Anne Frank still speaks to young people today

More than 80 years after her death, Anne Frank remains one of the most recognised voices of the Holocaust. Yet many people know only part of her story. They know about the diary, the secret annex, and the teenage girl who wrote about hope while hiding from Nazi persecution. They often know less about what happened after her arrest, the history of the building where she hid, and the ways her story is being introduced to new generations. 

Aaron Peterer of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam explored these themes at an event the Cape Town Holocaust & Genocide Centre and the Jacob Gitlin Library hosted on Wednesday 3 June. 

Peterer has worked with the Anne Frank House since 2002 and has spent many years taking its educational programmes to audiences around the world. His connection to South Africa is both professional and personal. 

“My mother is originally from Durban,” he told the audience. Her family emigrated to the United Kingdom in the late 1950s, where she grew up. Peterer was later born in London to his South African-born mother and an Austrian father. 

He has helped bring exhibitions and educational programmes to Johannesburg, Durban, and Cape Town, working with pupils, educators, and Holocaust centres across the country. 

“It was always very special for me to return to South Africa,” he said. Working in Durban, the city where his mother was born was “really, really emotional for me”. 

A major focus of Peterer’s presentation was the travelling exhibition Anne Frank: A History for Today, which has toured extensively in South Africa. The exhibition uses peer-guide training, allowing scholars to guide fellow pupils through Frank’s story and its contemporary relevance. 

Peterer said some of the most memorable lessons came from interactions with South African pupils. During one training session, a child asked him, “How is it possible that white people can be racist towards other white people?” Peterer said the question reminded him that every audience brings its own experiences and perspectives to history. Those conversations, he said, often become some of the most meaningful aspects of educational work. 

The first book he discussed during the event was After the Annex by Bas von Benda-Beckmann. “Many people’s understanding of Anne Frank and her story ends at the betrayal and at the arrest,” Peterer said. But the book follows the Frank family, and the other inhabitants of the secret annex, after their arrest on 4 August 1944. Drawing on eyewitness testimony and extensive research, it traces their experiences through prisons, transit camps, concentration camps, and, in some cases, liberation. 

Peterer said one of the book’s strengths is its examination of how historians reconstruct events. Witnesses often remembered incidents differently, especially when recounting experiences many years later. The book explores these challenges while piecing together the journeys of each person who lived in hiding. 

Readers follow the group from Amsterdam to the transit camp of Westerbork and later to Auschwitz. The book details the separation of family members and the different paths they took through the Nazi camp system. 

For Peterer, one of the most moving sections is its account of Anne Frank’s final months in Bergen-Belsen. “When you read that, you hear how day by day Anne Frank gets weaker and weaker,” he said. 

The book describes the harsh conditions in the camp and the suffering endured by Anne, her sister Margot, and thousands of other prisoners. It also chronicles the experiences of Otto Frank, Anne’s father, who became the only member of the immediate family to survive the Holocaust. 

The second publication Peterer discussed was The House on the Canal by Thomas Harding, illustrated by Britta Teckentrup. In this story of the building at 263 Prinsengracht in Amsterdam, where the secret annex was located, the house itself becomes the central character. 

Peterer described it as an ideal introduction for younger readers because it presents history through storytelling and illustrations. The book traces the building’s history from the 17th century to modern times, exploring Amsterdam’s growth during the Dutch Golden Age, the development of its famous canal system, and the many families and businesses that occupied the building over centuries. 

“It’s a very, very beautiful read,” Peterer said. 

The final publication he spoke about was Antisemitism: Myths, Masks & Misconceptions, newly released by the Anne Frank House. The publication builds on earlier editions but was substantially revised because “antisemitism has increased and morphed and transformed in so many different ways”, Peterer said. 

Part reference guide and part educational resource, the book addresses common questions about Jewish identity, antisemitic myths, and historical misconceptions. It also examines contemporary manifestations of antisemitism, particularly in digital spaces. 

The book explores how stereotypes and conspiracy theories spread online and discusses antisemitism in areas such as sport, including football fan culture. It also addresses debates around antizionism, criticism of Israel, and the circumstances in which political discourse can cross into antisemitism. 

According to Peterer, the goal is to provide readers and educators with reliable, research-based information that can help answer difficult questions and challenge misconceptions. 

The event concluded with a discussion of the Anne Frank Video Diary, a 15-part web series produced by the Anne Frank House. The project imagines what might have happened if the girl had chosen a video camera instead of a diary for her 13th birthday. 

Peterer admitted that he was initially sceptical about the concept. “At the beginning, I didn’t really like the idea of giving Anne Frank a video camera,” he said. However, he came to appreciate the project as a way of reaching audiences who increasingly engage with visual content rather than books. 

The series uses Frank’s own words while using video recordings to place viewers alongside her in the secret annex. It asks modern audiences to imagine how she might have documented her life if she had had access to contemporary technology. 

Throughout the discussion in Cape Town, a common theme emerged. Whether through books, exhibitions, museums, or digital media, educators continue searching for ways to ensure that Anne Frank’s story remains meaningful to new generations. 

More than eight decades after her death, her voice continues to inspire new forms of storytelling, encouraging readers and viewers to look beyond her diary and engage with the broader history that shaped her life and legacy.