A Moral Story

At some point in the mid-1990s, a teacher and parent group got into a constructive phase in Frankfurt over Anne Frank (the Jewish teen from WW II, killed by the Nazis).  They wanted to build a 'center' which focused on life of Anne Frank, and have it as a teaching device for youth.  Donations rolled in, public attention was focused upon this, and around 1997....the center became a reality.

If you go from 1997 on....there's been revisions to the center.  Around five years ago, the center started to turn into a 'lab'.  Why the use of this term?  Some terms thrown around include racism, and the use of the Anne Frank Center to teach moral lessons.  Some of this effort today would be described as countering populist views, mediating through social commentary or social media, and teaching the general public (not just teens) on civil courage.

The term 'civil courage' gets thrown around a good bit in Germany now, but it generally means that you need to stand up and defend the little guy....usually meaning the migrant, the asylum-seeker, or the oppressed.

So I bring all of this up, because around a month ago....the Center put out a public statement which compared in some simplistic fashion, the woes of Jews fleeing Nazi threats during WW II, to the ISIS terrorists/thugs in Syria/Iraq.  The statements generally aimed at the German authorities decision not let ISIS members back into Germany (if they were citizens here).  The authorities did say individuals who are juveniles.....would be considered and likely let back in, but dual-nationality folks?  No. 

After these Frank Center tweets went out (five condemning the German authorities decision)....it kinda lit a fire going back against the Anne  Frank Center.  It's safe to say condemnation occurred, and the Center reflected upon what they'd said, and tried to soften the commentary.

There is this odd path that various foundations and centers went through in the 1960s, 1970s and so on.....where the first group with the creation...woke up one day and found themselves surrounded with people who had taken the focus of the original idea and carried it off to some political agenda which wasn't really what the original group had conceived.  In this case, I think the 1990s crew with the Frank Center in Frankfurt would shake their heads because they had a particular vision where the message would be taken, and that path is long gone today.

The future of the Frank Center in Frankfurt?  It might continue to survive as a 'lab'.  But some loss of respect has occurred, and some folks will counter their civil courage lessons....asking what exactly is the landscape for this to exist.