search
Jerry Klinger
Shaping the Future by Remembering the Past

The Anne Frank Children’s Human Rights Memorial – Buenos Aire

The Anne Frank Children’s Human Rights Memorial was sited in Buenos Aires on Tuesday, October 1.

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=257904

A few hours later, Iranian missiles of death, fueled by long-taught hatred, bigotry, and ignorance, flew to Israel to kill.

The Buenos Aires Anne is the fourth that the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation has placed. All of the Annes have the same interpretive markers. The dedication plates and the languages change depending on where they are.  The Buenos Aires Anne’s interpretive marker is in Spanish and English.

 

Anne Frank Children’s Human Rights Memorial

Donat(ed) by the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation to the City of Buenos Aires

Of the 6 million Jews murdered during the Holocaust between 1939-1945, 1.5 million were children. Anne Frank was one of them.


“In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

Anne Frank

Children are the ultimate victims of adult hatred, bigotry, and ignorance.

The first Anne is sited in Jerusalem’s Shalva Center. Shalva is a unique institution in the Middle East that loves, cares for, and nurtures all children, especially those who were born with terrible disabilities, without regard to their religion, color, or ethnicity. Every life is precious to Shalva.

The second Anne is located adjacent to a girl’s school in Maaleh Adumim, outside of Jerusalem.

President Reuven Rivlin wrote to me after the Anne was placed.

”Dear Jerry,

Thank you on behalf of the State of Israel for donating and placing in Israel the first in a series of International Children’s Human Rights Memorials themed on Anne Frank’s experiences during the Holocaust.

I fully agree with the messaging of the Memorial that Children are the ultimate victims of adult hatred, bigotry and ignorance. 

It is my personal hope that you will find wide receptivity to your very important effort. 

When all people, everywhere, protect the children of today, peace tomorrow will be one step closer. 

I sincerely look forward to meet you when you come to Jerusalem.

Shalom,

President Rivlin”

 

The third Anne was placed in Antigua, Guatemala, before hundreds of attendees guarded by armed police.  Outside of the siting perimeter, aggressive pro-Palestinian demonstrators chanted, banged drums, and gesticulated waving signs.  Their hatred for Israel eclipsed their concern for all children.  Their aggressive anti-Israel, anti-Semitic demonstrations continued for weeks.  The Anne had to be removed. It will be resited at a new girl’s school being built.  Guatemala has long been a strong and steady friend of Israel.  It does not mean that the deadly virus of hate is not attempting to corrupt her.

The Buenos Aires Anne came about because of the courage of the City of Buenos Aires and the local Commune.  A special designated area off of a main street in the 13th district was set aside and designated as the Anne Frank Plaza.  Special legislation was enacted to permit the gift from JASHP.

A wind of sanity is, like a shofar’s blast, emanating from Argentina. On September 24, the new president of Argentina, President Milei, hugely popular in Argentina and Latin America, was one of the very few national and world leaders who personally addressed the 79th United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York.

A week earlier, on September 18, the General Assembly voted 124 for and 14 against, while 43 nations abstained that Israel comply with the International Court of Justice order to effectively begin the dismantling of the State of Israel and the creation of another new terrorist state next to its untenable borders – the State of Palestine.

Argentina voted against the sop to bigotry, hatred, and ignorance.

During his remarks on September 24, Milei bluntly criticized the U.N. for its hypocrisies and its myopic criticism of Israel.

“In this same house, we, that purports to defend human rights, we have also included bloody dictatorships in the Human Rights Council, including Cuba and Venezuela without reproach,” Milei said…

“In this same house, which purports to defend the rights of women, we’ve allowed on the CEDAW Committee countries that punish their women just for showing their skin,” Milei continued. 

“And this same house has voted against the State of Israel, which is the only country in the Middle East to defend liberal democracy.”

“We believe in a defense of life for all, we believe in a defense of property for all, we believe in freedom of expression for all, we believe in freedom of worship for all, we believe in freedom of trade for all, and we believe in limited government for all,”

Danny Danon, Israel’s U.N. Ambassador, said, “Thank you, President Milei! You are a true friend of the State of Israel,”…In this hall where they slandered Israel all day, you showed courage and supported Israel!”

Argentina has had a dark past, certainly for Jews. Argentina has also chosen a new path.  People and nations can choose a different road to follow. The path that chooses hatred, bigotry, and ignorance, forcing the most innocent of all, the children of the world, to pay a terrible price, is not inevitable.

Hours after the Anne was sited, for the second time in six months, Iran launched a massive missile attack on Israel, hoping to kill as many Jews as possible.  For the second time, the attack was defeated.  The indiscriminate missile attacks against innocents from Gaza’s Iranian proxy, Hamas, have been largely silenced.  Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy terror state in Lebanon, has continued to massively fire missiles into Israel, forcing Israel, sadly, to respond with might.

Golda Meir, the fourth prime minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974, famously said,

“We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children.

We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.”

         

                   Anne Frank by noted Jerusalem Sculptor – Sam Philipe

 

Jerry Klinger is the President of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation.

www.JASHP.org.

 

 

About the Author
Jerry is the president and founder of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, www.JASHP.org. He is the son of Survivors of Buchenwald and Bergen Belsen. He is a former Yeshivah student and served with the IDF in the Sinai. He is the author of hundreds of articles in publications ranging from the Jerusalem Post to the Prairie Connection to the San Diego Jewish World. Jerry is frequently interviewed on T.V. and Radio about the American Jewish experience. The Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation has completed projects in 43 US. States and in 8 countries. Over 7,000,000 people annually benefit from one of JASHP's efforts. JASHP has completed over 25 projects in and for Israel ranging from the restoration and preservation of the disgracefully deteriorated grave site of Shmuel Cohen, the composer of the Hatikvah, to the S.S. Exodus and more. November 29, 2022, Netanya: JASHP completed the first-ever historical memorial to the central birthing event of the modern state of Israel - the U.N. Partition Resolution. JASHP is presently working towards another first for Israel, a tribute sculpture honoring the Women of the IDF.