The Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial was inspired by a traveling exhibit about Anne Frank in 1995. With an intense campaign of planning, designing, and fund raising, this unique educational center was opened on Aug. 16, 2002, the first memorial to Anne Frank in the United States.
The quotations below,from Anne's diary, reflects her dread of the holocaust which eventually claimed her own life, and that of her family, except for her father Otto who survived and returned to the hiding place in Amsterdam, finding the now famous diary. There are over 60 quotations on the wall, including others related to the holocaust, encompassing the broad range of aspirations for freedom and justice, the rights of all people.
Much of the money for this statue was raised by Idaho School children.
Greg Stone, painter and sculptor based in western Massachusetts, created the life-size cast bronze sculpture, placed so that Anne appears to be looking out of her attic window.
Anne is standing with her right leg on the seat of a wooden chair, her left leg resting on the middle rung of the back of the chair. Here left hand is held behind her back and her left hand is raised as if pulling back an imaginary curtain. Her head is turned slightly to the right and downward, as if gazing at the street below.
The sculpture is mounted on the cement floor of the circular enclosure, made of natural stone, at an opening suggesting a window. A reading amphitheater faces one side of the sculpture, which is flanked by a water course and the 80-foot quotation wall.
The Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial is designed to be an interactive educational experience, and many educational events are undertaken by the Idaho Human Rights Education Center. This world-class center draws visitors from the region and the nation. It's opening was covered in an article in the New York Times and has been featured in national publications and books.
The Boise Dept. of Parks and Recreation gives these details of the different elements of the memorial and education center:
The Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial is a .81-acre educational park inspired by Anne Frank's faith in humanity.
Anne Frank Tree Saplings
The Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial in Boise has been named one of only 11 United States sites to receive a sapling from the actual Anne Frank Chestnut Tree in Amsterdam. To learn more, click here.
The Quote Wall
The 180-foot Quote Wall takes you on a walk through history. The words of presidents and slaves, children and philosophers, poets and paupers, the famous and the unknown are inscribed side by side.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
On December 10, 1948, the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the inalienable rights and fundamental freedoms of all people. Eleanor Roosevelt was chair of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, which wrote this document promoting social progress, freedom and better standards of life.
Bethine and Frank Church Writing Table
Frank Church served as an Idaho Senator from 1957 to 1981. He was instrumental in the passage of the first Civil Rights Bill since Reconstruction. His widow, Bethine, continues his legacy and is active in numerous civic activities. A bronze representation of Anne's diary [rests on the desk].
Anne Frank Statue
From the amphitheatre there is a view of the life-size bronze statue of Anne Frank. The sculptor, Greg Stone, cast Anne as if she were pulling back an imaginary curtain and gazing out a window from the family's attic hiding place. Funded largely by the students of Idaho, the names of 44 participating schools are on pavers in the area near the Church Writing Table.
Stone Bookcase
Anne and her family, as well as four other Jews, hid for more than two years until they were betrayed, arrested and sent to concentration camps. The markings behind the statue depict rooms in the cramped hiding place. A wooden staircase, much steeper than the stairs at the Memorial, was hidden by a movable bookcase. The quotes on the stone bookcase were taken from Anne's diary.
The Cityscape Wall and Butterfly Poem
The wall closest to the Boise River is reminiscent of Amsterdam where Anne Frank Lived. "The Butterfly" was written by Pavel Friedmann while he was imprisoned n the Terezin Concentration Camp near Prague. Of the 15,000 children who entered Terezin, only 100 survived. Friedmann died in Auschwitz in 1944.
About the Center
The Idaho Human Rights Education Center is the builder of the Memorial, which was the Center's gift to the City of Boise on August 16, 2002. A nonprofit educational organization, the mission is to promote respect for human dignity and foster individual responsibility for justice and peace through education.
Although there are around 60 quotations on the 180-foot wall, these two are from Anne Frank:
Dear Kitty . . . Countless friends and acquaintances have been taken off to dreadful fate. Night after night, green and gray military vehicles cruise the streets. They knock on every door, asking whether any Jews live there. If so, the whole family is immediately taken away. If not, they proceed to the next house. It's impossible to escape their clutches, unless you go into hiding. They often go around with lists, knocking only on those doors where they know there's a big haul to be made. They frequently offer a bounty, so much per head. It's like the slave hunt of olden days. I don't mean to make light of this; it's accompanied by crying children, walking on and on, ordered by a handful of men who bully and beat them until they nearly drop. No one is spared. The sick, the elderly, children, babies and pregnant women -- all are marched to their death. I get frightened myself when I think of close friends who are now at the mercy of the cruelest monsters ever to stalk the earth. And all because they're Jews.
Anne M. Frank
November 19, 1942
I want to go on
living even after
my death! And
therefore I am
grateful to God for
giving me this gift,
this possibility of
developing myself
and of writing, of
expressing all that
is in me.
Anne M. Frank April 4, 1944
In honor of
Senator Frank and Bethine Church