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NYC Exhibit Showcasing Full-Scale Replica of Anne Frank’s Hidden Annex Gets Extended After Popular Demand
Inside a recreation of the room Anne Frank shared in the annex while hiding from the Nazis in The Netherlands, part of “Anne Frank The Exhibition.” Photo: John Halpern
A limited run exhibition in New York City showing the first full-scale recreation of the secret annex where Anne Frank hid from the Nazis during World War II will be extended through Oct. 31 due to an overwhelming demand for tickets, organizers of the project have announced.
“Anne Frank The Exhibition” opened at the Center for Jewish History on Jan. 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and is a collaboration with the Anne Frank House museum in Amsterdam. It was originally scheduled for just three months, but tickets sold out within one week of opening. Organizers have now decided to keep the exhibit open through October and additional tickets are now available.
“We are deeply moved by the overwhelming interest in this exhibition,” Ronald Leopold, executive director of the Anne Frank House, said in a released statement. “As we carry forward Anne’s legacy, we are profoundly grateful for the opportunity to extend this new presentation in New York. The initial response affirms our belief that we must meet the present moment with education.”
“History is our greatest teacher, and Anne’s words continue to resonate across generations,” he added. “In bringing this exhibition to New York and extending its stay, the Anne Frank House, with the support of the Center for Jewish History, is making it possible for more people to reflect on the life and loss of Anne, and the 1.5 million Jewish children lost in the Holocaust. Together, we remain committed to stand against antisemitism and group hatred and we thank New York for joining us in this important effort.”
The moving exhibit transports visitors through time, beginning with details about and artifacts from Frank’s life from the time of her birth in Germany and her childhood in Frankfurt, through the rise of the Nazi regime and the Frank family’s decision to move to The Netherlands, where they lived for 10 years until their arrest in 1944. After spending two years hiding with others in a secret annex, which was located in the back house of her father’s company in Amsterdam, Frank was deported to Westerbork, a large transit camp in the Netherlands, then to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. She was eventually sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany where she died at the age of 15.
Artifacts in the exhibit include Frank’s first photo album, the only existing footage of the young diarist, a photo of her kindergarten class in Germany, a Monopoly board game that the Frank family played, and a typed and handwritten invitation to her friend for a film screening in Frank’s home. Other artifacts include a sign from Nazi-occupied Germany that read “Prohibited for Jews” and correspondence regarding the Frank family’s emigration attempts to the US with authorities, friends, and family.
There are four exhibition galleries, with more than 100 original collection items from the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, but the highlight is undoubtedly the recreation of the secret annex where Frank, her parents, sister, and four other Jews hid for two years from Nazis occupying The Netherlands during World War II. Visitors have the chance to get fully immersed in a full-scale recreation of the annex rooms, fully furnished, where eight people tried for two years to evade Nazi capture. The annex is also where Frank penned her famous diary about her time in hiding.
On display in the exhibit is a rejection letter from Viking Press in December 1947 about its refusal to publish an English translation of “The Diary of Anne Frank” because “it seems unlikely that the volume would have a large enough sale to cover the present high cost of production, destruction, and advertising and to leave a profit.” The book has now been translated in over 70 languages and sold over 30 million copies. The first US version of “The Diary of Anne Frank” had an introduction by Eleanor Roosevelt, and on display in the exhibit is a New York Times review from June 1952 that praised the book as a “classic” on multiple levels.
“Anne Frank The Exhibition” was created as a traveling exhibit that will make its way to other cities in the country after its run in New York, a representative for the Anne Frank House told The Algemeiner earlier this month.
Since the opening of the exhibit was first announced, hundreds of school groups have booked tickets from across the country. Tickets are free for New York City public schools and Title I public school groups throughout the US. The exhibit also offers an accompanying curriculum developed with The Anne Frank Center at the University of South Carolina.
The post NYC Exhibit Showcasing Full-Scale Replica of Anne Frank’s Hidden Annex Gets Extended After Popular Demand first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Missle from Yemen Targets Dead Sea Area
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands in front of an F-35 stealth fighter at the IAF’s Nevatim base, July 9, 2019. Photo: Amos Ben Gershom / GPO.
i24 News – The Israel Defense Forces said that a Houthi missile was intercepted outside of Israeli territory, although sirens blared in the eastern Negev and Dead Sea area. The Yemen-based, Iran-backed terrorist group said that they had targeted the Nevatim airbase.
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Iran Says ‘Extremely Cautious’ on Success of Nuclear Talks with US
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff gives a speech at the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Iran and the United States have agreed to continue nuclear talks next week, both sides said on Saturday, though Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi voiced “extreme cautious” about the success of the negotiations to resolve a decades-long standoff.
US President Donald Trump has signaled confidence in clinching a new pact with the Islamic Republic that would block Tehran’s path to a nuclear bomb.
Araqchi and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff held a third round of the talks in Muscat through Omani mediators for around six hours, a week after a second round in Rome that both sides described as constructive.
