“We are the same age as Anne Frank,” high school senior Sydney Forsyte said standing next to 7-foot-tall panels detailing Frank’s life.
Forsyte, the granddaughter of two Holocaust survivors, has spent the last six months working to bring the traveling exhibit, “Anne Frank – A History for Today,” to Los Alamitos High School.
“I always knew I wanted to do something with my Jewish identity,” she said. “This was something I felt like I could personally speak to.”
The exhibit is 32 movable panels that are now displayed in about 1,000 square feet of the school’s media center – close to twice the size of Frank’s room in the attic she used to hide from the Nazis during World War II.
The installation comes from The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam and tells the story of Frank, her family, the Holocaust and broader themes that connect to today’s world. The panels are in English and Spanish, but have also appeared in other languages around the world.
Forsyte learned of the exhibit while doing an internship at the Freedom Writers Foundation, a Long Beach-based nonprofit that often uses the writings of Frank to inspire students.
Principal Christiana Kraus said Forsyte came to her with the idea of bringing the Frank exhibit to the school and she told the teen, “We want to do it with you – everything she needed from us, we would do.” However, Forsyte would have to secure the funding.
Forsyte wrote a grant proposal to the Jewish Federation of Orange County and asked the Freedom Writer Foundation to contribute. With donations from both groups, Forsyte worked with Anne Frank LA to bring the Jewish teenager’s story to Los Alamitos High.
The exhibit is a first for an Orange County school, but has been at other middle and high schools, said Erin Gruwell, founder of Freedom Writers Foundation. Usually the teacher or principal will curate it, but having a student do all the work to bring it to a school is “unique and very special.”
Krause said Forsyte did all the work, adding, “our school wanted it. The slots filled up within five minutes and people were begging for more.”
Student docents went through two days of training to guide their classmates through the exhibit and lead discussions about Frank’s story.
The student docents become part of the Anne Frank Youth Network. According to Sofia Shield, of Anne Frank LA, “they realize they are not only students, they become teachers.”
Students will be visiting the exhibit next week through Oct. 25.
“She lived in that attic from when she was 13 to 15,” Forsyte said while reflecting on the importance of having the exhibit at her school. “So some of our freshman and sophomores are the same age that she was.”
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