Photo and diary of Anne Frank. Photo Credit: Shutterstock.
A US exhibition plans to take a unique approach to telling the story of Anne Frank by creating a replication of the rooms from which she wrote her famous diary.
The story of Anne Frank is soon to be brought to life for the very first time outside of Amsterdam, in a Manhattan exhibition at the city´s Centre for Jewish History. Ronald Leopold, director of the Anne Frank House museum – which is located on an historic Amsterdam canal and showcases the actual rooms from which Anne wrote her world famous diaries – described the Manhattan project as pioneering in an interview with The Associated Press.
He explained that `Anne Frank: The Exhibition´ would provide a “full-scale, meticulous recreation of the secret annex [where] Anne, her parents, her sister and four other Jews” hid from the Nazi occupiers for more than two years in an effort to avoid being captured and transported to a concentration camp.
The exhibition will explore the life of Anne Frank and her family in accurate detail
The Manhattan exhibition plans to offer both visitors and locals alike the opportunity to immerse themselves in Anne´s tiny world without having to travel all the way to Amsterdam in order to do so. The annex will be reconstructed to be identical to the original, and will be the highlight of the exhibition.
There will also be a thorough exploration of Anne and her family´s life history, in which visitors can learn all about how and why the Frank family decided to leave their life in Germany and settle in the Netherlands, and the events which followed, including their time spent hiding before they were discovered by Nazis and captured.
The exhibition seeks to be as authentic as the Anne Frank House museum, minus one important artifact, the diary itself, which, along with other notebooks and loose pages on which Anne wrote, is simply too fragile to even consider transporting.
The US exhibition is set to open on January 27, 2025, which commemorates International Holocaust Day and celebrates the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
Organisers of the exhibition hope to educate visitors with an exclusive and immersive approach
Leopold, who will be attending and supervising the exhibition himself, expressed that it could be a valuable asset in educating people, not just about Anne and the Holocaust, but also by tackling antisemitism and hostility.
He points out that the war between Israel and Gaza has only served to amplify racism and prejudice towards Jews, as well as increasing what he refers to as `group hatred´, both in the USA and worldwide [Euronews and the AP, 22/10/2024].
Anne is considered by Leopold to be a role model for girls and young women, as her strength, determination and resilience define her not simply as a victim, but as a fighter who knew her own worth.
