Meghan Crawford (left), Daria Arincheva, and Gramercy Books owner Linda Kass leading the discussion on “The Diary of a Young Girl.”
Photo by Charlie Rinehart.
At the beginning of this month, the university installed an exhibit in Blackmore Library called “Anne Frank: A History for Today.”
The exhibit was sponsored by The Ohio Holocaust & Genocide Memorial & Education Commission, the Anne Frank Center of the University of South Carolina and the Bexley Community Foundation.
“Anne Frank: A History for Today” is located in room 110 in Blackmore Library and consists of about 30 panels of information about Anne Frank and the Holocaust. Each panel presents information in both English and Spanish.
Almost every panel contains an excerpt from “The Diary of a Young Girl,” the novel that evolved from Frank’s original diary.
The exhibit is not just for students. Anyone can view the exhibit during its operating hours.
A discussion about Frank’s book was held at Gramercy Books. The event was moderated by Meghan Crawford, the university’s institutional memory librarian, and Daria Arincheva, a professor at the university who teaches a course on Frank and women’s voices.
According to Gramercy’s website, Arincheva’s father published the first Russian translation of the novel.
The event was sold out as Bexley residents, many of whom are Jewish themselves, were eager to share their thoughts on a book that has been a vital part of Holocaust studies since its publication in 1947.
A large number of attendees were women who felt the novel is not only a first-hand look into the Holocaust, but it is also an important look into the mind of a young woman.
“It’s still a personal diary of a girl,” Arincheva said.
Because of Frank’s insight into adolescence, the consensus of the discussion was that the book is important for young adults, not just young women, to read. Crawford believes the book is a fulfilling introduction to the horrors of the Holocaust for younger readers before they are ready to read other books on the same subject like Elie Viesel’s “Night.”
One attendee, Marilyn Jenkins, related Frank’s diary to today’s deportation of immigrants.
“What diary are they writing?” Jenkins said. “What questions are they dealing with? I think we need to give [“The Diary of a Young Girl”] to our young immigrants who are so afraid, so that they know they’re not alone.”
“What questions are they dealing with? I think we need to give [“The Diary of a Young Girl”] to our young immigrants who are so afraid, so that they know they’re not alone.”
Marilyn Jenkins
This year marks the 80th anniversary of Frank’s death at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. According to the exhibit, Frank and her sister died from typhus about a month before the camp was liberated by British officers.
Copies of books about Frank and the Holocaust are on display at the front entrance of Blackmore Library and are available for students to check out.
Guided tours led by university students are offered Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Registration for tours can be found here.
Open viewings of the exhibit are offered Monday through Thursday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., Friday from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
“Anne Frank: A History for Today” will be open until the end of the month.
