Anne Frank exhibit coming to St. Cloud

North Junior High School students interact with a virtual tour of the Anne Frank House in the ISELF Visualization Lab. Photo by Anna Kurth

The “Reading and Writing with Anne Frank” exhibit from the Anne Frank Center in New York is coming to St. Cloud State and the Great River Regional Library this winter in conjunction with GREAT Theatre’s production of “The Diary of Anne Frank” Jan. 29-Feb. 7.

The exhibit will be installed on the second floor of the Miller Center Library Jan. 11-29 and then be moved to the second floor teen section of the Great River Regional Library Feb. 1-25. It is free and open to the public at both locations.

St. Cloud State is also hosting Holocaust survivor Inge Auerbacher at 6:30 p.m. March 23 in Ritsche Auditorium. The university will screen the documentary “Anne Frank Remembered” at 6:30 p.m. March 3 in the Miller Center Library Auditorium. Both events are free and open to the public. Great River Regional Library is also planning special events around the exhibit.

“This collaboration is creating programming that will help to contextualize and expand understanding of Anne Frank and the Holocaust,” said Dan Wildeson, director of the St. Cloud State Center for Holocaust and Genocide Education and organizer of the exhibit visit.

Anne Frank in an undated photo. Photo courtesy of the Anne Frank Center (AP Photo)

The Anne Frank exhibit is designed for children ages 9-15 and includes an overview of the personal life of the Frank family and World War II and focuses on Anne’s literary work found in five surviving notebooks and 300 loose pages of her writing and the covers of her favorite books.

Hundreds of St. Cloud area eighth graders studying Anne Frank in language arts or communications classes will have a chance to expand their understanding by spending a day on campus learning about Anne Frank through the exhibit, viewing a hands-on virtual tour of the Anne Frank House in the Visualization Lab and hearing from Great Theatre’s “The Diary of Anne Frank” Director Jeff Bleam, a St. Cloud State theatre professor. Representatives from the St. Cloud State Office of Admissions also will speak to the students about attending college.

Nine hundred students from South Junior High, Kennedy Community School, North Junior High and Sauk Rapids-Rice Middle School will visit the university to complete the experience throughout January.

GREAT Theatre offers weekday educational performances of its plays to thousands of area school children as an outreach to introduce them to live theater in addition to its weekend performances for the public, said Dennis Whipple, of GREAT Theatre.

For many of the students involved, this will be their first chance to see live theater and visit a college campus. It gives both these students and the public a rare opportunity to learn about the history involved and go beyond the play, Whipple said.

Anne Frank’s diary. Photo courtesy of the Anne Frank Center

“We hope the community will attend the exhibit as well as coming to the show,” he said. “For us it really gives our audiences, which is mostly families, the opportunity to learn more about Anne Frank and her life.”

The theater company and Bleam also worked with Wildeson to ensure it was as authentic as possible in its production of the story.

The on campus events are sponsored by the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Education and co-sponsored by the College of Science and Engineering, Learning Resources and Services, the Office of Admissions and the Department of Theatre and Film Studies.

The exhibit “Reading & Writing with Anne Frank” is developed by the Anne Frank House and is sponsored in North America by the Anne Frank Center USA.

Related events

“Anne Frank Remembered” documentary showing
6:30 p.m. March 3
Miller Center Library Auditorium

Holocaust survivor Inge Auerbacher talk
6:30 p.m. March 23
Ritsche Auditorium

Admission to both events is free and open to the public.