Exhibition recreating Anne Frank’s secret annex opening in NYC
What the annex room Anne Frank shared with Fritz Pfeffer might have looked like. Photo © Anne Frank House
A full-scale recreation of the annex where Anne Frank spent two years hiding during World War II will be displayed in New York City next year. The Anne Frank House and the Center for Jewish History will present “Anne Frank The Exhibition,” a replica of the rooms where Frank, her parents, sister, and four other Jews lived in secret to evade Nazi capture. Opening on January 27, the exhibition will include 100 original collection items from the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, including photo albums and poetry and letters written by Frank.
The exhibition will take up 7,500 square feet of gallery space at the Center for Jewish History in Union Square. According to the New York Times, the recreation of the annex will be on one floor and accessible, with nonfunctioning stairs to show the different levels of the real annex.
Unlike the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, the exhibition in New York will be furnished, showing what the annex looked like when the Frank family lived there. The experience covers Frank’s early years in Frankfurt through the rise of the Nazis, the family’s move to Amsterdam in 1934, and her arrest, deportation, and death at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany at age 15.
According to the Times, there will be a floor-to-ceiling representation of life in Amsterdam in 1941 and a lighted glass floor that shows locations of mass killing sites during the Holocaust. More than 100 items from the Anne Frank House will be on display for the first time in the United States, including a photo album, a typed and handwritten invitation to a friend for a film screening at her house, and handwritten poetry verses written by Frank.
The exhibit opens on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, 2025, to mark the 80th commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz.
“Through this exhibition, the Anne Frank House offers insights into how this could have happened and what it means for us today. The exhibition provides perspectives, geared toward younger generations, that are certain to deepen our collective understanding of Anne Frank and hopefully provide a better understanding of ourselves,” Ronald Leopold, executive director of the Anne Frank House, said.
“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.”
Anne Frank The Exhibition will run through April 30. Hours are Sunday through Thursday from 9:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Tickets are now on sale and can be purchased here. Timed entry costs $21 for adults Monday through Friday and $27 on Sundays and holidays. Flex tickets start at $34 during the week and $48 on Sunday.
