Anne Frank New Zealand
One of the key differences between the exhibition Anne Frank: Let Me Be Myself and previous exhibitions is our extensive New Zealand focused education programme. As well as a series of free tailored materials available to educators bringing groups to the exhibition, HCNZ has also set about training peer guides. These are young people nominated by their school or college to guide their classmates around the exhibition. In Auckland, we had an incredible 105 young people sign up to peer guide training, delivered by National Director of Education, Chris Harris, in September. These peer guides have been instrumental in taking groups of school pupils around the installation. So far we’ve had 5000 students tour the exhibition and Harris reflects on the success of this educational model: “I’m extremely happy with the numbers. We're seeing real dedication from schools visiting the exhibition and that's so satisfying to us. I think that the students are getting a sense that these events may have happened in the past but when they view the modern section of the exhibition they see that discrimination and prejudice exists in our world today and that we all have a part to play in ending this hatred towards each other.”
The exhibition is due to open in Wellington in late May and Harris will be undertaking training with schools in the capital on April 10th. “I'm looking forward to Wellington. We have schools that are showing expressions of interest or booking appointments already. I'd like to see more guides as this is such a great initiative. We're seeing the rewards in Auckland of this.”
If you would like to find out more about the peer guide scheme, please email educationmanager@holocaustcentre.org.nz