Muslim actress plays Anne Frank
(Canscene) — One of the most poignant stories to emerge from World War II is that of Anne Frank, the teenaged Dutch Jewish girl who through years in hiding kept a diary until her eventual discovery by the Nazis. Although millions of others
perished like Anne, the young diarist is one of the war’s best remembered and best loved heroines.
In Toronto between November 10 and 21 Toronto high and middle schools have been able to see performances by German actress Asli Bayram.
She read from the Diary and afterwards told her her own story. The remarkable message of understanding that Asli brought to the project is that she is the daughter of Turkish Muslim immigrants to Germany. At about the same age that Anne Frank was writing her diary Asli lost her father to neo-Nazis; she herself was wounded in he gunfire that killed him.
Asli Bayram performed before a total of 4,300 students. The event was sponsored by the Te-Amim Music Centre which mounts performances featuring tolerance through the creative arts and facilitated by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre. We hope that as politicians bicker about peace many more Muslims and Jews will take initiatives like this.
Te-Amim’s next offering will be the world premiere dramatization of Ten Green Bottles, the true story of one Toronto family that survived the Holocaust, taking place in May 2009 at the Al Green Theatre of the Miles Nadal JCC, Toronto.