The graphic novel was part of a list of books previously approved by book committees in Texas’ Keller Independent School District last year. However, new school board members elected in May have created new guidelines for acceptable books and have ordered that all previously challenged books come off shelves once again.
Jennifer Price, director of curriculum and instruction at Keller ISD, sent an email to teachers and librarians on Tuesday notifying them that they had a day to remove all the “challenged” books from school shelves.
“By the end of today, I need all books pulled from the library and from classrooms. Please collect these books and store them in a location,” the email, obtained by Insider, read.
The list of materials that have been “challenged,” mostly by parents and community members, contains over a dozen books, including all versions of the Bible and a graphic adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary, which recounts her experiences while in hiding with her family during the German occupation of the Netherlands. She later died in a concentration camp.
“Texas schools pulled The Diary of Anne Frank. Here I thought I was being an alarmist about the nazis rising,” another Twitter user wrote on Tuesday in response to the decision to temporarily remove the book. Meanwhile, another person tweeted about hating “what this country is becoming.”
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum hasn’t commented on the school district’s decision. But it tweeted on Wednesday that “Anne Frank is among the most well-known of the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust. For many students around the world, her diary is the first encounter they have with the history of Nazi Germany’s attempt to murder all the Jews of Europe during World War II.”
