Anne Frank statue desecrated with graffiti reading ‘Gaza’, sparking anger among Dutch politicians

The statue of Jewish Holocaust victim Anne Frank has been desecrated with graffiti reading “Gaza”, an act that has been condemned by Dutch politicians.

The Anne Frank memorial on Merwedeplein in Amsterdam, located near the Jewish diarist’s first residence in the Netherlands, was vandalised with red paint spelling out “Gaza”.

Amsterdam councillor Stijn Nijssen took to X, formerly Twitter, to condemn the act of vandalism, saying: “It is truly shameful that someone would think of drawing attention to the Palestinian cause by defiling a picture of Anne Frank, an international symbol of the Holocaust.”

Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema called the act an “incredible disgrace” on Instagram.

“This young girl, who was brutally murdered by the Nazis when she was 15, reminds us and our city every day of humanity and kindness in the most difficult circumstances,” he said.

Pictured: Anne Frank, who hid from the Nazis in hidden rooms behind a bookcase in Amsterdam but was later captured by the Nazis and taken to a concentration camp, where she later died. Her statue in the Dutch capital was desecrated on Tuesday. Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema has called the act an “incredible disgrace”.

“How could you make his memory so violent? Whoever it was, what a shame! No Palestinian has been helped by having his precious statue tarnished,” Halsema added.

He also called on potential witnesses to report the incident.

The smaller-than-life-size bronze statue, set on a tall rectangular base of red granite, honors Anne Frank and also commemorates her 13,000 Jewish neighbors who died in the Holocaust.

The statue was designed by Jet Schepp and unveiled in July 2009.

The desecration of the Anne Frank statue comes amid rising tensions surrounding the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The act of vandalism in the Dutch capital is reminiscent of when activists desecrated the statue of London-born Jewish singer Amy Winehouse in Camden Town by sticking a sticker with the Palestinian flag over the late musician’s Star of David necklace.

Anne Frank was a German-born Jewish girl known for keeping a diary documenting her life in hiding amid Nazi persecution during Hitler’s occupation of the Netherlands.

Anne Frank, her older sister and her parents lived in an apartment near Merwede Square, where the statue stands, after moving to the Dutch capital from Nazi Germany in 1938.

Four years later, however, as the persecution of Jews intensified, the Frank family was forced into hiding. They lived in rooms hidden behind a bookcase in the building where Anne’s father, Otto Frank, worked.

The family was discovered by the Gestapo in 1944 and sent to concentration camps. Anne and her sister, Margot, were taken from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they died. Otto was the only survivor of the Holocaust from the Frank family.

Anne Frank was a German Jew who emigrated with her family to the Netherlands during the Nazi era. Separated from the rest of her family, she and her sister died of typhoid fever in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The image shows 12-year-old Anne doing her homework in 1941.

Otto Frank, Anne Frank’s father, is pictured showing Queen Juliana of the Netherlands the Frank family’s hiding place during World War II. The Queen visited the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Anne Frank’s birth