Anne Frank––A History for Today project, developed as an educational initiative by the Anne Frank House, Amsterdam allies with Peaceworks as its official India partner. After having touched many schools across the country, the Anne Frank exhibition recently travelled to the Yellow Train School, Coimbatore. On the 9th of August, 2024, after a warm welcome by the Yellow Train School, a walk through their expansive campus and a heartfelt song, the peer-guide training commenced.
Students of Grade 9 were enthusiastic participants in the first activity of the day, an exercise in welcoming difference of opinion. Students were given the names of historical figures, themes or even objects and asked to write three statements on them that would fit the labels of positive, negative and neutral. The students were to then read these statements, without disclosing their classification, as their peers reacted with a thumbs up (positive), thumbs down (negative) or fist (neutral) to indicate their reactions. The activity made apparent how the same statement could be interpreted so differently by the varied group of people.
This was followed by a simulation-game that sought to recreate the complex choices individuals had to make during Nazi rule. Students, seated in a circle, were handed red, yellow, purple and green cards randomly without declaring their meaning. A sudden announcement was made asking those with red cards to ‘incarcerate’ the yellow card holders. The remaining students were asked about their reactions. The green card holders, revealed to be German citizens in this simulation, were given incentives and fed propaganda to comply. The red card holders were given ranks. At each stage opinions were asked of the different card holders. A dissident red card holder was also ‘incarcerated’. The purple card holders, revealed to be diplomats of foreign nations, deliberated the possibilities of declaring war. The activity, marked by pauses to gauge reactions, reflections and opinions, tried to create a sense of the palpable fear, jingoism and othering prevalent in Nazi Germany.
The students then viewed the documentary, The Short Life of Anne Frank, to give them adequate context of Nazi Germany and convey details about Anne Frank’s life, her life in hiding and her demise in Bergen-Belsen. This was followed by a short discussion on the role of propaganda, conformity, militarization, othering and generation of consent for such heinous actions.
Post lunch, after a short demonstration of how the panels were to be set up and placed, and what kind of viewing experience they would create for the visitors, students began constructing the panels. A short demonstration of a walk through the Anne Frank exhibition was done, taking care to emphasize its relevance in the present day and posing questions to the audience. Students then divided themselves in groups and studied the panels. Each group was assigned 2-4 panels and students undertook research to go beyond the text and invite the viewer of the exhibition to interact with them.
On Day 2, a small reflection activity tried to capture the mood of the students and their thoughts on the activities of the previous day. After this students rehearsed their parts, making short presentations on how they would present their assigned panels. This was also a peer training exercise. As students presented, their peers offered them feedback on how to improve. Then students took the trainers on a guided walk through the exhibition. During this activity students had to reckon with the harsh realities of the world that still practised hate, discrimination and othering. They also indulged in thoughtful discussions on the role of the state and its policy in othering a minority.
The exhibition opened to a group of parents that afternoon. The parents were first made to play the aforementioned simulation game that was conducted with the students the previous day. Then they viewed the documentary and were guided through the exhibition by students. The newly trained peer guides performed remarkably, they presented with confidence and tackled queries and questions skilfully. They looked forward to guiding other school students from across Coimbatore.