The Queen has become the first royal patron of the Anne Frank Trust UK.
Her Majesty took on the role on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day in 2024.
The Anne Frank Trust UK is an education charity which works with young people to challenge all forms of prejudice.
Its work comes from the life and writings of Anne Frank who was forced into hiding during World War Two during the Nazi persecution of the Jewish population. She spent two years in Amsterdam where she wrote a diary. She and her family were captured in 1944 and Anne died in the Bergen Belsen concentration camp in early 1945 at the age of 15.
Her diary was published after the war and her father, Otto Frank, campaigned tirelessly to promote an end to all forms of prejudice.
Queen Camilla has long been a supporter of the Trust and in 2022, as Duchess of Cornwall, she attended a special event marking the 75th anniversary of the publication of Anne Frank’s diary and remembering all those lost as part of Holocaust Memorial Day.
At the event, Her Majesty said ”Let us… learn from those who bore witness to the horrors of the Holocaust, and all subsequent genocides, and commit ourselves to keeping their stories alive, so that each generation will be ready to tackle hatred in any of its terrible forms.”
She also quoted Anne Frank who wrote ”What is done cannot be undone, but at least one can prevent it from happening again”.
Announcing the patronage, the Trust’s chair, Nicola Cobbold, said ”the profound honour of Royal Patronage emphasises the importance of Holocaust remembrance and anti-prejudice education.”
The Chief Executive of the Trust, Tim Roberston, said that The Queen’s patronage would help greatly as the organisation seeks to reach more young people, and he spoke of how Anne Frank’s life continues to make a mark, saying ‘the cruelty with which she was robbed of her future is what drives us to make a difference today, engaging young people of Anne’s age in learning the crucial lessons of the Holocaust.‘
The Anne Frank Trust was established in 1991 by friends of Anne’s father, Otto Frank and works primarily with young people aged between 9 and 15 to challenge any form of prejudice. In 2023, it worked with 119,000 pupils at over 800 UK schools.
