Curitiba, the largest city in southern Brazil, more than 10,000 kilometers from Amsterdam and Frankfurt, has a shopping center called Shopping Anne Frank.
It is a center of modest size, has existed for more than twenty years and is located on Anne Frank Street.
Hence the name, which is also reflected in the Anne Frank restaurant.
However, none of the products for sale here or in the other shops in the center - clothes, shoes, porcelain - seem to have a direct relationship with Anne Frank.
To switch to a Dutch perspective, this is reminiscent of the little bakery that opened in the summer of 2018 on Amsterdam's Raadhuisstraat, just around the corner from the Anne Frank House on the Prinsengracht.
Its name, Bakery Anne & Frank, immediately attracted attention.
The owner of the bakery assured that his intention was to pay tribute to the young “heroine”, but in social networks it was considered inappropriate and hurtful to name a store after him, even with a wink.
Within a few days, the name of the bakery had disappeared.
More information
Hunt for Anne Frank informer pits Holocaust investigators against each other
There is an unspoken agreement that no one should make money from the Holocaust.
But the fact that in an Amsterdam bakery there is a different reaction than in a Brazilian shopping center suggests that this agreement is not necessarily universal.
This helps us to understand that the contemporary culture of memory is more varied and dynamic and less unequivocal than we think, and it also indicates that not everyone accepts the rules of the game (almost all implicit).
We are all Anne Frank
There are many people who, by reading Anne Frank's diary, whose publication will be 75 years old on June 25, or visiting her house, see their interest in the best-known victim of the Holocaust satisfied;
but in today's world that is not enough, far from it, to satisfy the general need to appropriate the story of Anne. The offer of objects related to the figure of Anne Frank is so wide that it would serve to furnish our own Anne Frank House , in whose living room —given that it is not a substitute for the true hiding place but a complement— a miniature version of the original house would not be out of place.
This miniature house can be bought for less than ten euros in various
souvenir shops
of Amsterdam, both in a colored version and in a Delft blue version of just 15 centimeters in height.
As a more traditional alternative, a tile of the same color is sold with an image of the house, but without any text or explanation.
On the internet there are many objects related to Anne Frank to decorate that alternative house.
There are all kinds of posters: a black-and-white photograph of the secret stairway to the Secret Annex, or beautifully designed, non-controversial quotes from the newspaper, such as “Despite everything, I still believe that people, in the Bottom line, it's good."
A print of Anne Frank with the word Optimism is for sale on Etsy.com, part of a series on "powerful women."
FineArtAmerica, a competitor website, shows Ana dressed in the red and white plaid from the cover of her diary.
The young woman is also available as a "beautiful and smiling" black silhouette to hang on the wall, an object capable of "inspiring a conversation".
And there are vinyl decals to decorate the wall above the sofa with phrases like "Whoever is happy,
263 Prinsengracht, in Amsterdam, where Anne Frank took refuge and today houses her House Museum. AFP
In the alternative Anne Frank House there is a wide selection of mugs for the kitchen.
For example, for just under 20 euros you can buy an “Anne Frank coffee mug, made of ceramic”, with the inscription “Think of all the beauty that still remains around you and you will be happy”.
A cheerful drawing of Anne Frank adorns a set of coasters.
And then there's the inevitable fridge magnet.
the souvenir
shops
Magnets in Amsterdam sell photos of various historic buildings, including the famous façade along the Prinsengracht, as well as "magnets with inspirational quotes," such as "How wonderful it is that no one has to wait a single moment to start improving the world."
The illustration shows a woman hanging clothes on the line and a baby next to her, lying on the grass: an idyllic situation that Anne Frank was denied.
Of course, a copy of the diary will fit in the study.
In addition, the Anne Frank House museum shop sells a blank notebook with a design that playfully evokes the original diary.
Elsewhere empty notebooks are sold that look like replicas.
In Germany, you can buy a handmade copy with a clasp just like the real thing for 49 euros.
The reflections that we do not want to lock up in a diary can be shared on postcards, in which Anne Frank is represented by movie actresses and statues.
If you are willing to spend a little more money, you can use a Dutch Anne Frank postage stamp to send them.
PostNL, the Dutch postal service, issued the stamp on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II,
The bedroom offers an image of peace under a plaid blanket with the red and white checkered pattern that adorned the cover of the original newspaper, made in tribute to Ana by the American website Spoonflower.
