As large swaths of the world shelter-in-place during the Covid-19 pandemic, stewards of The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam are asking YouTube viewers to imagine if the diarist had been given a video-camera alongside her red-checkered diary.
“Anne Frank Video Diary,” which premiered last week on YouTube, includes 15 episodes to be aired through early May. Filmed in selfie-style with quick cuts, each episode is between five and 10 minutes in length.
Although the project began more than one year ago, its release on March 30 is connected to current global concerns, said Ronald Leopold, executive director of The Anne Frank House. (The museum is closed through June.)
“The way we read Anne’s diary and learn about her history is always being influenced by our own lives,” said Leopold. “This [pandemic] will also affect the way people read the diary.”
According to the museum’s website, the YouTube-based selfie format was deployed to engage adolescents on social media. Filmed in Dutch, the series is closed-captioned in five other languages.
“We need to reach out to the fourth and fifth generations,” said Leopold, whose museum partnered with Every Media to create the series. The project includes a seven-part curriculum tied to the series for educators.
Most scenes in “Video Diary” were filmed on a reconstructed set of the annex hiding place, with some flashback scenes shot on-site in the River Quarter neighborhood where the Frank and van Pels families lived before going into hiding.
The “Anne Frank Video Diary” series zooms in on the last five months of hiding for the eight “Secret Annex” Jews.
By early March of 1944, spring had come to Amsterdam with “gorgeous, indescribably beautiful” weather for when Anne sat with Peter van Pels in the attic.
In the second episode of “Video Diary,” 14-year old Anne is deeply frustrated by the prospect of Peter not finding her likable or interesting.
“You can be a bit too vibrant,” Peter says to the feisty teenager.
“He’s a stupid boy. Totally useless,” Anne moans to the camera in private.
Support the New York Jewish Week
Our nonprofit newsroom depends on readers like you. Make a donation now to support independent Jewish journalism in New York.
Cast in the role of Anne is 13-year old Luna Cruz Perez, whom Leopold said “uses her camera to invite the viewers to connect with Anne, the girl, in a direct way.”
“This is a personal one-on-one approach, just like in Anne’s paper diary,” according to the museum.
In keeping with the goal of reaching as many adolescents as possible, Anne was cast closer to her age than is typical, said Leopold. (In the 1959 film “The Diary of Anne Frank,” actress Millie Perkins was 19.)
The series will take viewers through the first week of August 1944, when the hiding place was raided by the Nazis. Half a year later, Anne and her sister Margot died of exhaustion and typhus at Bergen-Belsen in Germany. The diarist never reached age 16.
Because of copyright laws, “Anne Frank Video Diary” cannot be viewed on YouTube in the United States. The 60 countries with access to the series include Israel, India, China, and many countries in Europe and the Americas.
According to Leopold, the series is “timely” and “a wonderful opportunity” for educators tasked with teaching remotely, especially those who will be covering World War II in the weeks ahead — whether online or in their schoolrooms.
The Times of Israel
The New York Jewish Week brings you the stories behind the headlines, keeping you connected to Jewish life in New York. Help sustain the reporting you trust by donating today.
