Fury as Mormons posthumously baptise Anne Frank for 'TENTH time in more than two decades'

  • Jewish girl famous for diary died in 1945 in Germany
  • Mormons baptised her 'nine times from 1989 to 1999'
  • Agreement with Jewish leaders to stop practice in '95

By Mark Duell
Updated: 16:19 GMT, 22 February 2012


Anne Frank was posthumously baptised by a Mormon for the first time in 13 years after nine similar rituals were allegedly carried out in the 1990s.

The Jewish girl and her diary rose to fame after she died during the World War Two Holocaust in 1945 at the Bergen-Belsen camp in Germany.

But a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints member has caused fury by baptising her by proxy at a Dominican Republic temple last weekend.

Jewish girl: Anne Frank and her diary rose to fame after she died during the World War Two Holocaust in 1945 at the Bergen-Belsen camp in Germany

Jewish girl: Anne Frank and her diary rose to fame after she died during the World War Two Holocaust in 1945 at the Bergen-Belsen camp in Germany

Researcher Helen Radkey made the discovery after she found the same was done to the parents of Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal two weeks ago.

Ex-Mormon Ms Radkey found Annelies Marie ‘Anne’ Frank was baptised on Saturday, in a move that will leave the Jewish community furious again.

An agreement from 1995 required Mormons to avoid submitting names of Holocaust victims for baptism unless they are their direct ancestors.

But Anne, who died aged 15, was baptised by proxy an astonishing nine times between 1989 and 1999, Ms Radkey told the Huffington Post.

Records: The former Mormon found Annelies Marie 'Anne' Frank was baptised on Saturday, in a move that will leave the Jewish community furious

Records: The former Mormon found Annelies Marie 'Anne' Frank was baptised on Saturday, in a move that will leave the Jewish community furious

The Mormon Church is coming under more scrutiny thanks to Broadway show The Book of Mormon and Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.

'The security of the names submissions process for posthumous rites must be questioned'

Helen Radkey

It often holds the baptisms, saying people who died that did not get the chance to be baptised while living can choose to deny it.

Anne’s name was found in a genealogy database where names can be put forward for baptism - only accessible by Mormons.

A Mormon spokesman confirmed what happened and said the person who submitted the baptism has had their access to records suspended.

Family life: Anne Frank, right, and her father Otto Frank, left, are seen in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in July 1941. Others in the photo are unidentified

Family life: Anne Frank, right, and her father Otto Frank, left, are seen in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in July 1941. Others in the photo are unidentified

‘The security of the names submissions process for posthumous rites must be questioned,’ a fuming Ms Radkey told the Huffington Post.

DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL

During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, Anne Frank spent 25 months in hiding with seven others

Her diary of their ordeal, before a raid in August 1944, is a famous and enduring Holocaust account

She died of typhus in March 1945

She said this latest find was even more outrageous because Anne, famous for her work entitled ‘The Diary of a Young Girl’, left no descendants.

But a spokesman for the Mormon Church said it was ‘distressed’ by the finding and ‘keeps its word’ in not baptising Holocaust victims.

‘It takes a good deal of deception and manipulation to get an improper submission through the safeguards we've put in place,’ the Mormon spokesman told the Salt Lake Tribune.

Interest: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been under heavier scrutiny since Mormon presidential candidate Mitt Romney began his campaign

Interest: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been under heavier scrutiny since Mormon presidential candidate Mitt Romney began his campaign

Two weeks ago the Simon Wiesenthal Center was left ‘outraged’ by the posthumous baptism of the long-dead couple Asher and Rosa Wiesenthal.

POSTHUMOUS BAPTISMS

The Mormon Church often carries out posthumous baptisms and says those who have died can deny it

They say it's done as many dead people did not have the chance to be baptised while on earth

It's a huge issue in the Jewish community because many in the past have been forced to convert to Christianity or murdered if not

Rosa Wiesenthal died at the Nazi death camp at Belzec, Poland, in 1942, but Asher was killed years before in action as an Austrian soldier in 1915.

Mormon officials apologised for that incident and said the actions by an ‘individual member’ were ‘against the policy of the Church’.

Mr Wiesenthal died in 2005 aged 96 and was a top Jewish rights advocate in his life after surviving several concentration camps.

Mr Romney helped baptise his staunch atheist relative Edward Roderick Davies, father of his wife Ann, years after he had died in 1992.