Queen Máxima in New York and made a special visit to The Center for Jewish History to view the Anne Frank Exhibition.
The Queen of the Netherlands, in town for meetings with the United Nations in her role as Special Advocate for Financial Health, paid a visit to the Center on her final day in New York.
The Center for Jewish History shared on social media that Queen Máxima’s visit “underscores the global importance of Holocaust education, especially at a time when history must be remembered, shared, and learned from,” calling it a “profound honour” to welcome her.
The Anne Frank exhibition includes a recreation of the annex where Anne’s family hid during the Second World War—with period accurate furniture—and features artifacts like Anne’s first photo album and snippets of poetry she and her sister wrote.
Following her visit, Queen Máxima met with students from Great Neck North High School NY, who were visiting as part of their curriculum, and privately met with exhibit donors as well.
During this meeting, Queen Máxima met a Holocaust survivor, Leo Ullman, who is a benefactor of the exhibition. In an exclusive interview with People, he said that the Dutch Royal Family “has been extremely supportive” of Jewish history and the Jewish population in the Netherlands.
He added that Queen Máxima “is amazing. She’s very nice and outgoing, reaches out with her hand. I was afraid I’d have to curtsy or do something, and she’s very approachable and very, very nice.”
Ronald Leopold, the General Director of the Anne Frank Foundation, gave Queen Máxima a tour through the exhibit and commented to People afterwards that “She’s very dedicated to eradicating the hatred from our communities because it’s endangering how we live together. Obviously being the Queen of each and every one in the country, regardless of your background, regardless of your ethnicity, your religion, you are the Queen of each and every citizen of a country. That’s why this message of a shared humanity that comes from this exhibition is so incredibly important to her.”
