Spirit of Anne Frank Awards - Anne Frank Center

November 2007 • The Anne Frank Center, USA
Support the Legacy
The Anne Frank Center, USA is a
501c3 not-for-profit human rights
organization. Its educational mission
is to disseminate information and
lessons based on Anne Frank’s life
experiences, her times, and her
written works. Your support to
maintain and expand our traveling
exhibitions and programs will ensure
that Anne Frank’s legacy is an ongoing
gift to present and future generations.
All donations, large and small, are
welcome and extremely helpful. You
may wish to consider establishing
and donating via a charitable trust.
A bequest can be in the form of a
specific gift of cash or property; it may
be in the form of stocks and bonds,
or a percentage of the remainder
of an estate. Your donation and/or
bequest can be earmarked for general
purposes or for a specific program.
Please give generously.
38 Crosby Street, Fifth Floor
New York, NY 10013
tel: (212) 431-7993
fax: (212) 431-8375
www.annefrank.com
Anne Frank Photo credits: AFF Basel/AFS Amsterdam
Spirit of
Anne Frank
Awards
The annual Spirit of Anne
Frank Awards fundraising
gala was held at rockefeller
Center’s rainbow room on
June 12. For the past eleven
years, the Anne Frank Center
has celebrated the birthday
of its namesake by honoring students, educators, and citizens who have
shown unparalleled leadership and initiative in the fight against intolerance
that Anne Frank was only able to write about and imagine.
more than 350 supporters turned out to support the Center’s programs.
A live auction of a First Dutch Edition of the Diary (one of only 1,500 printed)
drew spirited bidding and a winning tender of $7,000. The Jazz museum
in harlem All-Stars quartet, featuring noted jazz historian and saxophonist
Loren Schoenberg, provided musical entertainment throughout the evening.
The human Writes Award is granted to a writer whose work reflects
the principles expressed in the Diary. This year, the recipient was the
internationally acclaimed author Joseph Kanon, whose novels include the
best selling Los Alamos, as well as The Good
German, released in 2006 as a motion picture
starring George Clooney.
Anne Frank Distinguished Advocate
Award recipient, noted investor and
humanitarian Seth Glickenhaus
2007 Spirit of Anne Frank Award Recipients Gayle Tallman, Noor Najafi,
Maria Golub, Michael Madden, Karmen Ponder-Moore and Allan Janoff
The Distinguished Advocate Award was
bestowed upon Seth m. Glickenhaus. The
93 year-old philanthropist and founder of the
venerable Wall Street firm Glickenhaus &
Co. spoke eloquently about the importance
of addressing world poverty as a means of
quelling conflict. he was introduced by the
Center’s 94-year old Chairman Emeritus Jack
Polak, the subject of a documentary entitled
Steal A Pencil For me, scheduled for release
this fall.
Continued on page 2

Continued from page 1
Allan Janoff, the owner of The Crystal Palace catering hall
in New Jersey, was honored with the Outstanding Citizen
Award. mr. Janoff is active in numerous charities, and offers
the full use of his facility to fundraising groups at modest
cost.
But the true stars of the evening were the extraordinary
students and teachers who were singled out from hundreds
of worthy applicants for their tireless devotion and
innovative work. Gayle Tallman, a teacher from Edmonton,
Alberta, created that city’s annual Facing hate Symposium,
which teaches over 2,000 high school seniors the modern
day lessons to be learned
These students
provide ample
hope that the
next generation
will ably carry
on the fight
for peace and
justice
from the holocaust. houston
history teacher michael
madden transformed the
hallway outside his classroom
into a mini-museum, known
as the hall of remembrance,
containing holocaust-related
art by 200 students.
Among the students honored,
Karmen Ponder-moore, a
senior from Oklahoma City,
has participated in numerous
community service programs.
