An 'anti-Semitic' laser message on the Anne Frank House

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UPDATE DAY

Dutch police announced on Friday that they were investigating the projection of a laser message on the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, an “anti-Semitic” act unacceptable according to the museum and the Prime Minister.

The message referred to a far-right conspiracy theory that the young Holocaust victim was not the author of the famous “Journal”, according to images of the screening broadcast on a private American account of the social network Telegram.

“It happened this week, it was reported to us and we are investigating it,” an Amsterdam police spokesman told AFP, refusing to comment. provide details.

The Anne Frank House museum, which runs the building visited by around a million visitors a year, expressed “shock and revulsion”. He told AFP that he “reported the incident to the police” and was in contact with the city council and the prosecution.

He said the laser message was, scratching the writer's first name: “Ann Frank, inventor of the ballpoint pen”, alluding to the false claims that the famous diary was partly written with a type of pen that only began to be used in post-war.

This theory is based on the discovery of several sheets covered with ballpoint pen writings found among Anne Frank's papers in the 1980s, but which were in fact accidentally left there by a researcher in the 1960s, said Dutch media.

The museum said it discovered that the message had been projected on its facade for several minutes on Monday evening after a “hate video” appeared on Telegram.

< p>“With projection and video, the authors attack the authenticity of Anne Frank's diary and incite hatred. This is an anti-Semitic and racist film,” the museum said.

“There is no place for anti-Semitism in our country; we cannot and must never accept this,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Twitter.

Verwerpelijk. Voor anti-Semitism is in ons land geen plaats; we kunnen in mogen says nooit accepten. https://t.co/wVa27nBrLq

— Mark Rutte (@MinPres) February 10, 2023

The incident demonstrates the need for laws criminalizing Holocaust denial in the Netherlands, added in a tweet the Justice Minister Dilan Yesilgoz-Zegerius.

Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema condemned the act, calling it “pure anti-Semitism”.

The teenager Jewess and her family hid for two years in a secret annex of the canal house during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during World War II, before being captured in 1944.

Anne and her sister died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945. Her diary, found by her father Otto, has become one of the most influential accounts of the Holocaust , and has sold some 30 million copies.

In January, Dutch police said they were investigating the display of racist slogans on Rotterdam's Erasmus Bridge during New Year's Eve festivities. Year .