Anne Frank was a royal lover, says charity after Queen welcomed as patron
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The Queen has been named the first royal patron of the Anne Frank Trust in a nod to the teenage Holocaust victim’s love of royalty.
Tim Robertson, the charity’s chief executive, said Anne Frank’s passion for royalty was one of the hobbies that gave her hope as she hid from the Nazis.
As such, he said it was “heartbreakingly poignant” to imagine how much the Queen’s patronage would have meant to her.
The charity said it was “deeply honoured” to welcome the Queen as patron, which it said demonstrated her “deep commitment to commemorating the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis and to overcoming prejudice today.”
Nicola Cobbold, chairman of the Anne Frank Trust, said: “The devastating events in Israel and Gaza have led to unprecedented levels of anti-Semitism here in Britain, as well as a significant rise in Islamophobia.
“Her Majesty’s support could not be more timely as we all work to challenge hatred and build social cohesion at this critical time.”
The Queen, 76, marked the 75th anniversary of the publication of Anne Frank’s diary in Jan 2022 by urging the public not to be “bystanders” to injustice or prejudice.
As Duchess of Cornwall, she delivered a passionate speech to guests including the 92-year-old step-sister of Anne Frank, who survived Auschwitz, at an event in London.
“After all, surely our personal values are measured by the things that we are prepared to ignore,” she said.
“Let us therefore learn from those who bore witness to the horrors of the Holocaust, and all subsequent genocides, and commit ourselves to keeping their stories alive, so that each generation will be ready to tackle hatred in any of its terrible forms.
“And let us carry with us the words and wisdom Anne Frank – a child of only 14 years old – wrote on 7th May 1944: ‘What is done cannot be undone, but at least one can prevent it from happening again.’”
Ms Cobbald said that as a youth charity, whose key educational tool was Anne Frank’s Diary, they could not be more delighted to have the Queen as patron, noting her long standing interest in young people and literacy.
Mr Robertson added: “The cruelty with which (Anne) was robbed of her future is what drives us to make a difference today, engaging young people of Anne’s age in learning the crucial lessons of the Holocaust.
“As we seek to grow our educational impact even further, especially running up to the centenary of Anne Frank’s birth in 2029, it is tremendously heartening to know that we have Her Majesty’s support.”
One of Anne Frank’s hobbies while in hiding was to trace the family trees of European Royal families.
On April 21 1944, she recorded in her diary the 18th birthday of “this beauty” Princess Elizabeth of York, later Elizabeth II.
Her picture postcards of Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret remain on the walls of her bedroom in what is now the Anne Frank House Museum.
In her 2022 speech, Camilla referred to her 2020 visit to Auschwitz on the 75th anniversary of its liberation, saying that she would “never forget” a speech given by survivor Marian Turski. He warned of encroaching laws discriminating against the Jewish people in 1930s Nazi Germany.
“He described how people can gradually become desensitised to the exclusion, the stigmatisation and the alienation of those who have previously been friends,” she said.
“Marian warned us that this can happen again. But he gave us, too, the answer to preventing it. You should never, never be a bystander.”
Meanwhile, the Queen’s Reading Room, her online book club, has recommended two Holocaust memoirs to mark Holocaust Memorial Day on Saturday.
It suggests Chicken Soup Under the Tree by Ivor Perl, who survived Auschwitz as a boy as nine of his family members were murdered, and Night by Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel.
