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.

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Families and supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas gather to demand a deal that will bring back all the hostages held in Gaza, outside a meeting between hostage representatives and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Jerusalem, Jan. 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad

Israel is preparing to receive the bodies of four hostages from Gaza on Thursday and is working on bringing back six living captives on Saturday, an Israeli security official said on Monday.

If the two handovers are successful, only four hostages, all presumed dead, would remain in Gaza of the 33 due to be released in the first phase of a ceasefire agreement reached last month to halt the war between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

The ceasefire deal, reached with the help of Qatari and Egyptian mediators, has remained on track despite a series of temporary setbacks and accusations on both sides of violations to the agreement that have threatened to derail it.

Hamas has accused Israel of blocking the delivery of housing materials for the tens of thousands of Gazans forced to shelter from the winter weather.

Israel has denied the accusation but Zeev Elkin, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, confirmed that a quantity of mobile homes was standing at the border.

He said Israel would use “any leverage” it had over Hamas to secure the return of the 33 hostages due to come out in the first phase of the deal, which includes the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees and the withdrawal of Israeli troops.

“Israel has a goal of bringing forward the release of the first phase hostages, certainly the living ones,” he told public broadcaster Kan.

So far, 19 Israeli hostages have been returned, as well as five Thais, who were handed over in an unscheduled release. Hamas has said 25 of the 33 hostages due for release in the first phase are alive.

The ceasefire deal has been overshadowed by US President Donald Trump’s call for Palestinians to be moved out and for Gaza to be taken over as a waterfront development under US control.

But officials say work has begun on the second phase of the deal, which would address the return of the remaining hostages and the Israeli withdrawal.

An Israeli team has already traveled to Cairo and the security cabinet also cleared a high-level Israeli delegation to travel to Qatar for talks on the second phase.

“We all want to proceed to phase two and release the hostages, the question is under what conditions is the war ended,” Elkin said. “This is the main issue for the negotiations of the second phase.”

The hostages were taken in the Hamas-led cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which also killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel. Over 250 people were abducted as hostages during the bloody invasion and massacre.

Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.

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Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei listens to the national anthem as Air Force officers salute during their meeting in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 7, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS

Iran said on Monday that US and Israeli threats against it were a blatant violation of international law and that they could not “do a damn thing” to hurt Tehran.

The comments came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Jerusalem on Sunday and said their countries were determined to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its influence in the Middle East.

Netanyahu said Israel had dealt a “mighty blow” to Iran since the start of the war in Gaza and that with the support of US President Donald Trump “I have no doubt we can and will finish the job.”

Speaking at a weekly press conference on Monday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei responded: “When it comes to a country like Iran, they cannot do a damn thing.”

“You cannot threaten Iran on one hand and claim to support dialogue on the other hand,” Baghaei said, state media reported.

Trump has expressed an openness to a deal with Tehran while also reinstating the “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran that was applied during his first term to stop Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

While stopping short of renewing a ban on direct talks with Washington decreed in 2018, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has criticized Trump’s previous administration for not honoring its promises.

In 2018, Trump pulled the US out of Tehran’s 2015 nuclear pact with world powers and reimposed sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy.

A year later, Iran reacted by breaching the pact’s nuclear curbs, accelerating enrichment of uranium to up to 60 percent purity, close to the roughly 90 percent of weapons grade. It says its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes

Despite spokesman Baghaei’s defiant words, Tehran’s influence throughout the region has weakened severely with its regional allies — known as the “Axis of Resistance” — either dismantled or badly hurt since the start of the Hamas-Israel conflict in Gaza and the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria in December.

The Axis includes not only Hamas but also Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and various Shi’ite armed groups in Iraq and Syria.

Over the 16 months since the Gaza war erupted, Israel has assassinated leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, and Israel and Iran have carried out limited attacks against each other.

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