In accepting the Outstanding Youth Award, she demonstrated
the speaking skills with which she enraptured a crowd of
5,000, including the President and First Lady, at the opening
Other Event Photos
2
ceremonies of the Oklahoma City National memorial
Center. maria Golub, from Seattle, who will be attending
Bates College this year, organized an “Eat for Darfur” project
to raise funds for Doctors without Borders.
And Noor Najafi, a student from Gainesville, Florida,
was awarded the $10,000 Leah and Ed Frankel Support
Foundation Outstanding Youth Scholarship. As an Afghan-
American in the US following 9/11, Noor has plenty of
first-hand experience with prejudice and harassment. he
devoted hundreds of hours to his Dream vision Literary
Project, an opportunity for students to reflect in their
writing on issues of bias.
These students provide ample hope that the next
generation will ably carry on the fight for peace and justice,
and demonstrate the continuing influence of a young girl
ensnared, and ultimately destroyed, by hatred that she
struggled to comprehend. Once more, the gala proved to
be a boon to the Center’s existing programs, and those to
be developed in the coming year, by surpassing last year’s
fundraising total.
Next year and beyond figure to be better still. The 2008
Spirit of Anne Frank Awards will be held for the first time
at The Pierre hotel at 2 East 61st Street. The larger space
will allow us to accommodate even more supporters in
a exceedingly comfortable setting. We are already busy
planning the event! We hope to see as many of you as
possible there on June 12, 2008.
Photos by Barry Gordin

News and Notes
May 2007 also marked the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Anne Frank House.
Otto Frank created a Foundation to preserve the building on 263 Prinsengracht as a
museum to counter hatred and establish an education center for people across the
globe. Today close to one million people visit the Anne Frank House annually.
in January 2007 the afC was awarded a significant grant from the
Conference on Jewish material Claims against Germany, Inc. to purchase
new exhibitions to travel across the United States.
Partner Organization Meetings
For the past two years the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam has organized
‘Partner meetings’ in which the Anne Frank Stichting in Amsterdam, the
Anne Frank Zentrum in Berlin, the Anne Frank Trust in the UK, the Anne
Frank verein in Austria, and the Anne Frank Center, USA have been
discussing topics to improve collaboration among all partners. meetings
took place in Berlin, London and Amsterdam. Approximately 15 staff of
the organizations spent a number of days discussing and developing future
plans, sharing educational initiatives, enhancing collaborations, and simply
getting acquainted with each other.
As a result, the Anne Frank Stichting has been in the process of launching
a communication platform that will provide an electronically accessible
forum to which all partners can contribute. Although all partners have
various modalities by which they accomplish their mission — particularly as
it pertains to funding, cultural environments, and organizational structure
— they all share one main global objective: to use the story of Anne Frank
to combat anti-Semitism, racism and discrimination, in pursuit of freedom,
equality and democracy. The draft version of this platform was presented in
holland on may 3rd, 2007. It will be accessible to each partner for updates
and changes. The staff of the Anne Frank Center, USA is grateful to the
Anne Frank Stichting and its staff for having made these meetings possible.
Impacting How
our Students
Learn
the anne frank Center, uSa is
partnering with several area museums,
including the Brooklyn museum, museum
of the City of New York, Brooklyn
historical Society, and the Gotham Center
for NYC history, to provide a group
of teachers in Brooklyn with ongoing
professional development workshops,
classroom resources, and two summer
institutes. This program is focused on
serving the teaching staff from schools
that have been labeled SINI, or Schools
in Need of Improvement, by the NYC
Department of Education. many of these
teachers work with disadvantaged youth
(71% of the students are eligible for free
lunch) in these low performing schools,
and most are faced with additional
testing, reporting, and meeting time
that require them to devote additional
time outside the classroom to their
work. As a result their time for personal
growth and development as educators
is extremely limited, and traditional
options such as graduate coursework
may not be feasible for these teachers.
Through visits to partnering museums
and exposure to the variety of primary
resources in their collections, as well
as scholarly lectures, methodology, and
lesson planning workshops, participating
teachers will enhance their own
knowledge of American history as well as
develop effective strategies that promote
improved student performance.
