing up for 45 minutes left them cold. Boys hung out, made wisecracks. Girls rolled their eyes.

Once inside, everything changed.

The North Pines Junior High eighth-graders grew quiet, quickly absorbed in the shadowy rooms filled with panels of photographs and text. Together, the 40-odd panels weave the tale of the Frank family, conditions in pre-war and wartime Germany and two years of hiding out in Amsterdam, which produced one of the most famous diaries in the world.

These students spent five weeks studying the play of “Anne Frank” and the history leading up to and including World War II.

“Anyone know what happened to Germany after World War I?” asked guide Jane Van Sickle.

“They were blamed for all the (war) damage,” said student Russell Leinart.

“That’s right,” Van Sickle said, leading the way into a discussion of Hitler’s rise to power.

Then they got to “the room,” a cramped model of Anne Frank’s bedroom, complete with movie star pictures taped to the wall.

“This is the stuff that really gets them,” Schafer said. “You talk history and it’s `yeah, yeah,’ but when you talk about the real stuff - eight people in the same rooms for two years…” Schafer doesn’t need to finish the thought. The students have to duck through the “hidden” door. They stand crammed shoulder to shoulder.

One by one students read quotes from Anne’s diary, which were up on the walls.

“Let the end come,” read Emory Reeves. “At least then we will know if we are to be the victors or the vanquished.”

Photographs showed how, once Anne ran out of pages in her diary, she squeezed notes onto any scraps of paper she could find.

“In August 1944, Anne wrote for the last time in her diary,” Van Sickle told the teens. “Someone betrayed her, we don’t know who.” The informant may have been motivated by a bounty payment, which amounted to $37.50.

“That’s all?” Reeves asked, incredulous.

The somber youngsters took in the harsher images of emaciated Jews and the mass graves. Finally, came the final panels focusing on racism today.

Schafer’s class had almost no questions for their guide. But when Van Sickle finally turned the tables and asked them a question, the answer came easily.

“Why do you think there’s so much interest in this?” she asked.

“It was a big deal then. It’s a big deal now,” said student John Marbury. “It showed what can happen when hatred and racism get together.”

And out went the students, back into the sunshine.