Draft:Anne Frank Center



= Anne Frank Center = The Anne Frank Center at the University of South Carolina (USC) is the official U.S. partner of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, and only partner site in North America. It is based in Columbia, SC and provides educational programs across North America.

Mission
The Anne Frank Center at the University of South Carolina is the official North American partner of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. Through our museum, exhibits, and peer-led programs, we work to ensure each generation remembers the story of Anne Frank and the Holocaust, understands the threat of antisemitism and any form of prejudice, and is prepared to advocate for peace and justice in our world.

Values
In honor of Anne’s legacy and her father Otto Frank’s vision, we continually emphasize our common humanity, encourage cultural understanding, and promote open dialogue so that we can all learn to live peacefully together in a free society.

Earlier work
The story of the Anne Frank Center begins with the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, which is dedicated to preserving the hiding place used by the young diarist Anne Frank and others during the Nazi occupation in WWII. In the 1980s, the Anne Frank House created “Anne Frank: A History for Today”, a traveling exhibit and docent training so students all over the world could learn about the life and legacy of Anne Frank. The traveling exhibit reached over 80 countries around the world. By 2012, USC associate professor Dr. Doyle Stevick brought the traveling exhibit to South Carolina, assisted by USC students and SC public teachers.

After five years, the traveling exhibits were wildly popular, and culminated with USC hosting Eva Schloss, stepdaughter of Otto Frank, the father of Margot and diarist Anne Frank in 2017. Then-USC President Harris Pastides invited Schloss for a leadership dialogue on campus. The event welcomed over 2,000 public school students at the Koger Center in downtown Columbia, SC.

Selected as Anne Frank House partner
In 2018, Ronald Leopold, executive director of the Anne Frank House, visited to learn about efforts across the state and region. Dr. Stevick and President Pastides hoped to create a permanent home on campus for all USC students, faculty, staff and the broader community to access.

After several discussions, the Anne Frank House chose the Anne Frank Center at the University of South Carolina as its official U.S. partner for North America in 2021. The Anne Frank Center opened its doors to the public in September 2021.

The Anne Frank Center joins Centro Ana Frank in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the Anne Frank Zentrum in Berlin, Germany, and the Anne Frank Trust in the United Kingdom as official partners to the Anne Frank House.

It is the first Anne Frank House partner site also located at an academic institution.

Partner organizations
The Anne Frank Center is focused on delivering programs in communities of all socio-economic levels and backgrounds. It relies on partnerships with local organizations, educators, and schools to provide its educational programs.

International

 * Anne Frank House (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
 * Anne Frank Trust (London, United Kingdom)
 * Anne Frank Zentrum (Berlin, Germany)
 * Centro Ana Frank (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

United States
It currently works alongside the following partner organizations across the United States:


 * Anne Frank Center, USA (New York, NY)
 * Anne Frank LA (Los Angeles, CA)
 * Anne Frank Initiative at the University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA)
 * Institute for Holocaust Education (Omaha, NE)
 * Loyola University New Orleans (New Orleans, LA)

Regional and Local

 * South Carolina Council on the Holocaust (South Carolina)

Member Organizations

 * Association of Holocaust Organizations (AHO)

Traveling exhibits
The Anne Frank Center is the North American distributor for three traveling exhibitions produced and printed by the Anne Frank House.


 * Anne Frank: A History for Today is an international exhibition produced by the Anne Frank House. It shares the story of Anne Frank, her family, the rise of the Nazism during World War II, and the Holocaust.
 * Let Me Be Myself connects Anne Frank's life story with the present and makes the fate of the millions of victims of the persecution of the Jews during the Second World War personal and palpable.
 * Reading and Writing with Anne Frank is a project where the exhibition serves as the starting point. The exhibition is specially designed for young people and provides an overview of the personal life of the Frank family. In addition, the exhibition focuses in on Anne’s writing talent.

Peer guide trainings
Peer guide trainings prepare teenagers and young adults to be guides for the traveling exhibits about Anne Frank in their school, synagogue, church, or community center. Rooted in peer education pedagogy, the trainings focus on enabling the students to become docents and offering tours to their classmates. As of 2023, the Anne Frank Center trained over 2,000 young people between the ages of 13 and 22.

Learning outcomes
 * A deeper understanding of Anne Frank and the times in which she lived.
 * Enhanced student leadership and public speaking skills.
 * Reflection on what the lessons of the Holocaust mean for us today.

Museum tours
Located in the heart of the University of South Carolina's Columbia campus, the Anne Frank Center houses a permanent exhibition constructed in collaboration with the Anne Frank House. It is the only partner site in North America. Tours are offered to the general public, field trips, and for groups upon request.

Anne Frank Awards
In February 2024, the Anne Frank Center hosted the inaugural Anne Frank Awards. These national awards were established to honor individuals involved in the organization's educational programs and who demonstrated outstanding commitment to advancing Holocaust education. Awards were given to students, educators, artists, and several for lifetime achievement.

In 2024, American actor Noah Emmerich received the Anne Frank Award for "Lifetime Achievement in the Arts".

Anne Frank Youth Conference (AFYC)
In summer 2023, the Anne Frank Center hosted the first U.S.-based Anne Frank Youth Conference (AFYC) in Columbia, SC. Nineteen students attended from California, Washington DC, North Carolina, Nebraska, Louisiana, and South Carolina. Participants developed “action plans” for projects in their respective communities. This is an annual program offered by the Anne Frank Center and partially funded by the Claims Conference.

University 101
University 101 (U101) is a course offered to first-year and transfer students at the University of South Carolina. Each fall semester, the Anne Frank Center offers tours to U101 classes about the life of Anne Frank. Since fall 2021, more than 450 classes, or approx. 9,250 college students have toured.