ORLANDO, Fla. — A high school on Florida’s Atlantic coast has removed a graphic novel based on Anne Frank’s diary after a leader of a conservative advocacy group challenged it, claiming it minimized the Holocaust.
The “Diary of Anne Frank: The Graphic Adaptation” was removed from a library at Vero Beach High School after a Moms for Freedom leader in Indian River County filed an objection. The school principal agreed with the objection and the book was withdrawn last month.
The book at one point shows the protagonist walking in a park, enchanted by nude female statues, and then proposing to a friend that they show their breasts.
Per school district policy, the principal makes the decision on a challenged book. If someone disagrees with the decision to keep the disputed book on the shelves, it can be appealed to a district committee. The Anne Frank graphic novel had been reviewed twice before it was withdrawn, Cristen Maddux, a spokeswoman for the Indian River County School District, said Monday.
Vero Beach is 105 miles southeast of Orlando.
Other books about Anne Frank and copies of the published diary she wrote chronicling the time she spent hiding from the Nazis with her family and other Jews in German-occupied Amsterdam remain in school system libraries. The Jewish Teenager’s Diary was published in 1947, several years after she died in a concentration camp, and has become a classic read by tens of millions of people around the world.
Florida schools are required by law to teach about the Holocaust, and nothing has changed in that regard, Maddux said.
“Feedback that the Holocaust is being removed from the curriculum and students don’t know what happened, that’s not the case at all,” Maddux said. «It’s just a challenged book and the director removed it.»
In addition to the Anne Frank graphic novel, Moms for Liberty in Indian River County opposed three books in the “Murder in the Classroom” series, and they too were removed.
Moms for Freedom leader Jennifer Pippin said the Anne Frank graphic novel violated state standards for accurately teaching the Holocaust.
«Even his version featured editing of the sex entries,» Pippin said, referring to the original diary. “Even the publisher of the book calls it a ‘biography,’ that is, he writes his own interpretive spin on it. It’s not the actual job. He cites the work, but it is not the complete diary. He chooses to offer a different vision on the subject ”.
Published in 2018, the graphic novel was adapted from the Diary of Anne Frank by Ari Folman, with David Polonsky providing the illustrations. Folman’s parents are Holocaust survivors.
When contacted by email, the book’s publisher, Pantheon Graphic Library, referred the inquiry to Yves Kugelmann, a board member of a foundation set up by Anne Frank’s father, Otto, dedicated to distributing Anne Frank’s diary and others. affairs. Kugelmann did not immediately respond to questions.
The American Library Association reported last month that there were more than 1,200 lawsuits to censor library books last year in the US, the highest number since the association began tracking more than 20 years ago.