This program is made possible through a
Teaching American history grant, funded
through the US Department of Education,
and runs from September 2007 through
August 2010.
3

Art and Propaganda in Nazi Occupied Holland
Art and Propaganda in Nazi Occupied holland is a new
exhibit of the Anne Frank Center, USA. The exhibition was
researched and translated by AFC and the Netherlands,
and translated by AFC Advisory Board member rolf
Wolfswinkel. Both the henry Pieck and the de Zaayer
collections were purchased and subsequently donated
to the AFC by Jack Polak. This collection sheds further
light on life under Nazi occupation in the Netherlands,
as well as in the concentration camps where so many of
its inhabitants, including Anne Frank, her mother and her
sister, perished in squalor and despair.
Sketches from Buchenwald is a series of stark lithographs
based on the concentration camp experience of the
Dutch artist henri Pieck, the less famous of the Pieck
twins. Brother Anton is well known for his vast portfolio
of paintings, etchings, woodcarvings, and engravings.
henri, whom Anton considered to be the more talented
of the pair, turned to Communism and served as an
informant for the Soviet Union. That work was unknown
to the Nazis upon their occupation of the Netherlands.
however, he was arrested for underground activities and
sent to the Buchenwald camp in Germany. he managed
to survive there from 1942 until its liberation in 1945
partly due to his artistic talents.
having secretly sketched fellow prisoners, Pieck made
23 drawings from memory after his release. Seven of
these harrowing original works are included in the
exhibit. The faces of the subjects reflect their bleak
4
suffering. Yet, remarkably, they also display hope for
the freedom that many of them never would achieve,
as in the sketch entitled Behind Barbed Wire, depicting
a group of prisoners gazing out beyond the nightmare
world in which they were trapped. The drawings are
simultaneously disturbing and poignant, reflecting both
hopelessness and unyielding perseverance.
Oorlogsprentenboek (Book of War Prints – Illegally
Published) is a collection of linocuts, created during the
occupation by marie de Zaaijer, an artist about whom
very little is known. The prints, 12 of which are on
display at the Center, reflect the hardship of life in a small
country smothered by the Nazi occupation, as well as the
efforts of the resistance movement.
The complete collection of 31 prints was presented by
ms. De Zaaijer to Queen Wilhelmina in January of 1946.
Serving in exile from Great Britain during the occupation,
the Queen sought to rally her countrymen with radio
broadcasts that were presented illegally and at significant
risk. Though the Queen was said to be “filled with
admiration,” she returned all of the prints to the artist.
The prints on display are intricate in their detail; each
image features text which explains and amplifies its
meaning. In Concentration Camp, a bleak image of a
prisoner in front of a cross but behind barbed wire,
reads: Let us think about them / Who will one day ask us /
What did you do then, and what did you suffer?

{
The tone of the works is one of
defiance. Holland will rise up again!
Exhorts Inundation, inspired by
Germans’ opening of locks to flood
cities and thereby prevent them from
receiving food.
While ms. De Zaaijer’s works strove
to embolden and encourage resistors,
the Nazis countered with art of their
own in an attempt to suppress dissent
and win over their conquered subjects.
resistance Art and Propaganda in Nazi
Occupied holland 1940-1945 features
eight original propaganda posters
distributed by the Nazi-controlled
Dutch government.
BOLShEvISm IS mUrDEr! reads a
graphic comic book style portrayal of
a father and daughter lying dead in a
pool of blood as their horrified wife/
mother looks on. Another poster
cynically reminds the Dutch of its four
wars fought against Great Britain in the
17th and 18th centuries, exclaiming:
“holland Also has An Account To
Settle With England – retribution!”
