Anne Frank exhibit comes to Toronto amid spike in anti-Semitic, racist incidents, TDSB says

The Toronto District School Board is hoping that having its students stage a travelling exhibit about Anne Frank will help educate them about the destruction hate can bring — especially at a time when the board says it's seeing a spike in racist and anti-Semitic graffiti in its schools.

Anne Frank - A History for Today details the life of the Jewish girl and her family, who hid in an attic in the Netherlands from 1942 to 1944 before being arrested and sent to die in the Nazi death camps.

The young teen gained fame after her death when her diaries describing her family's life in hiding were published under the title The Diary of a Young Girl.

The exhibit features special items on loan from the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam.

Shari Schwartz-Maltz, who is on the Toronto District School Board's Jewish Heritage Committee, said there has been a rise in reported anti-Semitic and racist incidents in general, and that disturbing trend has also been seen in TDSB schools.

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"We've even seen anti-Semitic graffiti at our schools, racist graffiti at our schools. So we felt very strongly that we had to bring an exhibit that taught kids that it's wrong to hate," said Schwartz-Maltz.

"And what better way to do it than through the words of a 13-year-old girl, because they are her age."

The exhibit just happened to be stored in Ontario before being shipped out west, so the TDSB requested a chance to show it at John Polanyi Collegiate Institute. But the approval came with a big caveat.

Anne Frank House in Amsterdam stresses "peer education," so in order to get the exhibit, the TDSB had to commit to training 17 students to explain the exhibit to other young people.

Anne Frank House sent a staff member to conduct the day-long course.

"It was pretty intense," said Owen Reid, 17, a student at John Polanyi Collegiate on Lawrence Avenue West near Allen Road.

Reid said the special exhibits — including an actual yellow cloth patch the Nazis forced the Jews to wear in Amsterdam and a replica of Anne Frank's diary — really brought her story to life.

"It's hard to picture yourself in that time period, but with the artifacts like this you can kind of put yourself in that time period a bit better," he said.

"It was very different, but in a lot of ways similar to what's happening now."

The Grade 11 student connected with a group of Grade 7 pupils from John G. Althouse Middle School in Etobicoke by asking them if they every had to share a room with a sibling.

"Now imagine having to share a small space with eight people!" said Reid, who can't believe Frank and her family had to share such a small attic for two years.

The exhibit features photographs of  Anne Frank's childhood in Frankfurt and in Amsterdam, and portrays the rise of the Nazis and the persecution of the Jews. 

More than 2,300 TDSB students from about 90 schools have seen the exhibit. Each student received a copy of The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank from the Heather Reisman Love of Reading Foundation. 

To mark Jewish Heritage Month, the exhibit will be open to public on Sunday, May 7 and Sunday, May 28 from 9.a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.

Brandon Ton, 13, one of the students from John G. Althouse Middle School, said he got a lot out the experience, 

"I think we should learn from the past and don't let it repeat," he said.