News

January 6, 2025

Anne Frank House

“The Anne Frank House, one of Europe's most visited historical sites and entrusted with Anne's legacy by her father Otto, is dedicated to educating people about the Holocaust and the prejudices underlying antisemitism and other forms of discrimination,” says Ronald Leopold, Executive Director of the Anne Frank House. “By launching our new exhibition in New York, we will expand our global commitment to countering antisemitism and group hatred through secondary education. With the leadership support of partners such as Barbra Streisand, Mindy and Jon Gray, and Amanda and Glenn Fuhrman, we are designing an exhibition curriculum to inspire students to learn from history and actively combat hate in their communities. Anne Frank's diary has, for generations, resonated with young people across the world who see themselves reflected in her words and experiences. The exhibition, with the complementary resources for classrooms across the United States, promises to be a transformative experience for students, offering a powerful connection to a girl who, at the time of writing, was close to their own age.”

In supporting students through field trips, the exhibition will serve as a primary source for students and educators. Already, in the first weeks since its future opening was announced, schools from New York to California and states in between have scheduled visits for 2025. Philanthropic support has made it possible for the Anne Frank House to subsidize visits from students attending Title I schools throughout the United States.

Gray Foundation

Complimentary admission for New York City public school students is made possible by the Gray Foundation.

“We believe the best way to address the alarming rise in antisemitism is through education. Our Foundation’s support of Anne Frank The Exhibition exemplifies our ongoing commitment to expand access to ensure all students and schools have the resources and opportunities they deserve. We are honored to enable free field trips for New York City public schools to this groundbreaking exhibition as we work to empower the next generation of learners across our city,” said Mindy and Jon Gray, Co-Founders of the Gray Foundation.

The Fuhrman Family Foundation

Leadership support to serve public school students in New York City has been generously provided by exhibition educational patron The Fuhrman Family Foundation.

“It is essential that students learn the history of the Holocaust as a history of individuals. We hope the story of Anne Frank will inspire students across New York City and beyond to fight against antisemitism and all other forms of hate. Our Foundation is pleased to help provide support for students who will experience this powerful exhibition,” said Amanda and Glenn Fuhrman, Co-Founders of The Fuhrman Family Foundation.

With a goal of reaching 250,000 students, the exhibition team is working with educational leaders and hundreds of school districts around the tri-state area to help students in New York City, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Orange, Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Union, Middlesex, and Fairfield counties experience Anne Frank The Exhibition while it is on view in New York. Beyond public school visits, students will also be engaged through religious and cultural institutions, community-based organizations, and other educational institutions in the region.

Barbra Streisand

To enhance resources for teachers, the exhibition will include an accompanying curriculum, made possible in part by support from Barbra Streisand and The Barbra Streisand Foundation.

“I was in Anne Frank’s Annex, feeling her, looking out the window at the moon... We have a collective responsibility to create meaningful opportunities for students everywhere to engage with history. In the face of rising antisemitism, it is crucial that we answer ignorance with education and promote understanding. By supporting the Anne Frank House, my Foundation is committed to bringing this extraordinary story to audiences across the nation, helping to ensure the vital lessons of the Holocaust are never forgotten,” said Barbra Streisand, Founder and President, The Streisand Foundation.

The Anne Frank Center at the University of South Carolina

The Anne Frank Center at the University of South Carolina, the Official U.S. Partner of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, is developing the curriculum to support the exhibition.

“Anne Frank’s story provides a compelling window into the past, one that helps students understand the dangers of bigotry and the importance of never being a bystander,” said Doyle Stevick, Executive Director of the Anne Frank Center at the University of South Carolina and educational advisor to the exhibition. “At a time characterized by a disheartening rise in antisemitism, The Anne Frank Center is working to ensure that teachers and students have the high-quality Holocaust education resources they need to learn about the Holocaust and its relevance today.”