The three exhibits, seen in the same
intimate space, provide a succinct
comparison of artistic styles and
purpose, and bring to light three facets
of the conflict: the utter helplessness
and ever-present hope of those
imprisoned, the brave struggle by
the people of an overmatched nation
to maintain its identity against its
powerful and tyrannical vanquishers,
and the efforts of those invaders to
keep its conquered population in
check. In the context of Anne Frank’s
innocent pleas, they serve as a grim
demonstration of the devastating
consequences of the intolerance that
she found so perplexing, and which
ultimately led to her tragic demise.
art and propaganda in
nazi occupied Holland
is available for rental. Please
contact ross auerbach
at 212-431-7993, Ext. 304,
or via email at rauerbach@
annefrank.com for more
information.
Skyline Exhibition
Premieres in Newport News, VA
The newly designed skyline version of the Anne Frank: A History for
Today exhibition made its North American debut on October 15, 2007
at the virginia War museum in Newport News, vA. robert Kessler,
Executive Director of the United Jewish Community of the virginia
Peninsula (UJCvP), brought the new exhibit to his community. he,
along with the AFC staff, are thrilled with the new layout and design.
mr. Kessler cites the lighter, easier to install hanging structures as well
as the timeline format of the panels as tremendous improvements
over the original version. “The new skyline exhibit is an incredible
teaching tool. The exhibit, with its timeline set up, allows students to
see the juxtaposition of the Frank’s story and rise of Nazism, showing
how it affected all families,” says mr. Kessler of the new exhibit.
Docent training sessions and
a professional development
workshop for teachers took
place at the virginia War
museum on October 11
and 12, led by hilary Eddy
Stipelman, AFC Program
manager. more than 40
volunteers participated in
these workshops, who are
now leading school groups of 6th – 12th grade students through
the exhibition. more than 3,000 students are scheduled to tour the
exhibit during its one month stay in Newport News.
The training sessions also included a presentation by the museum’s
Education Specialist, richard Peeling, who discussed incorporating
some of the museum’s own artifacts, such as a section of fencing from
the Dachau concentration camp salvaged by US troops who liberated
the camp in April 1945, into the school programs.
When asked why he wanted to bring this exhibit to Newport News,
mr. Kessler responded, “This is the second time I have used an Anne
Frank Center exhibit. It is a wonderful way to teach tolerance and
human rights. In fact, one of the students that was interviewed by the
local paper had never heard of Anne Frank until she came to view this
exhibit.” And of course it is these children that the AFC seeks most
fervently to reach out to.
The Anne Frank: A History for Today exhibit was developed by the
Anne Frank house, Amsterdam. The exhibit was purchased through
funding awarded to the AFC by the Conference on Jewish material
Claims Against Germany and matching donations.
5

Currently in my senior year at New York University,
I am required to write an honors thesis for my Jewish
history major—the holocaust. After spending a
semester in madrid, Spain, I received a call from my
mother telling me she had just had lunch with a friend
whose daughter raved about her internship at the Anne
Frank Center. Working with the Anne Frank Center
not only taught me about the non-profit sector, but also
facilitated my contact with a wide variety of holocaustrelated
resources.
The video cataloguing project I completed perfectly
illustrates the educational component of the internship.
Until working at AFC, my knowledge of the holocaust
was limited to a few choice texts intended to give
me a well-rounded view of the history and current
scholarly debate. In watching the many documentaries,
movies, lectures and other films in the AFC library I
was introduced to specific holocaust and human rights
themes. What I found most valuable about the project
was the writing element. After watching each film, I was
required to compose a brief overview of the content
and consider for which audience it was intended. I
determined the appropriate age groups by measuring
the level of violence and evaluating the sophistication of
the themes being addressed. Now, two months later, as
I begin my thesis research, I feel equipped to do so with
a relevant body of knowledge from these many visual
references.
Working at the AFC also introduced me to the nonprofit
sector. As I begin considering what path to take
with a Bachelor’s degree in Jewish history, the realm
of non-profit Jewish organizations in New York City
appears increasingly of interest. I loved learning about
the grant-writing process, not realizing until now that
most organizations like the AFC depend on grants.
