ANNE FRANK UNBOUND The Modern Jewish Experience Paula Hyman and Deborah Dash Moore, editors A N N E F R A N K UNBOUND M E D I A • I M A G I N AT I O N • M E M O R Y Edited by BARBARA KIRSHENBLATT-GIMBLETT AND JEFFREY SHANDLER Indiana University Press Bloomington & Indianapolis This book is a publication of Manufactured in the United States of America Indiana University Press 601 North Morton Street Library of Congress Bloomington, Indiana Cataloging-in-Publication Data 47404–3797 USA Anne Frank unbound : media, iupress.indiana.edu imagination, memory / edited by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett and Telephone orders 800-842-6796 Jeffrey Shandler. Fax orders 812-855-7931 p. cm. “This volume of essays was developed © 2012 by Barbara Kirshenblatt- from ... a colloquium convened in Gimblett and Jeffrey Shandler 2005 by the Working Group on Jews, All rights reserved Media, and Religion of the Center for Religion and Media at New York No part of this book may be reproduced University”—Intr. or utilized in any form or by any means, Includes bibliographical references electronic or mechanical, including and index. photocopying and recording, or by ISBN 978-0-253-00661-5 (cloth : alk. any information storage and retrieval paper) — ISBN 978-0-253-00739-1 system, without permission in writing (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-253- from the publisher. The Association 00755-1 (eb) 1. Frank, Anne, 1929– of American University Presses’ 1945—Congresses. I. Kirshenblatt- Resolution on Permissions constitutes Gimblett, Barbara. II. Shandler, the only exception to this prohibition. Jeffrey. DS135.N6F73186 2012 ∞ The paper used in this publication 940.53’18092—dc23 meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for 2012018657 Information Sciences – Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992. 1 2 3 4 5 17 16 15 14 13 12 In memory of Barbara Rose Haum (1962–2008) a gifted artist and a giving colleague “Expulsion,” by Barbara Rose Haum, from the artist’s solo exhibition at the Kommunalen Galerie im Leinwandhaus, Frankfurt am Main, in 1992. Each image was paired with a text from the Bible. Accompanying this piece was the following passage: “And he said: when you deliver the Hebrew women look at the birthstool, if it is a son kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” (Exodus 1:16) Used with permission of Henri Lustiger Thaler Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction: Anne Frank, the Phenomenon 1 I. Mediating 1 From Diary to Book: Text, Object, Structure Jeffrey Shandler 25 2 Anne Frank from Page to Stage Edna Nahshon 59 3 Anne Frank’s Moving Images Leshu Torchin 93 II. Remembering 4 Hauntings of Anne Frank: Sitings in Germany Henri Lustiger Thaler and Wilfried Wiedemann 137 5 Teaching Anne Frank in the United States Ilana Abramovitch 160 6 Anne Frank as Icon, from Human Rights to Holocaust Denial Brigitte Sion 178 7 Anne Frank, a Guest at the Seder Liora Gubkin 193 viii contents III. Imagining 8 Literary Afterlives of Anne Frank Sara R. Horowitz 215 9 Suturing In: Anne Frank as Conceptual Model for Visual Art Daniel Belasco 254 10 Sounds from the Secret Annex: Composing a Young Girl’s Thoughts Judah M. Cohen 265 IV. Contesting 11 Critical Thinking: Scholars Reread the Diary Sally Charnow 291 12 Anne Frank on Crank: Comic Anxieties Edward Portnoy 309 Epilogue: A Life of Its Own—The Anne Frank Tree Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 324 Notes 339 Musicography Judah M. Cohen 377 Videography Aviva Weintraub 397 Contributors 409 Index 413 Acknowledgments This volume of essays was developed from presentations at Mediating Anne Frank, a colloquium convened in 2005 by the Working Group on Jews, Media, and Religion of the Center for Religion and Media at New York University. We are most grateful to Faye Ginsburg, Angela Zito, and Barbara Abrash of the Center for Religion and Media for their support both of this colloquium and of the working group’s many activities dur- ing the six years of its existence. During this period, dozens of scholars and artists presented their work on topics ranging from Jewish postcards to televangelist rabbis, Jewish film festivals to virtual worship in Second Life. Members of the working group convened four public colloquia and organized sessions at other scholarly conferences, produced a thematic issue of the journal Material Religion, and created a website (http:// modiya.nyu.edu) dedicated to teaching and researching this emerging subject of scholarly inquiry. Anne Frank Unbound exemplifies the working group’s commitment to innovative, cross-disciplinary approaches to studying phenomena at the intersection of religion and media, broadly defined. We are indebted to this volume’s contributors, both those who participated in the 2005 colloquium and those whose contributions were added subsequently, for their thoughtful work and their patience with the realization of this volume. We likewise thank the other participants in the original collo- quium—Barbara Abrash, Michael Beckerman, Jeffrey Feldman, Faye Ginsburg, Judith Goldstein, Barbara Rose Haum, Jenna Weissman Joselit, Mark Kligman, Faye Lederman, and Nicholas Mirzoeff—for sharing their insights. ix