Anne Frank's diary translated into Maori

Letters from Otto Frank donated to museum and images of the family's home have been digitized on what would have been her 90th birthday.

By AMY SPIRO
Photos of Anne Frank are seen at Anne Frank House museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 21, 2018. (photo credit: REUTERS/EVA PLEVIER)
Photos of Anne Frank are seen at Anne Frank House museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 21, 2018.
(photo credit: REUTERS/EVA PLEVIER)
The Diary of Anne Frank has been translated into more than 70 languages. Now, one more has been added to the list: Maori, the eastern Polynesian language spoken by the indigenous Maori people of New Zealand.
The new translation – titled Te Rataka a Tetahi Kohine – was launched on Wednesday evening in Wellington by Dutch Ambassador to New Zealand Mira Woldberg, alongside Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy.
This latest translation of the diary was initiated by Boyd Klap, now 92, who was a teenager in Amsterdam during World War II, and moved to New Zealand in the 1950s, according to The New Zealand Herald.
When he realized such a translation did not already exist, he set out to obtain the rights and enlist a publisher and the translator, Te Haumihiata Mason. The translated work is being published by the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand.
“The occupation of the Nazis began as discrimination against the Jews, and ended up as a policy of destroying a whole race,” said Klap, according to the Holocaust Centre. “Our society has changed and there is a greater acceptance of minorities, but there’s a long way to go.”
Jeremy Smith, the chairman of the Holocaust Centre, said: “We are honored to be associated with Boyd in this marvelous project, combining Holocaust education and a human rights message with the delivery of a classic book into the tongue of the Tangata Whenua.”
The launch of the translation was timed to coincide with what would have been Frank’s 90th birthday. Her life and diary have become one of the most famous Holocaust stories studied around the globe. After hiding with her family in an annex in Amsterdam for two years, Anne was deported to Bergen-Belsen where she died at age 15. Her father, Otto Frank, the only surviving member of the family, later recovered and published her diary, which she left behind in their hiding place after it was raided.
Around the world, organizations and individuals are marking the anniversary of her birth with a series of educational activities and initiatives.
In Washington, a collection of letters and mementos once belonging to Otto Frank has been donated to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Until now, AP reported Wednesday, the letters were held by Ryan Cooper, a Massachusetts antique dealer who struck up a pen pal friendship with Otto Frank – who died in 1980 – about 50 years ago. The museum intends to digitize the collection of letters and mementos Cooper received over the years, which include Otto Frank’s coin purse and a photo of Anne.
And Deutsche Welle reported on Wednesday that a version of the incomplete novel Frank penned as a teen, titled Dear Kitty, has been published in German under the title Liebe Kitty. The Anne Frank House called it an “incomplete manuscript of a girl who wanted to become an author,” according to DW.
Also on Wednesday, Google Arts and Culture uploaded 360-degree images of Frank’s former home, where she lived with her family in Amsterdam before going into hiding.
The images “allow viewers to take a virtual step inside Anne Frank’s former home and look around all the rooms, including the bedroom that Anne shared with her sister Margot,” Anne Frank House said Wednesday.
And German public broadcaster WDR has uploaded a new augmented reality feature in its Holocaust app to tell the story of Frank.
On Wednesday, a feature titled “My Dear Friend Anne Frank” was added to the app, which features testimony from two friends of the teenager, Jacqueline van Maarsen and Hannah Goslar.
The interviews with the two women appear like holograms to users of the apps, according to WDR.
“Anne Frank embodies the struggle between good and evil and reminds us of the darkest chapter of German history,” says Tom Buhrow, WDR’s director-general. “Her diary has made clear to the world what war and totalitarianism can do to people. It is our responsibility to keep her memory alive in the future. For that reason, I am proud that the school friends of Anne Frank have spoken about their common history for the WDR’s AR app – and, in doing so, have preserved it for the generations to come with state-of-the-art technology.”


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