The Diary of Anne Frank is considered a reference to the history of the Holocaust and is one of the most-read books worldwide, now a leader of a conservative advocacy group challenged all of the above, arguing that in reality, the story of Anne Frank minimized the horrors of the Holocaust, so his allegation led to the approval of a new policy and the book was removed from a school library in Florida, United States.
As a result, several other schools in the same state also removed the book from their libraries, accepting the argument that the book did not really teach what the Holocaust was; on the contrary, it minimized the true horror that Germany had implemented during WWII.
“The Diary of Anne Frank: The Graphic Adaptation was removed from school libraries in Indian River County following the scandal at Vero Beach High School. By law, Florida schools are required to teach about the Holocaust, and nothing has changed in that regard,” said Cristen Maddux, spokeswoman for the Indian River County school district. Also the organization ‘Moms for Freedom’ points to the Anne Frank graphic novel as violating standards for teaching the Holocaust accurately, “We believe it is absolutely necessary to teach the true story,” the group argued.
Anne Frank’s Diary Accused of Promoting Nudity
Not happy with their inaccurate interpretation of how the Holocaust is dealt with in Anne Frank‘s book, they also lashed out against the content in the graphic novel, and it was the aforementioned organization, ‘Moms for Freedom’, who criticized one of the scenes, where Anne asks a friend to show her breasts.
In addition, they mentioned that in another part of the book, Anne walks by naked statues that are sexually explicit, according to the organization. It is for these two reasons that school authorities decided to withdraw the graphic novel from the libraries of some schools. District officials said the original book is still available in the libraries of all Indian River County schools.
Although they accepted that the graphic adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank was withdrawn because part of its text did not contribute to the themes of Holocaust education: “When districts address Holocaust education, they do so without denying or minimizing the events of Holocaust education,” insisted the authorities. In the face of the controversy, the county decided to create a committee made up of parents who will be appointed by the school board, so that they can decide which books will be removed if they consider them inappropriate for their children.
Story written in Spanish by Lizbeth García in Cultura Colectiva News