Governor Perdue to Open Internationally Acclaimed Anne Frank Exhibit at Kennesaw State University

Atlanta - Governor Sonny Perdue will open the internationally acclaimed "Anne Frank in the World" exhibit at Kennesaw State University (KSU) on Friday, November 14th at 2 p.m. with a ribbon cutting. Governor Perdue will then lead the first official tour of citizens from across Georgia through the 2,000-square-foot, newly constructed museum. Accompanying Perdue will be Holocaust survivors, American military liberators of concentration camps, teachers, and students.

"I am proud that Georgia has been awarded the unprecedented opportunity to house the world's largest Anne Frank exhibit," said Governor Sonny Perdue. "The Georgia Commission on the Holocaust has worked diligently over the past few years to secure this exhibit for our state. We are fortunate that one of Georgia's top universities, Kennesaw State, has taken a leadership role in the project and has committed to host this exhibit for an extended period of time. I thank President Betty Siegel and the Kennesaw State University Foundation for their continued commitment of time and resources to this vision."

The exhibit uses 14,000 words and 600 photographs to tell the story of Anne Frank, the German-Jewish teenager who spent over two years hiding from the Nazis during World War II. She and her family were betrayed and sent to concentration camps. Frank died at Bergen-Belsen in 1945, just before it was liberated. She was only 15 years old.

Previously viewed by millions of people throughout the world, the exhibit was curated in the Netherlands and is one of only three of its kind in the world. The New York-based Anne Frank Center agreed to send the Frank exhibit to Georgia after lengthy negotiations with Georgia's Holocaust Commission. The commission has granted the exhibit to KSU for an initial three-year period. Options for renewal will allow the exhibit to stay at KSU for an indefinite period of time.

"Anne Frank's name is magic," said Sylvia Wygoda, Executive Director of the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust. "People who know very little about the Holocaust know Anne Frank's name, and that recognition leads to many, many learning opportunities. Promoting diversity and teaching tolerance are the primary goals of the Anne Frank exhibit."