Netherlands investigates anti-Semitic messages in Anne Frank house

The message referred to a far-right conspiracy theory that the teenage Holocaust victim was not the author of her famous diary, and images of the projection appeared on Telegram’s private channel in the United States.

“It happened this week. We have been notified and are investigating,” an Amsterdam police spokesman told AFP, without giving further details.

The Anne Frank House Museum, which preserves the canal-side house where the Jewish Frank family hid from the Nazis during World War II, expressed its “shock and disgust.”

The museum, which receives about one million visitors a year, told AFP it had “reported the incident to the police” and was in contact with the city council and public prosecutors.

The projected message reads “Anne Frank, inventor of the ballpoint pen,” referring to the erroneous claim that part of the diary was written with a type of pen used only after the war. .

“Through projections and (online) videos, perpetrators are attacking the authenticity of Anne Frank’s diary and inciting hatred. An anti-Semitic and racist film,” the museum said.

The museum found that the message was projected onto the exterior for several minutes Monday night after the footage appeared on Telegram’s “hate video”.

The Dutch newspaper Het Parool, which first reported the incident, reported that anti-Semitic songs were playing in the background of the video.

This claim is based on the discovery of several ballpoint pens among Anne Frank’s papers in the 1980s, but they were actually accidentally left there by researchers in the 1960s.

– “blameable” –

Prime Minister Mark Rutte condemned the “reprehensible” act.

“Anti-Semitism has no place in our country. We can never and never should accept this,” Rutte tweeted.

The case demonstrates the need for legislation criminalizing Holocaust denial in the Netherlands, added Justice Minister Dylan Jesirgoz Zegerius.

Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema denounced the incident as “pure anti-Semitism”.

Anne Frank and her family hid in a secret annexe of a canal house for two years after the Nazi occupation of Holland during World War II, before being captured in a 1944 raid.

[In1945ateenagerandhissisterdiedintheBergen-Belsenconcentrationcamp[1945年、ベルゲンベルゼン強制収容所でティーンエイジャーと妹が亡くなりました。

Her diary, found by her father Otto, has become one of the most haunting records of the Holocaust, selling nearly 30 million copies.

However, the Netherlands is still trying to come to terms with its role in the wartime persecution of Jews.

There is now concern about a resurgence of far-right and anti-Semitic views.

A recent survey found that nearly a quarter of Dutch adults under the age of 40 believed the Holocaust was a myth or that the death toll was exaggerated.

In January, Dutch police announced they were investigating the projection of racist slogans on Rotterdam’s Erasmus Bridge during New Year’s festivities.