A statue of Anne Frank in Amsterdam was vandalized with the word “Gaza” spray painted on the pedestal, according to a report Tuesday.
Police confirmed with CNN that Amsterdam authorities were notified of the vandalism Tuesday and have since launched an investigation, according to the outlet. Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema condemned the vandalism in an Instagram post, saying Frank’s statue is “precious” and that it should remind citizens of “humanity and gentleness.” (RELATED: Holocaust Remembrance Day March At Auschwitz Interrupted By Anti-Israel Protesters: REPORT)
Nog meer “antizionisme”: het beeldje van Anne Frank op het Merwedeplein in Amsterdam, waar de Joodse dagboekschrijfster woonde tot het moment dat ze in 1942 onderdook, is beklad met rode verf en de tekst ‘Gaza’. Er is aangifte gedaan bij de politie. pic.twitter.com/2HBMwRai7Z
— CIDI 🎗️ (@CIDI_nieuws) July 9, 2024
“No Palestinian has been helped by smearing her so precious statue,” Halsema said, according to CNN. “This young girl, who was so brutally murdered by the Nazis at the age of 15, reminds us and our city every day of humanity and gentleness, in the most difficult circumstances.”
A statue of Anne Frank in Westermarkt, near the house where Anne Frank and her family hid during the war. (Photo by David Lefranc/Kipa/Sygma via Getty Images)
Anne Frank was a German-born Jewish teenager known for keeping a diary of events during her time in the Netherlands hiding from the Nazis, according to the Anne Frank House. She perished from typhus in February of 1945 in the Nazi concentration camp Bergen Belsen, the organization noted.
The Netherlands has experienced a 2.5-fold increase in antisemitic incidents in 2023 compared to 2022, according to the Center for Information and Documentation Israel (CIDI), a Dutch organization dedicated to fighting antisemitism. The organization observed that while reports of antisemitic incidents spiked after Oct. 7 and during the ongoing Israel-Hamas War, “the number of antisemitic incidents in 2023 was already nearing the total of 2022 before October 7th.”
Hamas invaded southern Israel and killed around 1,200 people Oct. 7, 2022, and took over 200 Israelis hostage.
