Wiesenthal Center Expresses Shock and Deep Concern Over Mass Desecrations of The Diary of Anne Frank in Japanese Libraries

February 20, 2014

The Simon Wiesenthal Center has expressed its shock and deep concern over the vandalization of hundreds of copies of The Diary of Anne Frank in at least two dozen libraries in Metropolitan Tokyo. The shocking development was first reported in The Huffington Post.

"The geographic scope of these incidents strongly suggest an organized effort to denigrate the memory of the most famous of the 1.5 million Jewish children murdered by the Nazis in the World War II Holocaust," charged Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish Human Rights organization which also houses a major exhibition on Anne Frank at its Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.

"I know from my many visits to Japan, how much Anne Frank is studied and revered by millions of Japanese. Only people imbued with bigotry and hatred would seek to destroy Anne's historic words of courage, hope and love in the face of impending doom," Cooper added.

"We are calling on Japanese authorities to step up efforts to identify and deal with the perpetrators of this hate campaign," Cooper concluded.

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The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).