Germans rename Anne Frank daycare centre to avoid upsetting immigrant children

They claimed the Holocaust and Anne Frank's story proved “challenging”, especially for children from immigrant backgrounds.

Centre manager Linda Schichor said: “We sought a name without political connotations.”

Now the municipal facility’s board of trustees has approved the change. And even local mayor Andreas Brohm says it is the right thing to do.

“Parents and staff desire a name that aligns more with the revised concept, a name free from global political association,” he said.

The International Auschwitz Committee has expressed its outrage.

Vice-president Christoph Heubner slammed the decision, saying: “To dismiss our history so lightly, especially during these times marked by resurging antisemitism and right-wing extremism, and to view Anne Frank's name as unsuitable in the public sphere, fills us with dread and anxiety about our nation's culture of remembrance,” he said.

Anne Frank’s diary, a global bestseller, chronicled her experiences in hiding from the occupying Germans in Amsterdam from 1942 to 1944 when her family was betrayed. She died in 1945, aged 15. Her father, Otto Frank, was the family’s sole survivor.