Thursday, September 18, 2008

Anne Frank Memorial

Anne Frank peeking out of a "window" at the Idaho Anne Frank Idaho Human Rights Memorial. This is right along the Boise River. I walked through the memorial while downtown this week and met a nice couple from New York who came to Boise just to see the memorial. There are small waterfalls and walls featuring human rights messages from famous folks. And yes, the area gets vandalized about twice a year. Usually, swastika stickers and anti-Semitic graffiti. Last year, this Anne Frank statue was tipped over. A finger broke off and scrapes on the head - repairs were good, I couldn't find the damage spots during my visit.

9 comments:

  1. Nice job I will say by the people who take care of the memorials.

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  2. Your comment about the vandalism saddens me a lot, especially with the kind of marks that they place. Why can't we just learn how to live with each other peacefully? =(

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  3. How sad that the memorial is vandalized. I guess there are jerks everywhere. :(

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  4. What a lovely memorial. I'm so glad you shared it with us.

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  5. Nice statue, shame there are anti-semites still around vandalising things like that.

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  6. Is their a Boise link to Anne Frank of some kind? She's a powerful symbol, I know, but it seems odd just popping up in Idaho...

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  7. Kris, I was waiting for someone to ask that questions, why Idaho? It grew out of the traveling Anne Frank exhibit in the mid-1990s. Something like 5% of the population went to see it, and since Idaho had been struggling with the human rights image (because of notorious Aryan groups based here), it seemed like a good fit to get everyone talking about human rights.

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  8. Thanks for answering that one, it's good to hear that people are there to remind loons like the Aryan groups that they are very much the minority.

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  9. It is wonderful that people can celebrate the memory of Ann Frank...even in Boise Idaho.
    One of the wonderful things is that those who unfortunately are not familiar with Ann Frank's heroism may ask a simple question " who was she'? and learn the himan lesson of life, acceptance, tolerance and survival.
    I do not live in Boise, but I surely hope that majority of people in that city are wonderful people who will fight antisemitism and prejudice. Just the fact that they have the memorial for Ann Frank is already the symbol of progress.
    The message for hapteful Aryan groups - Get out of my country!!!!

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