A month-long exploration of the Holocaust and what it means to us today is taking place on the Flint Cultural Center Campus. t is home to fewer than 3,000 Jews and only three synagogues, but that hasn't stopped Flint from hosting a month-long series of events commemorating the Holocaust. Of course, as Flint Cultural Center CEO Larry Thompson points out, the Holocaust is more than just a Jewish issue. 'We want to make sure the community understands the history of the Holocaust and the implications for today," he said. "It's not just a Jewish thing; it's a human thing about our re- lationships with one another and how we treat each other." The Flint Cultural Center and the Flint Jewish Federation have been working together for over a year to create "Anne Frank & Us: Insights Into Cruelty, Discrimi- nation and Hope." All the institu- tions affiliated with the Flint Cultural Center will be partici- . pating, and events include lec- tures, art exhibits, historical ex- hibits, a film series and a play. According to Susan Wasser- man, associate executive director for Jewish Family and Children's Services, the project grew out of a planned production ofAnne Frank & Me, a children's play about the from the collaborative efforts of the Flint Jewish Federation and the numerous institutions that com- prise the Flint Cultural Center. Both the Flint Cultural Center and the federation hope to draw in visitors from all over Michigan, and they are also working to in- volve schoolchildren from the Flint area. "Part of the project involves tak- ing children to see the exhibits," said Ms. Wasserman, adding that over 60 Flint teachers participat- ed in a training day on the Holo- caust and are receiving specially designed curriculums on teaching the Holocaust. "It's been a nice community pro- ject involving everybody," said Ms. Wasserman. El Holocaust. 'We started with talk- ing about working with the Flint Youth Theater to do the play; then it started to grow," said Ms. Wasserman. "It wasn't started with the de- sign of being this big," said Mr. Thompson, who attributed the growth to the "synergy" created e "Anne Frank & Us" runs through May 25. For a com- plete listing of events, call (810) 760-1097, or toll free 1-888-8- CENTER. nMOMARAWW 3' .W mx,:z*,: vmoraK.mmitm•msivm ,,,,,x,.. Best Friends The "Jopie" of Anne Frank's diary shares her memories. JULIE WIENER STAFF WRITER acqueline Van Maarsen knew about Anne Frank's diary before even the first page had been filled. Anne's best friend at the time, Mrs. Van Maarsen was at the birthday party in which Anne received the blank book. Mrs. Van Maarsen---referred to by her nickname, "Jopie," in. Anne's diary—I:net Anne in 1941 when the Nazi occupiers of the Netherlands forbid Jews from attending regular schools, forc- ing them to attend a Jewish high school. "The first day of school we met, and we were friends un- j til she went into hiding," said and remained in Amsterdam Mrs. Van Maarsen, who still throughout the war. lives in Amsterdam. But her father's brothers and When Anne and her family sisters all perished. "I saw every: went into hiding in 1942, Mrs. thing from very close," she said Van Maarsen did not know "All my Jewish friends and fain what had happened. "They sud ily disappeared." denly disappeared," she said After the war, Mrs. Van "We thought they went into Maarsen learned what had hap- Switzerland because they left a pened to the Frank family from message with a Swiss address." Anne's father, Otto Frank, the Mrs. Van Maarsen was one sole survivor. Mr. Frank of the few of her class- showed pieces of the mates at the Jewish Jacqueline Van diary to Mrs. Van high school who stir- Maarsen: "Jopie" Maarsen, then sent vived the Holocaust. "I was at the birthday her the galleys before was Jewish in the first Party during which publication. half of the war, and in Anne received her "It was a very the second half not Jew- blank diary. strange feeling," she ish," she said "My moth said of the first time er had become Jewish by she read the> diary. "She had marriage, and the moment she written about me in her diary, understood her daughters were and I didn't like it to be pub- in danger, she went to the Ger- fished. At the time, I didn't know mans and told them her daugh- the use of it; I was just a young ters were not Jewish by birth." girl." Because her mother was Although Mrs. Van Maarsen French, proving her ancestry to was uncomfortable with the the Germans took several years 1995 publication of amore corn- and required extensive paper- prehensive edition of the diary, work from France. In the which contained passages Mr. end, Mrs. Van Maarsen and her Frank had originally omitted, family were classified as Aryans she feels it was necessary to prove the diary's authenticity. "I don't like it all to be published, but it was necessary because of the neo-Nazis who claimed [Anne] didn't write it herself" Mrs. Van Maarsen now iden tifies as Jewish, and her hus band, Ruud, whom she met after the war, was a. hidden child dur- ing the Holocaust. Unlike Anne Frank who hid with her family, he was separated from his rela- tives and lived with a gentile family. After her book, My Friend Anne Frank, was published last year, Mrs. Van Maarsen began traveling and lecturing. "Tm not so much a traveling kind, but I think it's very important to talk about the Holocaust," she said, adding that "Anne is a symbol now, but these things really hap- pened." CI *a' Jacqueline Van Maarsen will be leading a public lec- ture and discussion at Bower Theater on Thursday, May 8, at 7:30 p.m. She will be sign- ing books at Flint's Borders Books on Wednesday, May 7, from 4-5 p.m.