Replica Anne Frank secret annex built for New York exhibition

The entrance into the secret annexe at the Anne Frank House. Photo: © Anne Frank House / Photographer: Cris Toala Olivares

The Anne Frank foundation in Amsterdam is building a full-sized replica of the secret annex where Anne and her family hid during World War II for an exhibition on her life which opens next January in New York.

The replica will enable visitors to immerse themselves in the rooms where Anne, her parents and sister, and four other Jewish inhabitants spent two years hiding to evade Nazi capture and where she wrote her famous diary.

More than 100 original items from the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam will also be on show, including her first photo album, a typed and handwritten invitation to her friend for a film screening and handwritten verses by Anne in her friends’ poetry albums. The original diary is considered too fragile to travel.

“Anne’s legacy is remarkable, as represented in the diary she left us, and as one of the 1.5 million Jewish children who were murdered at the hands of Nazi officials and their collaborators,” said foundation director Ronald Leopold.

“By bringing this exhibition to New York—a place with many ties to Anne’s story— the Anne Frank House is expanding the reach of our work to encourage more people to remember Anne Frank, reflect on her life story, and respond by standing against antisemitism and hatred in their own communities.”

The exhibition at the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan opens on January 27, which is International Holocaust Remembrance Day and will mark the 80th commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Thank you for donating to DutchNews.nl.

We could not provide the Dutch News service, and keep it free of charge, without the generous support of our readers. Your donations allow us to report on issues you tell us matter, and provide you with a summary of the most important Dutch news each day.

Make a donation