Controversy Erupts After Florida School Removes Illustrated Anne Frank Book

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A school near the Atlantic Coast in Florida had to take out a comic book that was based on Anne Frank’s diary. This happened because someone who worked with a group called Moms for Liberty said the comic book didn’t properly show how terrible the Holocaust was. After hearing this, the principal at Vero Beach High School decided to take it off the library shelves last month.

The protagonist went for a walk in a park, and he became captivated by statues of women without clothes. Later, he suggested to his friend that they could show one another their chests.

The principal of the school district has to make a decision whenever somebody objects a book from the shelves. If someone still is not satisfied with that decision, they can appeal it to the district committee. The Anne Frank graphic novel was already borrowed twice before it got taken away, according to Cristen Maddux from the School District of Indian River County. Vero Beach is about two hours drive (169 kilometers) away from Orlando.

Books about Anne Frank and copies of her diary, where she wrote about hiding from the Nazis with her family during German rule in Amsterdam, are still in school libraries. Her diary was published in 1947 after she died in a concentration camp, and it is now read by millions of people all over the world.

In Florida schools, law states that they must teach kids about the Holocaust. Nothing has changed in this situation. According to Maddux, people’s idea that the Holocaust is not on their school curriculum or children don’t know what happened, isn’t true; it’s just a certain book that was challenged and the principal took it away.

Moms for Liberty in Indian River County removed three books from the “Assassination Classroom” series and an Anne Frank graphic novel. Jennifer Pippin, who leads Moms for Liberty, said that theAnne Frank graphic novel did not accurately teach about the Holocaust as per Florida’s standards.

Pippin said that the original diary was edited so that the entries about sex were taken out. Even though it’s been printed as a book, it doesn’t show everything from the diary because it usually gives its own ideas on what was written in the diary instead of showing everything just like it is.

The 2018 graphic novel is based on Anne Frank’s diary. Ari Folman wrote the novel and David Polonsky drew the illustrations. Folman’s parents were Holocaust survivors. When asked, the publisher – Pantheon Graphic Library – contacted Yves Kugelmann from a foundation ran by Anne Frank’s father, Otto. This foundation gives out Anne Frank’s diary and does other things too. Kugelmann didn’t answer questions right away.

The American Library Association recently announced that in the U.S. there were over 1,200 attempts to censor library books last year — the biggest number since they started counting more than two decades ago.