Anne Frank Exhibit NYC

Back in April my plans to visit the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam were thwarted when the weekly train strike cancelled my 6:08 am train ride from Liege to Amsterdam. Though Liege is only a two and a half hour car ride to Amsterdam, the train ride was going to involve two transfers on the way there and three on the way back. It would have been a very long travel day, but worth it to walk around Amsterdam and see the Anne Frank House in person.

I still remember sitting in the stacks of the Paramus Public Library reading "The Diary of Anne Frank" when I was supposed to be reading the shelves to make sure the books were in the correct order -- a task that still relaxes me. I don't remember why I grabbed that book and simply read instead of working. I also don't remember making that a habit, or being scolded for slacking off at work. Nearly four decades later, though, I remember sitting in the back corner of the old library reading her diary.

As the leaders in Washington, DC keep agitating the state of the world I keep turning to the past. I've quipped Holocaust stories are reassuring because we came out the other side. There was an end to the torture. I read a passage in Kate Thompson's book "The Wartime Book Club" where head librarian, Grace, commented their historic fiction section is the the most popular one as they survive being occupied by the Nazis on their Jersey island. It helped me to realize we are not being occupied, though news of Senator Padilla (D-CA) being ripped out of a press conference and handcuffed for asking questions is terrifying. I worry what news will happen tomorrow at the 1,500+ No Kings rallies taking place around the country.

Anne Frank and her family are an inspiration. Especially her father, Otto Frank. Otto realized life was turning on them so he moved his family from Germany to Amsterdam to be safe. He recognized as a Jew he would not be able to own a business, so he transferred the business to his non-Jewish partners. As his elder daughter, Margot, was called up by the Nazis, he realized his family was still not safe, so they went into hiding in a few rooms he had already prepared for them. After the war he spent ten months traveling to return to Amsterdam only to learn his wife and daughters died in concentration camps. Upon receiving the diary his daughter Anne wrote he decided to have them published fulfilling her wish to become a published author after the war.

On Tuesday Don and I went to the Center for Jewish Studies' exhibit on Anne Frank. Similar to the one in Amsterdam, tickets must be purchased in advance. Unlike there, though, they were not that hard to procure. Tickets cost $24 each for adults. I bought them a couple of weeks in advance. The exhibit has been extended through the end of October 2025.

The exhibit aims to paint Anne Frank not as a victim, but through the different stages of her life. Unlike the exhibit in Amsterdam which (as I understand it) is only the rooms where they hid, this has several rooms we walk through to learn about the history of time told through the lens of her life starting with how her parents met through her dad's post-War life. They include 100 artifacts from Amsterdam, including some never before seen items. I wonder what is left in Amsterdam to see? This is the first exhibit outside of Amsterdam.

We were not allowed to take pictures in the exhibit.

As we finished climbing the stairs to the second floor we were handed a device about 2"x6" to use to learn more about the items on display. Throughout the rooms there were small circles with numbers. You click on the number, the gadget has a tiny vibration then a voice recites a few paragraphs about the display in front of you. It is a decent system. In theory (perhaps even in reality) they can be programmed to talk to you in your language of choice. English worked for us, so I didn't ask. According to Don his biggest complaint was there was no indication when the voice was done speaking so we stood a little too long before realizing we could continue. My complaint was that people would scan it and start listening without moving out of the way. Made it a bit like a treasure hunt to find the next spot. They were small and hard to find, but at least they were numbered so you knew what to look for.

The first area talked about Anne's parents from before she was born. Her mother's family was more observant than her father's was. Her dad travelled to New York City in 1909 on business. He met Charles Webster "Nathan" Strauss at the University of Heidelberg. Nathan invited him to New York City for an internship with his family's business: Macy's Department Store. That trip was cut short when his father died abruptly, but he return a few months later and again in 1910 to continue the internship. They continued their friendship overseas. As life became difficult, Otto wrote to his friend seeking asylum for him and his family. It did not work out.

Otto met Edith Hollander. They married and had two daughters: Margot and Anne. The girls attended different schools. There are examples of their school work. Towards the end of the exhibit is a chilling picture of one of their kindergarten classes. There were 25 students. Fifteen were Jewish. Ten perished in the Holocaust. As each name is announced with the location of their death camp and date of death, they are blacked out. It is simply chilling.

As we neared the reproduced annex rooms there was a movie filling a long wall. There is a timeline above the movie to help you follow along no matter when you walk into the room. There are images talking about what is happening in Germany and Amsterdam. Prior to this, the focus was on the Frank family. This movie shares what is happening on a bigger scale.

We learn Margot has been called to be "rounded up." While Anne does not know exactly what this means, her dad knows it is time to move into the annex where they will spend two years and a month (July 6, 1942 to August 4, 1944) before they are found out and shipped to concentration camps. That's two years without leaving their small space which the family shared with four others. Two years of no sunshine. The Anne Frank House wrote this description of daily life. This was barely touched upon during the exhibit, but now I'm finding it fascinating to read. 

The exhibit talked about how 8:30-9 am was the "danger time" -- the factory workers had arrived for the day, but not the office workers. Any sound was impossible to explain away. However, once they left for the day, the Frank family was free to wander around the entire house. A few of the helpers often joined them at lunchtime, bringing with them news from outside of the house.

Much of this was learned through Anne's diary.

We left the house and went into the world of concentration camps, still through the lens of what Otto learned about his wife and daughters' fates. There are no records, but he did later meet people who saw them in the camps.

There is a long hallway chronicling the 10-month journey Otto took after his release back to Amsterdam. At different points he and the other refugees were given food and money. Until they reached the Netherlands, they were welcomed at each stage.

Otto read his daughter's diary. It was emotionally hard for him at first, but he soon recognized the importance of her words, and her wish to become a published author. Her dad edited out the sections that made his marriage look bad. Her diary has since been translated into 70 languages. In addition to being a book, it is also a play, and a movie. 

After nearing dying following his release from the concentration camp, Otto lived to be 90. He shared their experiences. Schoolchildren wrote to Anne as if she was still alive -- they could relate to her emotions while in hiding and thought of her as a friend.

The exhibit was a bit exhausting emotionally. It was crowded, but not overly so because they sell timed tickets. I still hope to have the opportunity to visit the house in Amsterdam and walk the streets where she lived.