“Anne Frank: A History for Today,” developed by the Anne Frank House, will be open to the public at the Putnam Museum and Science Center in Davenport, Iowa, from Sept. 2 to Oct. 30. It aims to share Frank’s legacy with the public and “inspire our commitment to never be bystanders but instead to stand up together against anti-Semitism, bigotry and inequality wherever they may exist today,” according to the museum’s website.
The traveling exhibit includes artifacts on loan from the Illinois Holocaust Museum, including a concentration-camp uniform, a yellow Star of David patch Jews were forced to wear and a flashlight used by guards at Theresienstadt. It will open as part of a community-wide project in Iowa and Illinois that aims to teach the public about the Holocaust and the Nazi atrocities that took place during World War II.
The project, hosted by the Jewish Federation of the Quad Cities, includes music and arts programming, lectures, movies, dances and exhibits at various venues in Iowa and Illinois. It began in July and will continue through the end of 2022.
The community-wide initiative will also include a new opera performance at Augustana College based on the true stories of two Holocaust survivors and a performance by the Ballet Quad Cities of short pieces by Jewish composers who died in Nazi concentration camps.