Boise, ID

Today, my daughter and I felt like being educated and inspired and so we went to the Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial. This is a beautiful place to visit. Since the memorial is outdoors and was built by the Boise River and the greenbelt, it is partially shaded by old trees, colored with a multitude of flowers, and filled in with peaceful green grass. Bicycle riders are moving every which way since this is where the greenbelt crosses from one side of the river to the other. The Boise Public Library is right across the parking lot, so the location also seems to be drop-off central for summer school day camps. It’s a busy little hub!

The memorial is an exhibit to be walked through. Bricks with donor’s names cover the ground. Tiger Woods even has one. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is engraved on big concrete slabs for easy reading. Dedication benches partially surround the statue of Anne Frank and the water features in what my daughter called the ‘quotation walk’–that being famous quotes engraved into the stone walls surrounding the waterfall and pools. The people quoted range from Anne Frank herself to Mother Theresa and Chief Joseph, from school children in Yugoslavia, to Gordon B. Hinckley and Jimmy Carter. Most of us have read or heard so many of them individually, but as a collective, they are a very powerful expression of unity and respect for diversity. To me, the wall is the best part of the memorial.

If you want to go through the memorial in a particular order, numbered information boxes surround the site. A manual crank is on the side of each one. When you turn the crank, an audio recording plays describing the area you are in and some of Anne Frank’s story. Very cool! We were surprised by how loud they are! There is no way, if you’re standing at the back of a tour group, you won’t hear what’s being said.

A bronze statue of Anne Frank stands at the front of dedication benches arranged in what looks like an amphitheatre layout.

The ground behind the statue is sawed to show the size of the attic hiding space that Anne and her family lived in. It’s an interesting visual. A narrow exit stairway creates the feel of leaving or entering the attic. A concrete slab, representing a door, partially blocks the bottom of the stairs on the way out with another of Anne’s quotes on it regarding her wish to be able to play outside.

The time you take to visit the memorial is entirely up to you. It really depends on how reflective you are as you go through it. If you have little ones with you, but feel like taking your time since there is quite a bit of reading, the entire structure is solid enough for them to entertain themselves by climbing around the benches and walls. I know my own kids would have fun if they weren’t already bigger than me.

Just in case you don’t know about Anne Frank, you can either visit the memorial, or visit the Idaho Human Rights Education website at http://www.idaho-humanrights.org/index.htm. You can learn just about anything you might want to know about human rights and what’s going on in Idaho. How do you get to the memorial? To quote from the center’s site, “. . . the Human Rights Memorial is nestled between the Log Cabin Literary Center and the Boise Public Library, across the street from the Idaho Historical Museum and the Boise Art Museum.”