AFC revealed how great the personal and intellectual
rewards of working in a creative educational environment
can be. As a docent at the museum and a student of the
holocaust, my teaching has been greatly strengthened
by the work I did at the AFC.
6
My Anne Frank
Center, USA
Internship
by Juliana Schnur
Summer 2007
New Staff Members
ross Auerbach recently joined the
AFC as the Exhibits manager. In this
capacity, he markets the exhibits,
negotiates contracts, shipping,
maintenance and storage of the
media, and travels to the host
venues to perform the installation
and de-installation. Previously,
ross has held various positions at
Ross Auerbach the New York Film Festival, Yale
University Art Gallery, and the
Beinecke rare Book and manuscript Library. he holds a
B.F.A. in Cinema Studies from New York University’s Tisch
School of the Arts, and an m.A. in Film and media Studies
from the Universiteit van Amsterdam.
Sandra Kulhay joined the AFC
in September 2007 as Project
manager. Sandra will be responsible
for coordinating various projects
and events, e.g. the annual Spirit
of Anne Frank Awards, screenings
and community related projects.
Previously, Sandra worked in
Switzerland managing international
events and meetings for various
Sandra Kulhay
corporate and non-profit
organizations. She also worked as Associate Director for
the Neighborhood Center in vienna focused on developing
and implementing intra-cultural group programs. Sandra
holds an equivalent master of Philosophy from the University
of vienna.
Additions to the Board
On behalf of the entire Board and staff at The Anne Frank
Center, USA, it is with great pleasure that we welcome
alexander mauskop, md and Jonathan L. Cohen to
the Board of Trustees. Both nominations were accepted
unanimously on April 17 and July 17, 2007, respectively.
Dr. mauskop is the Director and founder of the New
York headache Center. As a board certified neurologist,
he has been conducting research in the field of headaches
for over 20 years. he has delivered over 400 scientific
lectures and presentations and has appeared on local and
national television shows as well as being featured in many
publications.
Founder and manager of Generated materials recovery,
a provider of environmental and recycling services for
industry, Jonathan L. Cohen is an innovator with offices in
mainland China and the U.S. he has now joined his father,
Stephen A. Cohen, on the Board of the AFC.

teal a Penc
“Steal a pencil is the kind of story that makes one believe in
soulmates; if Jack and Ina can find and keep each other in the middle of
genocide, there is hope for lovers everywhere.”
— Melanie Haupt, The Austin Chronicle
“I know of no other film that so successfully combines the story of love
and human depravity, transforming it into a work of art, which the film
most truly is.”
— Richard L. Rubenstein STM, PhD (Harvard), President Emeritus
* * * * (4 stars)
“This film is put together in an amazing fashion...An extraordinary
original holocaust documentary...startlingly surprising in so many ways...”
— Janet Pierson, SXSW
“This is one holocaust story that goes beyond horror and even survival
to a fully realized life.”
