Anne Frank may get posthumous Dutch citizenship
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands
A television channel has touched off a national dispute by nominating Anne Frank as a candidate for the greatest Dutch person in history, even though the Jewish teenager who became a symbol of Dutch courage during the Nazi occupation never had Dutch citizenship. Members of parliament campaigned over the weekend to grant the young author of the renowned wartime diary posthumous citizenship. But Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk said there was no provision in the law to do so.
Some historians and even the keepers of Anne Frank's legacy agree that making her a Dutch citizen nearly 60 years after her death would not alter her place in history, and could be an unintended denigration of the tens of thousands of refugees who, like Anne's family, fled the Nazi regime but would not receive the same recognition.
Anne Frank was born in Germany in 1929 and came to the Netherlands with her family in 1933. The Franks became stateless when the Nazis stripped all Jews living outside Germany of their nationality.
During 25 months in hiding in Amsterdam, she kept a diary of her innermost thoughts and feelings, among them a wish to become Dutch. The family was captured, and she died at age 15 of typhus at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany in 1945, just weeks before the end of the war. Her father, Otto Frank, the only family member to survive the camps, returned to Amsterdam and took Dutch nationality. The diary, which he published in 1949 and was later translated into dozens of languages, became the first popular account of the Holocaust.
The question of posthumous citizenship surfaced when the Dutch television channel KRO listed Anne Frank as one of 202 candidates to become history's greatest Dutch person in a popular vote of viewers. "We knew she wasn't Dutch. But the (nominating) commission found that she did a lot for the Dutch people and contributed to our country," said KRO spokeswoman Monique Moeskops.
Alexandra Schutte, who is promoting Anne Frank's case in the contest, began lobbying Dutch members of parliament to pressure the government to grant an exception to the rule against giving posthumous citizenship, said Moeskops. Each of the candidates has an advocate.
Anne Frank is competing against such historic and current luminaries as the 17th century artists Rembrandt, Pieter Brueghel and Frans Hals; William of Orange, the 16th century founder of the dynasty of Dutch monarchs; and 20th century sports greats like Johan Cruyff in soccer and Fanny Blankers-Koen in athletics. Viewers have been voting since April, but the citizenship question only emerged in the Dutch press over the weekend.
"A lot of people have been voting for Anne Frank," Moeskops said, but she refused to say whether the diarist was likely to be among the 10 finalists to be announced next week. Dutch media reported Monday that a majority of the 150 members of parliament's lawmaking Second Chamber support granting Anne citizenship, despite the legal barriers. Support was coming from coalition parties as well as the opposition.
The Anne Frank House, which runs the museum established in the canal-side house where the Frank family hid in a secret annex, said the question is irrelevant. "Her legacy is Dutch, she wrote in Dutch, her diary was in Dutch," said spokeswoman Patricia Bosboom. "She was as Dutch as you can be. Giving her citizenship would add nothing."
David Barnouw, of the Dutch Institute for War Documentation, said most of the German Jews and political refugees who fled the Nazi regime expected to return to their homes after the war, and never considered remaining in Holland
Barnouw ridiculed the notion of granting citizenship for the purpose of a television program, and said it could serve as a precedent for the descendants of other Nazi victims. "Why should only Anne Frank get citizenship? Are those other people not important enough?" he said. Barnouw also noted that Anne was not the only non-Dutch citizen on the list. William of Orange, he said, was German.
