German Muslim beauty queen portrays Anne Frank

TORONTO — Over the years, the Toronto Jewish community has been presented with countless events that educate people about the Holocaust, but for the first time, a German Muslim beauty queen was the one delivering the message.

Asli Bayram, a German actress and the first Miss Germany of Turkish Muslim descent – a title she won in 2005 – toured Toronto-area schools earlier this month, performing vignettes from Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.

On Nov. 10, Bayram, who first appeared on a German stage as Anne Frank in January, gave her first English performance at the Marshall McLuhan Catholic Secondary School, in front of the entire student body, as well as Max Eisen, a Holocaust survivor who often speaks out about his experience.

Sitting at a small desk in the middle of the school’s auditorium stage, dressed from head to toe in black, hair pulled back tight, Bayram, 26, read excerpts from the famous diary that documented Anne Frank’s experience living with her family in hiding, before getting caught by the Nazis in 1944 and dying in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp when she was 15.

Bayram struggled with her first English performance, often stumbling over difficult-to-pronounce words, but her ability to connect with the material was obvious.

The Toronto-area tour, presented by the Te-Amim Music Theatre – a non-profit organization that examines the legacy of the Holocaust through the arts – and sponsored by Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, also gave Bayram a platform to share her own story of racism and intolerance.

Following her performance, she spoke about the most difficult episode of her life.

In 1994, when Bayram was 12 years old, a neo-Nazi, her neighbour in her hometown of Darmstadt, Germany, knocked on her door and began cursing.

As her father came to the door to diffuse the situation, he was shot several times by the neighbour – one of the bullets hit Bayram in her arm – and her father bled to death in front of her.

“I never thought it would happen. It was a neighbour, and we always heard bad words from them, like ‘you stupid Turks, we will kill you,’ but we never took it seriously that someone would come and kill our father. He even said that if it was possible, he would have killed all of us, but my father shut the door, so that kept us alive,” Bayram said, adding that it was hard on her family knowing that they lost her father, not due to an accident, but because of hate.

“It was a horrible and sad point in my life, but I didn’t give up in believing in hope and justice and I will always fight for that.”

Her father’s murderer spent only 3-1/2 years in prison, and Bayram believes that racism played a role in his quick release.

“I think it would be different if a Turkish man killed a German.”

She said that all her sisters became lawyers, and Bayram also went to school to study law, but she decided on a career in the arts because she was more passionate about it.

“With the arts, acting, movies and theatre, you can always send a message for justice and human rights, and I love to make this case and send a message to people with projects like the Anne Frank project. This is why I chose to do this,” she said.

“It is important for me to do things with a message.”

Eisen, a Te-Amim board member, thanked Bayram for her dedication to spreading messages of tolerance.

“You brought these last words of Anne Frank so poignantly, it was like she was here in person,” he said.

Eisen then spoke directly to the students, emphasizing the need to respect one another regardless of colour or creed.

“I think this is the most important thing you need to remember in your life. Because you all are the future of this country, and it is your future that is on the line, as well,” he said.

Bayram said that people often ask her what it is like to play a Jewish girl, being a Muslim, but she doesn’t think of it that way.

“When I play Anne Frank, I just think of a girl, a human child that was murdered just because she was different from others in Germany. For the message and as a human… this was the most important thing for me,” she said.