Curriculum materials

The curriculum materials place antisemitism in its historic context and show how the Nazis adopted false racial theories about the Jewish people. This history raises important questions for students and teachers, which they investigate by asking questions and seeking answers in the exhibition. This approach reflects the Common Core State Standards and the College, Career, and Civic Life Framework in use throughout the region. Questions lead students to consider the roots and evolution of antisemitism, including how it led to the Holocaust.  

Educational visits

Students who visit the exhibition and complete the lessons are better prepared to recognize and resist the many antisemitic tropes that fill the internet and the hatred and conspiracy theories that fuel them. Students will better understand manifestations of antisemitism and the persecution of Jews across time. They will also find commonalities among the experiences of targeted groups of all kinds. When students learn to recognize antisemitism or bigotry, they will be empowered with the empathy, critical thinking, and moral values necessary to combat prejudice in their own lives and communities.

Educational visits to the exhibition can be scheduled on this website.

About Anne Frank The Exhibition

Anne Frank The Exhibition is a first-of-its-kind, full-scale recreation of the complete Annex, furnished as it would have been when Anne and her family were forced into hiding. Moving through the exhibition, visitors will be able to immerse themselves in the context that shaped Anne’s life—from her early years in Frankfurt, Germany through the rise of the Nazi regime and the family’s 1934 move to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where Anne lived for ten years until her 1944 arrest and deportation to Westerbork, a large transit camp in the Netherlands, then to Auschwitz-Birkenau, a concentration camp and killing center in Nazi-occupied Poland, and eventually to her death at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany when she was 15 years old. 

Designed for audiences who may not have the opportunity to visit the Netherlands, the new exhibition in New York City at the Center for Jewish History is anticipated to draw extraordinary attendance for what will be among the most important presentations of Jewish historical content on view in the United States. Through the recreated Annex; exhibition galleries immersing visitors in place and history through video, sound, photography, and animation; and more than 100 original collection items from the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, Anne Frank The Exhibition will provide an opportunity to learn about Anne Frank not as a victim but through the multifaceted lens of her life—as a girl, a writer, and a symbol of resilience and strength. This is a story inspired by one of the most translated books in the world.

The New York City exhibition will occupy over 7,500 square feet of gallery space in the heart of Union Square. This marks the first time dozens of artifacts will be seen in the United States—many have never been seen in public.

Anne Frank The Exhibition is made possible by Leon Levy Foundation, with leadership support by David Berg Foundation, Rebecca and Jared Cohen, Stacey and Eric Mindich, UJA-Federation of New York, and corporate partner Bank of America. Educational patrons include Gray Foundation and The Fuhrman Family Foundation, with additional support by Barbra Streisand and the Streisand Foundation. Major support has been provided by Debbie and Mark Attanasio, Tanya and Ryan Baker, Elyssa and William Friedland, Jesselson Foundation, Allison and Warren Kanders, Pershing Square Philanthropies, Sara Naison-Tarajano, Katharine M. and Leo S. Ullman, Waksal Foundation, and Anonymous.

About the Anne Frank House

The Anne Frank House was established in 1957 in cooperation with Otto Frank, Anne Frank’s father, as an independent nonprofit organization entrusted with the preservation of the Annex where Anne Frank and her family went into hiding in 1942 during the Second World War. The Annex is where Anne wrote her diary, and where she and her family hid from the Nazis during the occupation of the Netherlands until being discovered and arrested by police officers in 1944. Following her transport to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp, Anne and her sister Margot were sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they died in 1945. For nearly seven decades, the Anne Frank House has served as a place of memory and a place of learning. Committed to bringing Anne’s life story to world audiences, the Anne Frank House has emerged as a primary resource for teaching and learning about the Holocaust. Through Anne’s legacy the Anne Frank House empowers people of all ages—and especially young people—to reflect on the dangers of antisemitism, racism, and discrimination and the importance of freedom, equal rights, and democracy.