(Arapahoe, WY) – Arapahoe Charter High School opened its doors to the public on November 13 for a special exhibit on Anne Frank, giving students and community members a new look at the life of the young Jewish diarist and history around the Holocaust.
The display, created by the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, was recently shipped from the Netherlands to Arapahoe and will remain at the school through the end of November.
The traveling exhibit includes a collection of museum-quality information panels that explore Anne Frank’s childhood, her family’s years spent in hiding, the rise of Nazi Germany, and a broader context of the Holocaust. The Anne Frank House, located in the building where the Frank family hid before they were discovered, created this exhibit for educational use in schools and communities around the world.
Inside the classroom where the panels were arranged, visitors moved from display to display to learn more about Frank’s story. Tables held stacks of Anne Frank biographies, Holocaust histories, and literature about the Second World War. A separate table with candles and photographs of Native American children at boarding schools encouraged guests to consider connections between the Holocaust and the forced assimilation and cultural destruction experienced by Indigenous peoples in the United States.
The event was organized by Heather Pasquinelli, who teaches English at the high school. Pasquinelli also teaches a course called Holocaust and Genocide Studies Through Literature, which aims to help students understand the Holocaust and other examples of genocide around the world. She first encountered Anne Frank’s diary when she was a girl after a German librarian in her hometown recommended it to her. Pasquinelli said that experience shaped her interest in teaching and her commitment to this subject.
“This is why we teach it in school,” she said. “The facts are so important and teaching them is how we stop it from happening again.”
Pasquinelli learned about the Anne Frank exhibit program through a friend and applied to bring it to Arapahoe Charter. The exhibit arrived, along with official training materials from the Anne Frank House, and ten students from her class completed the instruction on how to give tours. Those students are now able to guide visitors through the panels during the open house and scheduled viewings.
“More than anything, I want kids to be good people when they are done with school here,” Pasquinelli said. “Most social justice can be taught through the Holocaust.”
During the community opening, three sophomores, Cimmiron Hanway, Alijah Lujan, and LeTavian Brown, served as guides, greeting visitors and explaining what they had learned. Guests followed them from panel to panel, asking questions and stopping to read sections of the displays.
Cimmiron said that studying the Holocaust helped her understand the beginnings of widespread violence. When asked how such a tragedy could happen, she said, “It’s really just hatred.”
Alijah said that the scale of the Holocaust surprised him once he studied it closely. “I was surprised at how bad it actually got,” Alijah said. He added that preventing something similar in the future requires people to raise their voices. “If people do not want it to happen again, they should protest and make their voices be heard.”
LeTavian emphasized the role of leadership during dangerous periods of history. “People in power need to speak up to get the people’s opinions changed,” he said.
Pasquinelli said the exhibit offers students and community members an important opportunity to learn about the history of the Holocaust and the similarities it shares with Native American history. “
When you learn the history, it’s shocking how many similarities there are between the Holocaust and what happened to Native people in our country.”
The exhibit will remain at the school through the end of November, and students in Pasquinelli’s class will continue giving scheduled tours for students and other community members who reach out.
Anyone who would like to arrange a visit can email Heather at heather.pasquinelli@gmail.com