German kindergarten to change name from Anne Frank to World Explorer as Holocaust victim ‘too political’

The kindergarten claims parents don’t know one of the most famous Holocaust victims as the issue sparks debate across Germany amid backlash over the Israel-Hamas war.

Anne Frank became a global symbol of courage in the face of the monstrous evil of the Holocaust.

A German kindergarten is to abandon the name of one of the world’s most famous Holocaust victims, Anne Frank, in preference to a “more inclusive” and “less political” alternative.

As Germany undergoes a widespread debate about anti-Semitism amid backlash surrounding the Israel-Hamas war, the kindergarten director in the East German village of Tangerhütte in Saxony-Anhalt says having Anne Frank in the name of the school is too “difficult” to explain to children and she claims that Frank’s story is unknown to the area’s immigrant families.

Linda Schichor, the kindergarten’s director, told local newspaper Volksstimme that the school is to be renamed ‘Weltentdecker’ (world explorer) ending its half century association and the school’s founding name of Anne Frank.

“We wanted a name without a political background,” Ms Schichor said.

Frank, a 15-year-old Jewish-German girl who kept diaries during the occupation of the Nazis in Amsterdam, died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945. Her diaries were published after the war and posthumously Frank became a global symbol of courage in the face of monstrous evil.

A worried parent, who had once been a pupil at the kindergarten, contacted the local newspaper concerned that Anne Frank’s name was to be erased, which alerted authorities.

The issue has sparked debate across the country, however the local mayor Andreas Brohm has backed the name change claiming it was a “conceptual overhaul” that would allow the kindergarten to place more emphasis on the “self determination and diversity” of the children in its care.

Two years ago plans to change the name of a daycare centre in Elxleben, Thuringia from Anne Frank to Moose Dwarves was quickly scuttled after local outrage.

Christoph Heubner, the deputy head of the International Auschwitz Committee, has called for the Tangerhütte kindergarten name change to be just as quickly dropped.

“If one is prepared to forget one’s own history so easily, especially in these times of renewed anti-Semitism and right-wing extremism, one can only feel fear and anxiety about the culture of remembrance in our country,” he said.