Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
Arts & Entertainment
Anne Frank House to recreate annex where Frank hid for years for NYC exhibition
By
Ryan Kailath
Published Oct 16, 2024
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Courtesy of the Anne Frank House
By
Ryan Kailath
Published Oct 16, 2024
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
An exhibit that recreates the “secret annex” – where Anne Frank and her family lived in hiding from 1942 to 1944 before they were discovered by Nazi police – will open at the Center for Jewish History in Union Square in January.
This marks the first time that the Anne Frank House Museum in the Netherlands has done such a full-scale recreation of the space where Frank lived and wrote her famous diary.
The Anne Frank House Museum is one of Europe's most visited historical sites, and tickets are difficult to obtain despite the museum's daily operating hours of 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. It's bringing the first-of-its-kind exhibition to New York in order to expand the international reach of Frank's story, Executive Director Ronald Leopold said in a Zoom interview from Amsterdam.
Photo by Cris Toala Olivares / Courtesy of Anne Frank House
“With ever fewer Holocaust survivors in our communities, and with the devastating rise in antisemitism and other forms of group hatred, I feel that the responsibility of the Anne Frank House has never been greater,” Leopold said. “It’s a time that is very relevant to learn about Anne Frank’s story.”
The museum chose New York for its first recreation of the annex because of the ties between the city and Frank’s story: Her father Otto, the only member of the family to survive the Holocaust, had befriended an American roommate, Nathan Straus Jr., while at Heidelberg University in Germany in 1908. Afterward, Straus’ father invited Otto Frank to come to New York to work at Macy’s, his Herald Square department store.
Frank’s diary achieved global acclaim after a young editorial assistant in Paris rescued the French-language version from the reject pile and convinced the New York branch of her employer, Doubleday, to publish it in English.
A Pulitzer Prize-winning stage adaptation opened on Broadway in 1955 and ran for two years, garnering four Tony nominations and the award for Best Play. In 1959, a film adaptation won three Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress for Shelley Winters, who donated the statuette to the Anne Frank House Museum.
Verses handwritten by Anne Frank will be on view for the first time in the United States.
Courtesy of the Anne Frank House
That Academy Award will return to New York as one of more than 100 rare artifacts in the exhibition, Leopold said. He added that many of the artifacts have never been shown in public before.
The museum's many programs include yearlong educational programs with Dutch police, which focus on tolerance and discrimination within the force and in their work, Leopold said.
“We would love to welcome the New York City police,” he said. “The story of Anne has always had a huge appeal to learn not just the specific history, but also learning about the way human beings make choices in their lives and the consequences of those choices for themselves and for others.”
The Anne Frank “secret annex” recreation will open at the Center for Jewish History in Union Square on Jan. 27, 2025, and run through April 30.
Ryan Kailath
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE arts-entertainment
Ever wish you could get paid to walk through a stranger’s house? ‘The Scout’ is for you.
A new film focuses on the strange career of a location scout in New York City.
By
Sonia Rao
Published Sep 26, 2026
There are 100s of places to visit during Open House New York. Here's 5 of our favorites.
See the entire lineup for the weekend when the city opens its doors.
By
Hannah Frishberg
Arts & Entertainment
There are 100s of places to visit during Open House New York. Here's 5 of our favorites.
See the entire lineup for the weekend when the city opens its doors.
By
Hannah Frishberg
A massive MTA archive ended up in a Virginia warehouse. A Brooklyn man brought it home.
By
Hannah Frishberg
How a Harry Styles pop-up in the East Village led to a nearby bookstore owner's arrest
By
Sonia Rao
NYC’s creative workers are increasingly self-employed, report says
By
Hannah Frishberg
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .