Amsterdam Anne Frank statue defaced with pro-Gaza graffiti
THE HAGUE—A statue of Anne Frank, famous for her diary account of hiding from the Nazis during World War II, has been covered with pro-Palestinian graffiti, Agence France-Presse (AFP) learned on Sunday.
According to images published on X, the base of the statue was spray-painted with the slogan “Free Gaza,” while the girl’s hands were painted with the same bloodred color.
Police have opened an investigation into the most recent defacement, which likely occurred in the night from Saturday to Sunday, an Amsterdam police spokesperson told AFP, adding that no suspect had yet been identified.
Anne Frank, who died age 16 in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945, is an icon of the Dutch Jewish community.
Her diary has become one of the most influential accounts of the Holocaust, which wiped out around three-quarters of the country’s 140,000 Jews during the Nazi German occupation.
A second time
The Amsterdam house where the Frank family took refuge for two years before being captured by the Nazis in 1944—after which they were sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp—has become a museum dedicated to her story.
It is the second time in less than a month that the statue of one of the world’s most recognizable victims of the Holocaust has been targeted, according to television station AT5 and confirmed to AFP by the police source.
