The Anne Frank House museum in Amsterdam was projected with a text that alludes to an antisemitic conspiracy theory on Friday, setting off fury across the nation, according to Dutch authorities.
This week, the words “Ann (sic) Frank invented the ballpoint pen” were scrawled on the side of the structure where her family took refuge during the Holocaust, referencing the discredited myth that the famous diary of the Jewish youngster is a fabrication.
The canal house from the 17th century is now a museum dedicated to Frank’s brief life, which sees about 1 million visitors annually.
The “reprehensible” episode was denounced by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who tweeted: “We can never and should never accept this.” Justice Minister Dilan Yesilgöz-Zegerius used the incident to lobby for the passage of a statute that forbids Holocaust denial.
The new legislation would make it simpler to pursue legal action about the Amsterdam incident, which is now covered under a ban on disparaging remarks about minority groups.
The incident is being investigated, according to the Amsterdam police.
Our detectives are looking into it, according to our spokesperson Rob van der Veen, who talked to the AP.
Security personnel observed the phrase being projected from a car across the canal and called the police after it was discovered. An anti-Semitic Telegram account posted a video of the stunt.
As a Jew who was constantly in danger during World War II, Frank kept a diary of life under German control.
Although she and her family were detained in 1944 and transferred to a Nazi concentration camp, where she later perished, the diary was preserved and became one of the most well-known books in history.
Eddo Verdoner, the Netherlands’ top antisemitic officer, claimed that several sheets with ballpoint pen writing were discovered among Frank’s papers from the 1980s.
Holocaust denialists assert that it must be a fabrication because her father published her diary after the war, but before that sort of pen was available in the Netherlands. Researchers, however, concluded that the pages were unintentionally placed in the diary.
The Amsterdam prank, according to Verdoner, was “a terrible conduct that attempts to cast doubt on the experiences of the Holocaust witnesses,” he told the AP.
He claimed that since the COVID-19 pandemic, antisemitism has intensified, stating that throughout history, Jews have experienced heightened hostility during difficult times.
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