'Free Gaza': Anne Frank statue in Amsterdam defaced for second time in one month

The statue of Jewish Holocaust victim Anne Frank in Amsterdam was vandalized for the second time in a month, the Anne Frank House Museum and Dutch Party for Freedom founder and leader Geert Wilders said on Monday.

“Free Gaza” was scrawled with red paint on the pedestal of the memorial in the Rivierenbuurt neighborhood park, and the sculpture of Frank’s hands was painted with red. Anti-Israel activists have used the symbolism of red hands to represent Palestinian blood ostensibly on the hands of Israel, its citizens, and supporters during Israel-Hamas war protests.

“Pro-Palestinian thugs put ‘Free Gaza’ on the statue of Anne Frank in Amsterdam,” Wilders said on social media. “They have no shame. Their antisemitism has no boundaries. We should always stand up against their message of hate for unlike them, we adhere to freedom and respect.”

Pro-Palestinian thugs put ‘Free Gaza’ on the statue of Anne Frank in Amsterdam. They have no shame. Their antisemitism has no boundaries. We should always stand up against their message of hate for unlike them, we adhere to freedom and respect. pic.twitter.com/1LSmh0USTG

— Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) August 5, 2024

Anne Frank House said it was horrified by the repeated vandalism and reported the incident to the police.

“This vandalism has touched our hearts yet again,” Anne Frank House executive director Ronald Leopold said. “The statue reminds us of a young girl, with ambitions and dreams. A girl who was murdered simply because she was Jewish. The daubing of the statue today is even more painful, on the day that Anne Frank was arrested, exactly 80 years ago today.”

The Sunday defacement occurred on the 80th anniversary of Frank and her family’s arrest by the Nazi Gestapo after two years of hiding. At the age of 15, Frank died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The German-born Jewish girl gained posthumous fame following the publication of her diary, which details her life during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.

Repetitive antisemitism

The same statue was vandalized on July 9, the statue base graffitied with red paint stating “Gaza.”

Amsterdam councilor Stijn Nijssen and Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema had condemned the vandalism as an inappropriate manner to draw attention to the Palestinian cause.

An April Center for Information and Documentation Israel (CIDI) report indicated that antisemitic incidents in the Netherlands had increased from 2022 to 2023 by 245%. In October, there was an over 800% increase in reported incidents compared to the average figure for October for the last three years.