Police arrested a man in Poland who is suspected of projecting an antisemitic text onto Amsterdam’s Anne Frank House, the Anne Frank House said in a statement on its website.
The incident occurred on February 6 when the slur “Ann Frank [sic], inventor of the ballpoint pen” was projected for several minutes onto the Anne Frank House.
The text is the antisemitic claim that Anne Frank’s diary could not be authentic because it was partly written in ballpoint pen, which was not available during the Holocaust, and was instead later written as a forgery by people other than Anne Frank.
“The claim that Anne Frank's diary was written with ballpoint pen can still be read regularly on far-right websites and elsewhere,” Anne Frank House explained. “Snide remarks are made about ‘A. Frank the ballpoint girl’ and it is pointed out that the ballpoint pen did not come into use in Europe until after World War II. This suggests that the texts in the diary cannot have been written by Anne Frank herself, and only after World War II… With this they attempt to question or deny the existence of the Holocaust.”
Footage of the projection of the slur was seen in an antisemitic and racist video posted to a private Telegram group from the US, they added.
“The diary of Anne Frank is one of the most important testimonies of the persecution of the Jews during the Second World War,” said Ronald Leopold, executive director Anne Frank House. “With the projection and the video the perpetrators are attacking the authenticity of Anne Frank's diary and inciting hatred. We are grateful to the police for tracking down and arresting the suspect of the projection. The case is now in the hands of the judiciary.”
The 41-year-old suspect was arrested after a lengthy investigation that began in early February, according AFP.
While the suspect was identified by police soon after the incident, he had traveled back to Poland, Dutch police said in a statement. On Monday, Dutch detectives went to Poland where the suspect was arrested at his home.
“The Amsterdam public prosecutor has asked for the man to be extradited to the Netherlands,” police said.