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
After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
RSS
Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
RSS
Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.