The Anne Frank House, a museum dedicated to the Jewish girl who died in a Nazi concentration camp, yesterday donated 3,400 copies of its catalog to Japanese libraries after hundreds of copies of Anne Frank’s diary were damaged.
The delegation from the museum in Amsterdam visited the office of Tokyo’s Suginami ward, donating the catalog showing its exhibits and a miniature of the Anne Frank House where her family hid during World War II.
The museum will donate 3,400 copies of the catalog to libraries throughout Japan, a local official said.
Photo: AFP
More than 300 copies of the diary, or publications containing biographies of Anne Frank, Nazi persecution of Jews and related material have been torn at many public libraries in Japan, news of which sparked alarm amid a rightward shift in the country’s politics.
Suginami ward found at least 121 damaged books at 11 of its 13 public libraries, the local office said.
Jan Erik Dubbelman, head of the museum’s international department, handed the catalog to Suginami Mayor Ryo Tanaka.
“I also trust that by strengthening and expanding the friendship between Japan and the Anne Frank House and the people in Japan who strive for harmony, this incident will be soon forgotten,” he said.
Tanaka said since the news was reported the ward had received dozens of related publications given by donors.
The Israeli embassy in Japan has also donated 300 copies of the diary to Tokyo libraries.
Anne Frank, a German Jew born in Frankfurt in 1929, documented her family’s experiences hiding in concealed rooms during the German occupation of the Netherlands where they settled in 1933.
They were caught and sent to Nazi concentration camps. Anne and her sister died of typhus in 1945.
Anne’s Diary of a Young Girl was added to the UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s Memory of the World Register in 2009.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese