Anne Frank: The Exhibition in NYC

Anne Frank: The Exhibition is a full-scale recreation in New York City of the authentic Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. It opened on Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, 2025, and was originally only to remain for a few months. First, it was extended into October, but due to demand, it was just announced that it will be extended through February 1, 2026.

I visited the original house in Amsterdam many years ago, but I wanted to see this exhibition as well. I’m glad I did because it includes much more than the house recreation. It’s a perfect introduction to the realities of the Holocaust for children who are ready and uninformed, as well as an excellent reminder for adults.

Numerous exhibits and artifacts educate visitors on the Frank family specifically, as well as the Holocaust in general. The artifacts include Anne’s first photo album, a typed and handwritten invitation that Anne wrote to her friend for a film screening in her home (at that time, Jews were no longer allowed to attend movies in theaters), and handwritten verses that Anne wrote in her friends’ poetry albums.

The New York exhibition is near Union Square at the Center for Jewish History and occupies more than 7,500 square feet. An audio device is included with the admission fee. There are numbers displayed throughout the exhibit, and all you have to do is touch your device near the number and hold it to your ear to hear all about what you’re viewing.

It takes about an hour to get through the entire exhibit, although many people will want to linger longer over the artifacts and rooms. Also on view is a screen showing the only known video of Anne Frank as she peers out a window. I think I’ve seen this before, but it still made me gasp.

Another screen shows a video of the secretary of Anne’s father, Otto Frank, as she recounts delivering Anne’s diaries to Otto after he was freed from his incarceration following the war. She had the sobering job of showing him a letter from a nurse at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany that confirmed the deaths of both Anne and her older sister, Margot, to typhus during their incarceration. When he was released after the war was over, he had no idea what had happened to his daughters or the rest of his family and friends.

Along with the Van Pels family and Fritz Pfeffer, the Frank family spent two years starting in July 1942, hiding in the house called the annex as they evaded capture by the Nazis … until that fateful day, of course, when they were found. Anne died at Bergen-Belsen when she was just 15 years old, and Otto was the only person from the house who survived the Holocaust. He died in 1980 at the age of 91.

After Otto decided to publish Anne’s diaries, the book became one of the most translated books in the world. He has said that even though he thought he knew his daughter well, he learned so much more about her from her diaries. As someone who was once a teenage girl, this doesn’t surprise me, as teens are a bundle of secrets. It was Anne’s dream to be a published writer, however, so her father fulfilled her dream for her posthumously.

There are both timed entry tickets and flex tickets available for the exhibition in New York. They range from $24-$54 for adults and $18-$24 for children 17 and under. There are also reduced family tickets available and some upcoming free days.

While walking through the exhibition is certainly a sobering experience, I highly recommend it. After all, we must never forget.