— Joseph Kanon, author of The Good German
Theatrical Bookings
11/1 – 11/3 Jengo’s Playhouse (Wilmington, NC)
11/2 – 11/4 minnesota Film Arts (minneapolis, mN)
11/5 – 11/8 real Art Ways (hartford, CT)
11/6 – 11/8 Cinema Salem (Salem, mA)
11/9 – 11/15 Quad Cinema (New York, NY)
11/9 – 11/15 Laemmle’s music hall (Beverly hills, CA)
11/9 – 11/15 Camelot Theater (Palm Desert, CA)
11/12 – 11/14 The Theater (West Palm Beach, FL)
11/12 – 11/14 Cinema Paradiso (Ft. Lauderdale, FL)
11/12 – 11/14 Circle Cinemas (Tulsa, OK)
Upcoming Festivals
palm Beach Jewish film festival: November 29 - December 9
Anne Frank Center, USA
Current Touring Schedule
as of Oct. 1, 2007
anne frank Story
Pella, IA • September 13 - October 15, 2007
madison, WI • January 7 - February 3, 2008
Wooster, Oh • march 24 - April 18, 2008
Glen Ellyn, IL • march - April 2008
reading, PA • may 2008
Chicopee, mA • September 2008
anne frank: a History for today
Asheville, NC • September 26 - November 9, 2007
St. Petersburg, FL • September 29 – December 23, 2007
muncie, IN • October 27, 2007 - January 20, 2008
Chandler, AZ • April 4 - may 2, 2008
anne frank: a History for today mezzo
Sullivan, mO • may 15th - June 15th, 2007
Westlake village, CA •
November 8 - November 18, 2007
Atlanta, GA • February - may, 2008
anne frank: a History for today: mini
Putnam valley, NY • October 15-26, 2007
White Plains, NY • January 14-22, 2008
anne frank: a private photo album
St. Petersburg, FL • September 29 - December 23, 2007
Syracuse, NY • February 2 - march 13, 2008
Lake Zurich, IL • march 1 - April 1, 2008
San Antonio, Tx • April 8 - may 11, 2008
Skyline exhibit
Newport News, vA • October 15 - November 15, 2007
Board of Trustees
Paul D. Kaplan
Chairman of the Board
William B. Bram
Jonathan L. Cohen
madi Ferencz
hon. Samuel G. Fredman
raymond haas Treasurer
Peter Kaufmann
Alexander mauskop, mD
Frederick B. Polak
Jack Polak Chairman Emeritus
Sybil rosenberg
Jonathan rothschild
michiel Schuit
Yvonne Simons
Executive Director
Stephen F. Stander
Thomas hans Wysmuller
Stephen A. Cohen
Legal Counsel
Honorary Board
hon. Bob hiensch
Former Ambassador of
The Netherlands to Israel
hugo Gajus Scheltema
Consul General of the
Netherlands in New York
Advisory Board
Sylvia Blake, Ed.D.
hyman A. Enzer
Steven Frank
Shabtay Levy
marjorie morris
Johannes van de Pol
William Shulman, Ed.D.
Danielle Steel
rolf Wolfswinkel, Ph.D.
Sylvia Wygoda
Development Board
Paul Escott
David hammelburg
heico Wesselius
7

FrOm ThE ExECUTIvE DIrECTOr
Quoting from David Oshinsky’s
recent essay in the NY Times
book report – “In summer of
1950, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
turned down the Englishlanguage
rights to a Dutch
manuscript after reading a
particularly harsh reader’s
report calling the diary ‘very
dull, a dreary record of
Yvonne Simons
typical family bickering, petty
annoyances and adolescent emotions.’ Sales would be
small because the main characters were neither familiar
to Americans nor especially appealing. The Diary of Anne
Frank would be rejected by 15 others before Doubleday
published it in 1952.”
In light of this remarkable fact, 2007 marked the 60th
anniversary of the Dutch publication of Anne Frank’s Diary.
To date, nearly 40 million copies have been published in
66 languages, making it one of the best-selling books in
history, emphasizing the fact that the Diary continues to
be one of the most inspirational pleas for humanity.
38 Crosby Street, Fifth Floor
New York, NY 10013 USA
Though you will be able to read about it elsewhere in this
Newsletter, the 11th Spirit of Anne Frank Awards Gala
on June 12th at the rainbow room was a huge success.
We had a compelling evening with a preview of Chairman
Emeritus, Jack Polak and Ina Soep Polak’s documentary
film Steal a Pencil for Me, which is being shown all across
the world. It recently received the prestigious Yad vashem
Chairman’s Award after a special screening at the United
Nations earlier this summer. For the second year in a row,
the Gala significantly exceeded previous revenues, which
help underwrite our educational programs. On June 12th,
2008 our 12th Annual Spirit of Anne Frank Awards will
take place at The Pierre, allowing us to expand in terms
of audience and program components. I hope you will join
us!
It is of great importance that you remain involved with The
Anne Frank Center, USA. Your support helps underwrite
our educational programs and exhibitions, and helps us
inspire and empower the next generation to build a world
based on mutual respect.
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