A view of the entrance to the Anne Frank House museum in Amsterdam. Photo: Reuters/Eva Plevier

The Prime Minister of the Netherlands led a chorus of condemnation on Friday following the laser projection of an antisemitic message onto the outer wall of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, where the famed teenage Jewish diarist hid with her family during the Nazi occupation of the country.

The offending message was flashed into the front of the building on Monday using a laser. It referred to Anne Frank as the “inventor of the ballpoint pen” — a internet meme actively spread by Holocaust deniers who falsely claim that the diary was written using a pen that did not exist during World War II. The Anne Frank House said in a statement that images of the incident were circulating on right-wing chat groups and it had referred the matter to police and prosecutors.

Calling the message “reprehensible,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said in a statement on Friday that “there is no place for antisemitism in our country, we cannot accept this.” Separately, Justice Minister Dilan Yeşilgöz slammed the message as “disgusting.”

Femke Halsema, the mayor of Amsterdam, said she was communicating with police, judicial officials and the Jewish community regarding the incident. Halsema denounced the message as “pure antisemitism” and an “attack on the legacy of Anne Frank.”

“The projection refers to a conspiracy theory about Holocaust denial,” Halsema said in a statement. “I am shocked and furious at this cowardly, reprehensible act [which is] deeply painful, for the survivors, the families of the victims of the Holocaust, the entire Jewish community and anyone who knows where hatred, racism and intolerance lead.”

The incident at the Anne Frank House was reported amid a surge in concern over rising antisemitism in the Netherlands.

A study last month revealed that almost one quarter of Dutch millennials believe the Holocaust is a myth, while 60 percent of respondents did not name the Netherlands as a country impacted by the Holocaust. More than 100,000 Dutch Jews — three-quarters of the population — were murdered during the Holocaust, the highest killing rate recorded in western Europe.

Earlier this week, a separate report disclosed that nearly half of Dutch high school teachers had witnessed an antisemitic incident during the last year.

The same report noted that 20 percent of offenders were of Moroccan origin — double the number recorded by a similar survey ten years ago — with Dutch citizens from a Turkish background also overrepresented. Offenders are mainly young males, the report stated.