HOUSTON, TX (Jan. 28, 2013) – What happens to a country that finds itself occupied by a foreign power from one day to the next? What do we actually know about Anne Frank? What if she had survived WWII? She has become the face of the Holocaust, a cultural icon and a star of the screen and stage. But how much of that is hype and projection?

Rolf Wolfswinkel

Professor Rolf Wolfswinkel will make the point that icons have to carry so much of the weight of all our dreams and desires that we lose sight of the person underneath all that baggage as he discusses “Anne Frank, The Girl That Never Was,” set for Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013, beginning at 6:30 p.m. at Holocaust Museum Houston’s Albert and Ethel Herzstein Theater in the Morgan Family Center, 5401 Caroline St., in Houston’s Museum District.

Tickets are $5 for HMH members and $8 for nonmembers. Seniors and students may pay $4 at the door. Seating is limited, and advance registration is requested. Visit https://www.hmh.org/RegisterEvent.aspx to register online.

Wolfswinkel was born in Amsterdam, where he studied history and literature. He lectured in the Department of Southern African Languages (Afrikaans & Nederlands) at the University of Cape Town in South Africa for 15 years and, since 1999, has been a member of New York University’s Faculty of Arts & Science as a professor of modern history in the General Studies Program.
 
His main area of research is the border area between history and literature, focusing in particular on the First and Second World War. In 1988, he was editor of and contributor of two articles in “Digging Up the Past” (in Dutch: Opgediept Verleden), published by the Western Front Association, in which the historical significance of the poetry of the First World War was examined. His dissertation “Between Treason and Patriotism” published by Amsterdam University Press, analyzed the literary representation of Dutch collaboration with the German Occupation Government during the Second World War. Others of his publications deal with the representation of the Holocaust and increasingly with the ambivalent role of the perpetrator, who becomes a victim of his own actions.

Wolfswinkel was a visiting professor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, the University of Leiden-The Netherlands and New York University. He acted as academic advisor for the “Anne Frank in the World” exhibition in South Africa and was in charge of text research for the Cape Town Holocaust Centre, which opened in 1998. In 2003, he was invited to join the board of the Anne Frank Center.

Holocaust Museum Houston is dedicated to educating people about the Holocaust, remembering the 6 million Jews and other innocent victims and honoring the survivors' legacy. Using the lessons of the Holocaust and other genocides, the Museum teaches the dangers of hatred, prejudice and apathy. Holocaust Museum Houston is free and open to the public and is located in Houston’s Museum District at 5401 Caroline St., Houston, TX 77004.

For more information about the Museum, call 713-942-8000 or visit www.hmh.org.