A TEENAGER is directing a play on the life of Anne Frank to be staged on Holocaust Memorial Day later this month.

Michaela Crawley, a 19-year-old student at the Hermitage Academy in Chester-le-Street, County Durham, is preparing for a day of commemoration to be witnessed by 800 young people from the area.

It is being attended by Durham County Council leader Councillor Simon Henig, whose grandparents fled from The Netherlands during Nazi occupation to England.

Miss Crawley was made an ambassador for the Holocaust Educational Trust two years ago after visiting Auschwitz, the former German death camp in Poland.

Miss Crawley said: “The trip taught me the importance of humanising the stories of the Holocaust and teaching as many people about its atrocities in order to keep the memory alive.

“I am incredibly passionate about the education of young people on the topic of the Holocaust and so, this year, for the 70th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and Auschwitz Birkenau, I applied for one of the 70 candles provided by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and was fortunate enough to have my application accepted.

“As a result, I am hosting an event along with some of the history department in our school on the January 27, a date recognised as Holocaust Memorial Day.

“I believe very strongly in Holocaust education and it is the subject I wish to specialise in at university.”

The event includes a piece of educational theatre about the Anne Frank, the young Jewish diarist, who died aged 15, in Bergen-Belsen, after hiding from the Nazis in an Amsterdam attic for two years.

Miss Crawley said: “We then have two sixth form students discussing their experience on taking part in the Lessons From Auschwitz programme last year and at 12.30pm, the lighting of the incredibly special candle.

“The candle has been designed by renowned sculptor Sir Anish Kapoor and it is an honour for us to be one of the 70 in the UK hosting a candle.

“Our school had been made a beacon school for Holocaust education and we want to make our event known to those in the wider community.”