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Anne Frank Exhibit Opens in Renovated Jewish Museum Curaçao
A look inside the exhibit “Longing for Freedom. The World of Anne Frank” opening at the Jewish Museum Curaçao. Photo: Anne Frank House
A new exhibition about the life of teenage diarist and Holocaust victim Anne Frank will open on Sunday at the renovated Jewish Museum Curaçao.
School children on the Dutch Caribbean island will receive an educational program and free admission to the new exhibit titled, “Longing for Freedom. The World of Anne Frank.” The museum is located next to the Mikvé Israel-Emanuel Synagogue, which is the oldest synagogue still in use in the Western Hemisphere.
The exhibit will feature photographs and accompanying texts that provide details about Frank’s personal life — from her birth in 1929, to the rise of National Socialism, the start of World War II and her death in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in February 1945. The exhibition also discusses the publication of the diary she kept during the Holocaust while hiding with her family. Thirteen-year-old Frank, her parents, older sister, and four other Jews hid from the Nazis in a secret annex in Amsterdam from 1942 until they were discovered and arrested in 1944. Frank’s diary was posthumously published by her father, Otto Frank.
“Longing for Freedom. The World of Anne Frank” also features four videos in which young locals from Curaçao talk about their own personal experiences facing discrimination. Alongside the Frank exhibit, the Jewish Museum Curaçao features a display exploring the history of the Jewish community in Curaçao, dating back to the first Jews who arrived on the island in 1634, and the flourishing Jewish community that lives on the island today.
The museum additionally features an exhibition on George Maduro, a Curaçao native born in 1916 who moved to the Netherlands in 1926, and joined the resistance when Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands in 1940. At the age of 23, Maduro led an attack on German troops in The Hague. He was captured, but escaped, and was then recaptured and deported to the Dachau concentration camp, where he died in February 1945 mere months before its liberation.
“In Curaçao, Jewish history lives on in the streets, the language, and the people,” said Ronald Leopold, executive director of the Anne Frank House. “George Maduro is part of this legacy. Anne Frank’s life story is now also part of the island, as can be seen in the beautifully renovated Jewish Museum Curaçao. Anne Frank and George Maduro: two young lives full of promise, cut short by hatred and war. Yet their voices remain. We hope that their stories and their voices will inspire young people to make the world a better and fairer place.”
The audio tour for “Longing for Freedom. The World of Anne Frank” and the videos included in the exhibit are available in English, Dutch, Papiamentu, and Spanish. The official languages in Curaçao are Dutch, Papiamentu, and English, but Papiamentu is used the most in the streets, on local television programs, and in parliament. Papiamentu is a Creole language that features elements of Portuguese, Spanish, African languages, Dutch, French, English, and Arawak languages.
The post Anne Frank Exhibit Opens in Renovated Jewish Museum Curaçao first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.