By: Kate Anderson, Daily Caller News Foundation
A German daycare named after Anne Frank, a Jewish teenager killed during the Holocaust, is looking to change its name after migrant parents claimed that it was too hard to explain the story to their children, according to German media reports.
The daycare in Tangerhütte, Germany, currently named Kita Anne Frank, has been in operation for over 50 years and will likely be renamed to “World Explorers,” according to The Jerusalem Post. The city conducted a report and found that migrant parents had expressed a desire to change the name, claiming that it was too hard to explain the significance of Frank’s story and the daycare said that a name “without political backgrounds” would be better suited, according to Harzer Volksstimme.
“It is reported that parents with migrant backgrounds feel uncertain about the name and find it challenging to explain to their children,” the report noted, according to The Jerusalem Post.
The town’s mayor, Andreas Brohm, said that he felt it was important that the daycare center moved beyond the recent conflict in Israel with Hamas and that the new name had “more weight compared to the global political situation,” Apollo News, a German media outlet, reported.
Miteinander e V, a German civil society organization, argued that the story of Anne Frank was perfectly appropriate for young children and that changing the name “sends the wrong signal, especially in a time marked by increasing antisemitism,” according to a statement to The Jerusalem Post. Brohm, however, claimed that “fundamental changes” were necessary and that the decision was ongoing, according to Harzer Volksstimme.
“We dealt with the daycare center,” the mayor said. “We have not dealt with the legacy of Anne Frank.”
The decision follows weeks of rising antisemitism around the world after Hamas launched a terrorist attack against Israel on Oct. 7 that resulted in the deaths of over 1,400 Israelis and wounded thousands more. Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters stormed an airport in the Dagestan region in Russia on Oc. 29 shouting “Kill Israelis and Jews” and Allah Akbar.”
The daycare and Brohm did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
