Anne Frank Memorial Ceremony Coming To Melville

MELVILLE, NY — The 12th annual Anne Frank Memorial Ceremony is scheduled for Thursday at Arboretum Park in Melville, the Town of Huntington announced. The park is home of the Anne Frank Memorial Garden.

The ceremony is scheduled from 10:30 a.m. to noon. The event will be held midway between Anne Frank's June 12 birthday and the Aug. 4 date of her capture. Frank would have been 93 this year.

"We must counter the voices that seek to divide us and fight ignorance with education, which is why the Town honors the memory of Anne Frank every year and, through her voice, all those voices silenced through the Holocaust," Huntington Supervisor Ed Smyth said. "The iron wedding dress sculpture in the Anne Frank Memorial Garden appears vulnerable yet it has withstood the elements, and even acts of vandalism; its endurance represents the strength and fearlessness with which we must fight evil, ignorance and hate."

Meryl Ain will serve as the guest speaker this year. Ain is a Huntington resident and acclaimed writer, author, podcaster, and career educator. Her award-winning post-Holocaust debut novel, "The Takeaway Men," was published in 2020. Its sequel, "Shadows We Carry," was published in April.

"The Takeaway Men," is the result of Ain's life-long quest to learn more about the Holocaust, a thirst that was first triggered by reading "The Diary of Anne Frank" in the sixth grade. While teaching high school history in the Syosset School District, she introduced her students to the study of the Holocaust.

The Anne Frank Memorial Garden, unveiled by the Town of Huntington in June 2010 at Arboretum Park, symbolically captures the journey of Anne Frank’s life. It features a circular pathway that surrounds a garden, which leads to the sculpture of a young girl’s dress.

"The Memorial Garden serves as tribute to Anne’s legacy of wisdom and genuine belief in the goodness of mankind and human nature, despite the ugliness of war and discrimination," the town wrote.

The Anne Frank Memorial Garden is at 48 Threepence Drive, Melville.