“The negotiations are extremely serious and technical… there are still differences, both on major issues and on details,” Araqchi told Iranian state TV.
“There is seriousness and determination on both sides… However, our optimism about success of the talks remains extremely cautious.”
A senior US administration official described the talks as positive and productive, adding that both sides agreed to meet again in Europe “soon.”
“There is still much to do, but further progress was made on getting to a deal,” the official added.
Earlier Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi had said talks would continue next week, with another “high-level meeting” provisionally scheduled for May 3. Araqchi said Oman would announce the venue.
Ahead of the lead negotiators’ meeting, expert-level indirect talks took place in Muscat to design a framework for a potential nuclear deal.
“The presence of experts was beneficial … we will return to our capitals for further reviews to see how disagreements can be reduced,” Araqchi said.
An Iranian official, briefed about the talks, told Reuters earlier that the expert-level negotiations were “difficult, complicated and serious.”
The only aim of these talks, Araqchi said, was “to build confidence about the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.”
Trump, in an interview with Time magazine published on Friday, said “I think we’re going to make a deal with Iran,” but he repeated a threat of military action against Iran if diplomacy fails.
Shortly after Araqchi and Witkoff began their latest indirect talks on Saturday, Iranian state media reported a massive explosion at the country’s Shahid Rajaee port near the southern city of Bandar Abbas, killing at least four people and injuring hundreds.
MAXIMUM PRESSURE
While both Tehran and Washington have said they are set on pursuing diplomacy, they remain far apart on a dispute that has rumbled on for more than two decades.
Trump, who has restored a “maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran since February, ditched a 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and six world powers in 2018 during his first term and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran.
Since 2019, Iran has breached the pact’s nuclear curbs including “dramatically” accelerating its enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% level that is weapons grade, according to the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week Iran would have to entirely stop enriching uranium under a deal, and import any enriched uranium it needed to fuel its sole functioning atomic energy plant, Bushehr.
Tehran is willing to negotiate some curbs on its nuclear work in return for the lifting of sanctions, according to Iranian officials, but ending its enrichment program or surrendering its enriched uranium stockpile are among “Iran’s red lines that could not be compromised” in the talks.
Moreover, European states have suggested to US negotiators that a comprehensive deal should include limits preventing Iran from acquiring or finalizing the capacity to put a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile, several European diplomats said.
Tehran insists its defense capabilities like its missile program are not negotiable.
An Iranian official with knowledge of the talks said on Friday that Tehran sees its missile program as a bigger obstacle in the talks.
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Palestinian Leader Abbas Names Likely Successor in Bid to Reassure World Powers
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas attends the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, April 28, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas named close confidant Hussein al-Sheikh as his deputy and likely successor on Saturday, the Palestine Liberation Organization said, a step widely seen as needed to assuage international doubts over Palestinian leadership.
Abbas, 89, has headed the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) since the death of veteran leader Yasser Arafat in 2004 but he had for years resisted internal reforms including the naming of a successor.
Sheikh, born in 1960, is a veteran of Fatah, the main PLO faction which was founded by Arafat and is now headed by Abbas. He is widely viewed as a pragmatist with very close ties to Israel.
He was named PLO vice president after the organization’s executive committee approved his nomination by Abbas, the PLO said in a statement.
Reform of the PA, which exercises limited autonomy in the West Bank, has been a priority for the United States and Gulf monarchies hoping the body can play a central role in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Pressure to reform has intensified since the start of the war in Gaza, where the PLO’s main Palestinian rival Hamas has battled Israel for more than 18 months, leaving the tiny, crowded territory in ruins.
The United States has promoted the idea of a reformed PA governing in Gaza after the war. Gulf monarchies, which are seen as the most likely source of funding for reconstruction in Gaza after the war, also want major reforms of the body.
CALL FOR HAMAS TO DISARM
Israel’s declared goal in Gaza is the destruction of Hamas but it has also ruled out giving the PA any role in government there. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he opposes the creation of a Palestinian state.
Hamas, which follows a militant Islamist ideology, has controlled Gaza since 2007 when it defeated the PA in a brief civil war after winning an election the previous year. It also has a large presence in the West Bank.
At a meeting of the PLO’s Central Council on Wednesday and Thursday that approved the position of vice president without naming an appointee, Abbas made his clearest ever call for Hamas to completely disarm and hand its weapons – and responsibility for governing in Gaza – to the PA.
Widespread corruption, lack of progress towards an independent state and increasing Israeli military incursions in the West Bank have undermined the PA’s popularity among many Palestinians.
The body has been controlled by Fatah since it was formed in the Oslo Accords with Israel in 1993 and it last held parliamentary elections in 2005.
Sheikh, who was imprisoned by Israel for his activities opposing the occupation during the period 1978-89, has worked as the PA’s main contact liaising with the Israeli government under Abbas and been his envoy on visits to world powers.
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