Anne Frank, dressed in the Ukrainian colors and burning the Z symbol of the Russian invasion, is the new symbol of the Russia-Ukraine War – at least according to one street artist.
A new work of street art in Milan portrays the famous Holocaust victim, dressed in a light-blue dress and blue-and-yellow scarf, Ukraine's national colors, holding a flaming red piece of paper with Z in a white circle. The symbol of the Russian invasion forces, reminds the observer of the Nazi swastika.
The artist, AleXsandro Palombo, is an Italian contemporary pop artist and activist, renowned for his colorful, reflective and irreverent works that focus on pop culture, society, diversity, inclusion, ethics and human rights.
Palombo acquired a name for himself after portraying the Simpsons in Auschwitz. This piece, called "Never Again" appeared in 2015.
"We are witnessing a model of war which evolves with multiple means including those of fake news and propaganda on social networks to influence feelings and public opinion. Putin's 'denazification' is a heavy propaganda and mystification operation carried out in order to justify the barbaric invasion of Ukraine," Palombo wrote on Instagram.
"Memory is one of the most powerful antibody [sic] that allows us to defend ourselves from the dangers of the present" he wrote.
"We must educate the new generations and tell them what happened. We have to do it without filters, bluntly, over and over again, through the memory of facts and terrifying images that reflect the horror of the Holocaust and the extermination of millions of human beings," he said about that painting.
Anne Frank, a Dutch Jewish girl, was a Holocaust victim known for the famous diary she left behind while hiding with her family in an attic during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Frank and her family were eventually discovered and sent to Auschwitz. A statue of the girl was stolen recently in Buenos Aires, but later returned to its original place.