The underground vaults of the Auberge de Castille, in Valletta have stepped back seven decades and been transformed into wartime Amsterdam, detailing the short but significant life of Jewish Holocaust victim Anne Frank who went into hiding to escape the Nazis.
Huge information panels with photos of the young girl’s smiling face and her family document her life and the political events that led to World War II in a detailed timeline in English and Maltese.
One of over one million Jewish children who died in the Holocaust, the girl’s name stands out in history for the detailed diary she kept during the two years she went into hiding from the Nazis.
In the first half of July 1942, when the Germans invaded Amsterdam, Anne and her family moved into a secret annexe built behind their apartment. But two years later, they were discovered by the Gestapo (the German secret state police) who were tipped off by an anonymous Dutch caller. The family was arrested, split up and Anne and her sister Margot were sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Both girls died a year later from typhus fever – Anne was 16 years old.
Anne’s story touched Karl Borg, the mind behind the exhibition, who read her famous diary in 1996 and visited Anne Frank House in Amsterdam where he saw the annexe where the Franks hid for two years. Before leaving, he took a little leaflet with information and contact details about the Anne Frank roaming exhibition. Years later, he blew the dust off the leaflet and started working on bringing it to Malta.
“I was touched by her story and bringing the exhibition to Malta was always at the back of my mind. It is there for us to remember and learn,” Mr Borg explained.
The exhibition is being visited by schoolchildren who listen to Anne’s story while handling and touching clothes, enamel basins and tricycles, scattered around the vaults, items dating back to that period.
He received help and many authentic items – such as clothes and jewellery – from the Jewish community in Malta.
The exhibition was launched on January 27, World Memorial Day, dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust. Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and the ambassadors of the US, Germany and Holland all spoke about the importance of remembering the past to learn its lessons for the future.
At the launch, schoolchildren also had the chance to ask questions to a Holocaust survivor who, in a live video link, told his story.
The exhibition has been extended by a week and will remain open until February 25 between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekends and public holidays. Entrance is from Merchants Street.