Anne Frank statue in Amsterdam park vandalized again with pro-Palestinian graffiti
Police say memorial defaced for second time in less than a month
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — A statue of Anne Frank, a Holocaust victim famous for her diary account of hiding from the Nazis during World War II, has been covered with pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel graffiti, AFP learned on Sunday.
According to images published on X, the base of the statue was spray-painted with the slogan “Free Gaza,” while the girl’s hands were painted with the same blood-red color.
Police have opened an investigation into the most recent defacement, which likely occurred overnight between Saturday and Sunday, an Amsterdam police spokesman told AFP, adding that no suspect had yet been identified.
Anne Frank, who died of starvation and disease at age 16 in the Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentration camp in 1945, is an icon of the Dutch Jewish community and arguably one of the most well-known Holocaust victims in the world.
Her diary has become one of the most influential accounts of the Holocaust, which wiped out around three-quarters of the country’s 140,000 Jews during the Nazi German occupation.
The Amsterdam house where the Frank family took refuge for two years before being captured by the Nazis in 1944 — after which they were sent to Bergen-Belsen — has become a museum dedicated to her story.
Blijf met je poten van het beeld van Anne Frank af stelletje Jodenhaters https://t.co/aFRL7WNeq3 pic.twitter.com/yVS9zu8XEp
— Joop Soesan ???????????????? (@JoopSoesan) August 4, 2024
August 4 marks exactly 80 years to the day that the Franks were arrested and deported after their hiding spot was discovered. The question of who turned the Frank family in to the Nazis has never been definitively settled.
This weekend’s incident marks the second time in less than a month that the statue has been targeted, according to television station AT5 and confirmed to AFP by the police source.
AT5 said that the statue in a southern Amsterdam park had been vandalized on July 9, after which the municipality called for increased protection of the site with video surveillance cameras and night-time lighting.
The war against Hamas in Gaza began on October 7, when thousands of terrorists breached the border into Israel to massacre some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
