At the organisation's headquarters in Paris on Wednesday, UNESCO, together with the Anne Frank Fonds Basel launched the Dear Kitty educational programme on the Holocaust, which is being distributed to schools around the world to accompany Where is Anne Frank, the first international film for children and young people on the Shoah.
In her speech to about 1000 guests from politics, civil society and educational projects, Director General Audrey Azoulay mentioned the commitment of UNESCO in the field of information programmes about the Holocaust and this film as part of it. The Diary of Anne Frank was included in the Memory of the World Register in 2009, which means that it is part of Europe's protected cultural heritage. After the film screening, which ended with long ovations, Ari Folman, the Israeli director of the animated film and a child of Holocaust survivors himself, said: “History needs to be conveyed in the language of children not to lose the transfer to history.” This film, which celebrated its world première at the Cannes Film Festival in the summer, will be released in cinemas in France next week and then in cinemas around the world in 2022. The Fonds, which was established in Basel in 1963 as the only organisation founded by Otto Frank, was appointed as his universal heir and entrusted with the publication of the diaries and protection of the family's legacy. The Basel foundation initiated and developed the film project and the global educational programme, together with partners such as the Claims Conference, the Foundation of the Memory of the Shoah and the Aladdin Project. TA
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