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The ANNE FRANK-Fonds (AFF) is a charitable foundation committed to combating racism and anti-Semitism in the spirit of Anne Frank. Last year the AFF again supported numerous organisations and projects.
Anne Frank died more than 60 years ago at the age of 16 in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp of typhus and exhaustion. Her diary has been translated into 70 languages and has reached out to millions of people around the world. Anne Frank stands as an icon for the victims of racism, anti-Semitism and fascism - in the past as well as in the present. The message of her diary is as valid today as it was when it was written: we have to combat racism and anti-Semitism in all its forms.
Support of Organisations and Projects
In 1963, Anne Frank's father - the only family member to have survived - founded the AFF. Its aim is to promote charitable works and to realise social and cultural obligations in the spirit of Anne Frank's message to the world. Last year the AFF again supported numerous projects and organisations. It awarded grants amounting to a total of CHF 450,000. Amongst others, the beneficiaries included the following institutions:
- Anne Frank-Medical Fund, Basel
- Institut für jüdische Studien der Universität Basel
- Anne Frank-Zentrum, Berlin
- Stiftung Johanna, Basel (Lernen im Park)
- This organisation, which is now part of K5 Basel, offers especially to women from Turkey the opportunity to learn German free of charge. The AFF has supported this institution, namely its alphabetisation programme, with substantial annual contributions for a considerable length of time. The aim of the project is to help Turkish women to become fully integrated.
- University of Sussex, United Kingdom
- Since 1997 the University of Sussex has run a research project called "The Symbiosis Project" which is supported by the AFF. The starting point was an assessment and review of the experiences and accounts of refugees from territories occupied by Nazi-Germany, who came to Great Britain at the end of the thirties and found a new home there. One of the focal questions dealt with was the transformation of Jewish identity caused by emigration. These issues were compared with the difficulties in terms of integration that refugees from former Yugoslavia are presently experiencing in various countries. A further aspect concerned the controversial discussion on the integration of immigrant workers and the question of dual citizenship in Germany. The project further dealt with the issue of right-wing radicalism in Austria and the widespread xenophobia in many countries, as well as with the phenomenon that anti-Semitism is able to exist without the actual presence of Jews. The aim of the project is to develop teaching material that integrates the project's research results in an up-to-date form, and fitted to different educational levels, so that it can be utilised in teacher training and further education. A practical "Teacher's Pack" is available at http://www.sussex.ac.uk/anthropology/profile33684.html
- Anne Frank House, Amsterdam
- Peter-Huber-Schule in Sri Lanka
- The locally founded, charitable promotional organisation that supports this school where the poorest of poor children receive education, care, food and clothing required money in order to cover the costs of the badly needed renovation of the school building. The AFF made a substantial contribution to this task. Renovation work included the building of toilet facilities and a canteen for the children, both of which the school did not have before, and various repairs to the school building.
- Anne Frank Trust, London
- ELAH, Tel Aviv
- This Tel Aviv-based foundation offers social and psychological help to traumatised, Dutch Shoa survivors and their families. The AFF has supported the organisation with substantial contributions for many years on an intermittent basis.
- Stadt Bergen (Anne Frank Friedenstage)
- On the initiative of the AFF, the "Peace Days" are organised around Anne Frank's birthday every year in order to commemorate her. Young people from different countries meet in Bergen, where one of the most terrible Nazi concentration camps was located and where Anne Frank together with her sister Margot and thousands of other people were left to die helplessly in the mud and squalor. Today attempts are made to develop visions of a brighter future, but also to keep alive the memory of the cruel past through joint efforts and different projects. Thus, Bergen has become a place of peace.
- Museum der Kulturen
- After staging a show called "Feste im Licht", the museum expressed its wish to put the exhibition material on record on a DVD. The result is an important documentation, showing and explaining how "festivals of light" are celebrated in different cultures and religions around the world. This is a significant contribution to inter-cultural dialogue and a good reason for AFF to support the project financially.
- Stiftung exilio, Lindau
- This charity foundation offers help to refugees and victims of torture. The aim of the foundation is to contribute to the care, treatment and rehabilitation of men, women and their families who have suffered oppression, persecution and torture in their home countries and whose human rights have been seriously violated for political, ethnic or religious reasons. AFF supported the special care project and a sports programme for traumatised children. Without financial support this important project could not have been realised.
- The South Asia Council, Bangalore
- 1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005
- In the course of this project the AFF sponsored one the Peace Women. The aim of the organisation is to show what, and how much, women contribute to peace, justice and human safety worldwide. The nomination was submitted to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee in Oslo. In compliance with the Committee's rules, three women were selected as representatives.
- World Quintett
- Haus Vogelsang
- This care and observation centre for children in crisis situations was supported by the AFF in order to purchase much-needed furniture without which the centre would not have been able to function properly.
- Hannah Arendt Gymnasium, Berlin
- Leo Baeck Erziehungszentrum, Tel Aviv
Numerous applications had to be turned down because they did not conform to the Foundation's statutes or the Board's specifications. The Board carefully reviewed every single application. In spite of the large number of commitments, the Foundation's assets increased by nine percent in the year under review. This is mainly a result of the diligent asset management but also due to strict cost control and the monitoring of all financial transactions. At present, the proceeds from capital and the income from royalties are growing by between three and five percent.
New Translations of the Diary
The worldwide interest in Anne Frank's literary work is ongoing. New requests for translations keep coming in. In the year under review, a translation into Urdu (Pakistan) was authorised. New, indigenous versions of the diary were also published in China and Iran. Up to the present, the diary has not been translated into Arabic.
Numerous Projects Reviewed
Various "Anne Frank Projects" that the AFF reviewed together with its solicitor had to be turned down, either because they did not conform to the AFF's guidelines or because they would have been realised solely to the financial benefit of the applicants. Among other things a new film project was rejected after close examination of the proposal.
Important Public Relations
In the year under review, the field of public relations again played an important role. Buddy Elias, the President of the AFF and Anne Frank's cousin, travelled to Japan with his wife and gave lectures in different schools, which received wide attention. Buddy Elias was also invited to the "Kerner Show" on German television. In Amsterdam, the Frank family's former apartment on Merwedeplein was purchased by the Ymere company. The flat has been renovated and is now available, free of charge, to writers who are persecuted in their home countries.
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