St. Mary's students collaborate in historic exhibit

St. Mary's High School students in Calgary are featuring an exhibition that tells the story of the life of Anne Frank

Calgary — Over 400 students from St. Mary’s high school joined forces to research, write, design, and craft elaborate exhibits honouring the story and life of Anne Frank.

Presented in tandem with the travelling international Anne Frank House exhibit, St. Mary’s students transformed three classrooms into interactive and factual presentations of the horrors faced by Frank during the Second World War.

A German-born, Dutch-Jewish diarist, Frank documented her life in hiding during the German occupation of the Netherlands from 1942 to 1944.

Frank’s best known work, The Diary of a Young Girl is one of the world’s most renown books and has been the basis for numerous films and plays.

“This story is from a person of a similar age, so it really allowed students to sympathize and connect with the realities of that time,” said St. Mary's principal Luigi Fortini.

Fortini added that the idea of resiliency also became a major theme while students worked on the project. “The idea of hope was central, hope for our students and for the future,” he said.

Representatives of Anne Frank House also provided two days of intense training to 26 student tour guides, resulting in student-led tours of the exhibit.

“Educating is the highest thing you can do,” said Joshua Severson, a grade 11 student at St Mary’s and tour guide of Anne Frank exhibit. “People need to know what happened during that time, or history is doomed to repeat itself,” he added.

The Anne Frank House exhibit runs at St. Mary’s High School until Friday, March 6. Students host two tours per day, beginning at 9:30-11:30 a.m., and 1:00-2:30 p.m. The school is at 111 18th Ave SW.