Page 3 - MIN SJA 12 SEPT 2015

LOCAL A13
Saturday 12 September

Witnessing History Up Close:

Dutch Caribbean Students Visit the Anne Frank House

ORANJESTAD/AMSTERDAM
- More than 50 students
from Aruba, Curaçao, Bo-
naire, Saba, St. Maarten
and Statia visited Anne
Frank Huis in Amsterdam
on Thursday.
The students were given
a special reception and
a tour of the Anne Frank
House, with the participa-
tion of executive director
Ronald Leopold and advi-
sory board member Joyce
Overdijk-Francis, followed
by a session to meet and
talk over drinks and snacks.
They were very impressed
by the words of Director
Leopold, who emphasized
Anne’s value for our soci-
ety today. The trip through
the Achterhuis with its lit-
tle stairs and tiny blinded
rooms left the students
speechless. “It was very
special to actually see this
history so close up” many
of them remarked.

The visit came about af-
ter program maker Tanja
Fraai, who works in asso-
ciation with the WeCon-
nect Foundation, made
contact with the Anne
Frank House for her docu-
mentary ‘A Kippah in the
Caribbean’. The WeCon-
nect Foundation makes
connections between the
current and former mem-
ber states of the Kingdom
of the Netherlands.
The life story of Anne Frank
is well known to many
people on the Dutch Ca-
ribbean islands. The Anne
Frank House has also been
active in Aruba, Curacao,
Sint Maarten, Bonaire,
Saba and Sint Eustatius for
many years with its interna-
tional travelling Anne Frank
exhibitions and education-
al projects.
(Copyright Anne Frank
Stichting, photograph by
Sanne Roijackers). q