A small North Carolina company produces a duvet cover with the quote “No one has become poor by giving” and can be accompanied by cushions from China, with a printed photograph of the memorial stone placed in Bergen-Belsen in honor of Anne and her sister, Margot.
Children's bedrooms can also be places of remembrance, as evidenced by the fact that more and more works are being published that tell the story of Anne in a way that is accessible to younger readers.
Among the books full of luxurious illustrations, there are more and more dedicated to Anne Frank's assistants, her cat and her chestnut.
A big-headed doll representing a cheerful Anne Frank is also sold in the market;
according to the manufacturer, "the perfect gift for anyone", although it adds that obviously "Anne Frank is a much loved victim of the Holocaust".
The chestnut tree that Anne Frank saw from her hiding place, in 2007.Peter Dejong (AP)
And finally, the garden, which houses a green memory.
The chestnut tree in the secret annexe's inner garden had a meaning that was reflected in the Dutch entrepreneurial spirit when a summer storm toppled it in 2010. Shortly after the tree fell, Marktplaats.nl, the Dutch equivalent of Ebay.com , began to sell a wide selection of chestnuts, branches and shoots from it.
Now, several years later, “healthy saplings” of the Amsterdam horse chestnut, which they call the “Dutch tree of hope”, are being offered.
As a more affordable alternative, garden centers sell the pink and red “Anne Frank” rhododendron and the orange rose called “Souvenir de Anne Frank”.
This is all?
Not at all.
Contemporary memory of Anne Frank is not limited to household items.
We can also have a portable memory and carry it on the body.
One of the most common manifestations is the t-shirt which, like the sweatshirt and the
baby bodysuit, is one more platform on which to display Ana's image and texts. The bracelets and necklaces also show her quotes in English, and
in
In recent times, with the covid, masks were added, also decorated with inspiring phrases.
Likewise, stickers are sold to make temporary tattoos with Ana's face, a collection with the slogan "Design your way of being".
The trivialization of the memory of the Holocaust
For many years there has been a debate about the control of the figure of Anne Frank.
In 1997, when the American writer Cynthia Ozick published an article entitled
Who does Anne Frank belong to?
, was thinking above all about various translations of the diary and its adaptation for the stage and was horrified at the constant and brazen appropriations, which, in her opinion, had begun when Otto Frank presented his youngest daughter's work to the world as something hopeful, optimistic and idealistic.
In recent decades, the question of who should control the Anne Frank estate has further clouded the contentious relationship between the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam and the Anne Frank Fund in Basel.
But the legal frictions between these two institutions hide a broader phenomenon, that of democratization or, at least, the individualization and consequent commercialization of the culture of memory.
The meaning with which Anne Frank is clothed is not only given to her by the institutions authorized to be heirs and custodians of her legacy.
It is also attributed to her when reading the newspaper and visiting the Secret Annex, when watching movies, documentaries, vlogs and comics about her and, of course, when buying souvenirs of all kinds.
The emphasis on Anne Frank's moments and expressions of hope in many commercial articles reinforces the impression that it is more important to identify with Anne than to better understand the historical context in which she lived and was killed.
In a society in which the memory of the persecution of the Jews receives more and more attention, while an ahistorical view prevails, the idea that it is totally impossible to understand the Holocaust, the existence of a culture of remembrance that is so commercial and superficial.
Flowers and stones on the tombstone of Margot and Anne Frank near Lohheide, Germany. Alexander Koerner (Getty Images)
That the citizens decide to show and value Ana is praiseworthy, it shows interest and commitment;
but it does not automatically lead to a better understanding of the complex reality in which that genocide was possible.
When push comes to shove, the only memories that can bring us closer to the past are those that create friction and even outrage and raise questions.
An important part of the material memories I am referring to offer a very selective image of Anne Frank's experiences and embody the optimistic tropes that Ozick detests so much.
This imbalance pervades the way of remembering the Holocaust and, we might add, of overwriting and forgetting it.
Kees Ribbens is a Dutch historian specializing in the culture of memory of the Second World War.
He works as a researcher at the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies in Amsterdam and is a professor at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam.
Translation by María Luisa Rodríguez Tapia.
50% off
Exclusive content for subscribers
read without limits
subscribe
I'm already a subscriber