‘Right in the heart again’: Vandals paint 'Free Gaza' on statue of Anne Frank to coincide with 80-year anniversary
Vandals in Amsterdam have smeared “Free Gaza” in red paint on a statue of Anne Frank, the young diarist who documented Nazi persecution before perishing in the Holocaust, according to the foundation named after her.
The girl’s hands were also painted red.
The police have launched an investigation.
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The sculpture had been smeared with red paint at the beginning of July.
Sunday marks exactly 80 years since Anne Frank and her family were betrayed in hiding and arrested by occupying German forces in Amsterdam on August 4, 1944.
The German-Jewish family had fled to the Netherlands in the 1930s to escape persecution of Jews by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime in their home country, but then became trapped after invading German forces occupied Amsterdam.
Dutch police said they are investigating whether there is a connection between the latest vandalism incident and the anniversary of the Frank family’s betrayal.
The Anne Frank Foundation reacted with dismay.
“This graffiti hits us right in the heart again,” said the foundation’s director, Ronald Leopold.
He said the foundation intends to press charges.
The statue is in front of the former home of the Frank family in the south of the Dutch capital.
The family went into hiding in 1942 and lived in hiding for a good two years in a rear building, which sits on the Prinsengracht canal.
It was there that Anne wrote her now world-famous diary.
After their arrest, all the members of the Frank family were deported to concentration camps.
Anne died in the spring of 1945 at the age of 15. Only her father Otto survived.
