Greater
technology
, with a more modern structure, which also includes the
redesign of content
and the incorporation of
new museological
pieces
to attract new audiences and provide greater reflection on the Holocaust.
Under these premises, the
Ana Frank Argentina Center (CAFA) announced its
renovation
project
planned for this year, on the occasion of its
15th anniversary.
The renovation plan will be financed by the
Anne Frank House
in Amsterdam (Netherlands and private capital).
The reopening of the house-museum, located at
Superí 2641
, in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of
Coghlan
, is scheduled for
June 12
, the date on which the birth of
Anne Frank (1929-1945) and Adolescents' Day (Law No. 26,809).
Little Nazi soldiers.
Toys to indoctrinate.
Courtesy Anne Frank Center
According to Héctor Shalom, director of the Ana Frank Argentina Center, the
advance of
anti
-Semitism
and the
extreme right
in Europe,
Islamophobia
and, above all, the
massacre perpetrated by the terrorist group Hamas
on October 7, 2023 in the south of Israel , were some of the reasons that led to the decision regarding the renovation of the museum and review of contents.
“We feel that the demands on us are growing, and
our responsibility as educators is growing
.
That is why we are here as if we were pushed, challenged by reality, to do more, to do better, and to be willing to take on the challenges that the new reality imposes on us,” Shalom said at a press conference.
“We feel an enormous responsibility because October 7, 2023 was also a milestone in the history of the Jewish people.
It is possible to say that
on October 7 something broke
, something that we thought was not possible to live again was lived again.
“It is as intense in its cruelty as the Holocaust but as present in its modality as the pogroms of Tsarist Russia,” he highlighted.
New pieces.
Documents on Nazism.
Courtesy Anne Frank Center
“This reality is not foreign to us in Latin America nor in South America.
It is not foreign to us in Argentina.
They force us to do new things: we cannot continue doing and saying the same thing when
the reality in these 15 years that we have been in the museum forces us, challenges us, harasses us
,” she concluded.
The changes, one by one
“Museums need to be renewed: in 15 years, will we be the same?
Yes Do we dress the same?
No. Because we acquire new concepts and new perspectives,” explained Gabriel Miremont, museologist in charge of the project.
Among the main renovations the following stand out:
• The garden will have a new design, it will have a
mural
of Anne Frank, more technology and will be more modern to allow greater fluidity in entering and exiting the museum.
Shelter.
Replica of Ana and her family's hiding place.
Courtesy Anne Frank Center
• The hall will be reequipped and will become a
store
to buy books, merchandise and other objects.
In addition, it will have a column that supports the continuity of the museum where the
versions of Anne Frank's diary
will be exhibited , organized by country and different themes.
• The idea of the timeline
will be maintained
in the first rooms of the center, with the incorporation of sound and moving objects and images, and more messages to the
curatorial script
.
• The Anne Frank Center will have a
three-dimensional model
in one of its rooms: turning it around will allow you to see the house on three sides and understand how its structure works.
Replica.
Anne Frank Center.
Photo: archive
• There will be
two classrooms
to generate multiple activities: one for educational activities and another small auditorium equipped with technology to exchange ideas.
“The incorporation of wood and new lights will help generate
acoustics
and containment in that space,” said Miramont.
• On the stairs there will be a phrase from Anne Frank as a
reflection
that can be read when going up to the first floor.
More phrases and voices of the young woman will be present on the walls of the museum rooms.
• The
façade
will also be renovated: “The fence opens like a canopy to contain the entrance.
The sidewalk flooring changes at both entrances, both in the theater and in the living room,” said Miramont.
• In addition, the theater will have a
“smart screen”
to announce the play, with additional information about the house: schedules, types of visits and general information, among other things.
This digital billboard is activated as you pass the front of the house.
• The recreation of the hiding place where Anne Frank was with her family in Amsterdam will also be renewed.
The most intimate space is the
bedroom
and the
desk
where her thoughts arise.
“The idea is to evoke Ana with the voice and think that within this space there was a voice, a need to speak and also to write,” said the museology expert.
Diaries.
Ana's memory, exposed.
Photo: archive
• Modernization of the
guide room
: it will have a minibar, coat racks, backpack hangers and a folding table to expand or streamline the space and circulation in case of events.
This place will have a blackboard “to think about a more dynamic and younger space.”
New pieces arrive at the museum
The contribution of new museological objects will be essential to tell the story of the Holocaust through Anne Frank's diary, adding content without altering her story.
For this, Menno Metselaar, a member of the Anne Frank House team in Amsterdam, will be in charge of incorporating pieces and reviewing content.
“This new exhibition is a
work in progress
.
The search and selection of objects is also in process,” Mastellaar said.
However, it exhibited some new objects that will be part of the collection of the Anne Frank Argentina Center.
A photo album from the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games
stands out .
Several images show the
Nazi salute
that the public gave to Adolf Hitler, the
Führer
, before the start of the Second World War (1939-1945).
Also on display will be a
wallet with giant German marks and
bank
notes
of different denominations (1922 and 1923),
food ration coupons
used in the Netherlands (1944), metal triangles that were used in concentration camps to
mark to different groups of prisoners
,
hollow books with a clandestine radio
inside and
little Nazi soldiers with whom children
and the Hitler youth used to play.
Ana's memory
Anne Frank was a young Jewish woman of German origin.
She was born on June 12, 1929 in Frankfurt.
Due to Nazi persecution, her family had to escape to Holland (now the Netherlands).
Learn.
Documents and script from the Anne Frank Center.
Photo: archive
During the Second War, she lived almost two and a half years hidden from the Nazis until she was discovered with her family and four other members in a hiding place in Amsterdam.
From confinement, Anne recounted the horror of the Holocaust and left a record in her intimate diary, which later became known worldwide as the Diary of Anne Frank.
At the age of 15, Ana was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp on September 2, 1944, and then to Bergen-Belsen, where she died of typhus in February 1945, months before the extermination camp was liberated. by the allies.
His father, Otto Frank, was the only survivor of the family.
In 1947, once the war was over, he published her daughter's diary under the title
The House Behind
.
J.S.