Appearing recently at the opening here of an exhibition about the life of Anne Frank, South African President Nelson Mandela described the young girl whose diary is still being read a half century after it was written as a heroine in the fight against racism.
“The victory of the democratic forces in South Africa is a contribution to this worldwide effort to rid humanity of the evil of racism. It is Anne Frank’s victory. It is an achievement of humanity as a whole,” Mandela said to a standing ovation at the opening ceremonies.
Earlier this month, the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam presented Mandela with the 1994 Anne Frank Medal for his contributions toward advancing democratic practices in South Africa.
The medal honors the memory of the Jewish teen-ager who hid from the Nazis before being captured and deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp.
The Anne Frank exhibit is being shown here in conjunction with another exhibition, “Apartheid and Resistance,” which depicts the horrors of apartheid and includes photographs of Mandela and his African National Congress comrades during the struggle against apartheid.
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