RSS
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.
RSS
Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
The post Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
The post Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.