A new exhibition about Anne Frank, featuring the first-ever fully furnished recreation of the secret annex where she and her family hid from the Nazis, will open at the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry in Hyde Park this May, officials said on March 19.
The exhibition aims to provide visitors with a deeper understanding of Anne Frank’s life and legacy by allowing them to experience what it was like to live in hiding during World War II. The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam is presenting the exhibition, which includes more than 130 original artifacts such as letters, handwritten poetry verses, and her first photo album—some never before shown publicly.
Chevy Humphrey, president and CEO of the museum, said this display is unique because it is fully furnished. “You can read it in books, you can read it on social media … But when you’re immersed and engaged in the exhibition, it’s like you’re there,” Humphrey said. She explained that while the real annex has been left empty since becoming a museum in 1960 at Otto Frank’s request, visitors to Chicago will be able to see “what it looked like when they lived there” and learn about how those hiding tried to maintain hope and normalcy.
The exhibit also features multimedia installations, photographs, film, and sound elements that guide visitors through Anne’s early childhood in Germany, her family’s move to Amsterdam, their time in hiding from July 1942 to August 1944, and her death at age 15 in a concentration camp. “She kept her creative spark alive through her writing, even in the face of forces that tried to extinguish it,” Humphrey said. “This is a story about a young girl trying to make sense of the world around her during a terrible time, and it’s extraordinarily relevant in today’s world.”
Chicago will be the second city to host this exhibition after its premiere in New York City in January 2025. Ronald Leopold, executive director of The Anne Frank House, decided to bring it to Chicago after visiting last April. According to Humphrey’s recollection of Leopold’s visit: “’there are a bunch of little ‘Annes’ running around this museum, trying to understand the world around them.’”
The museum will offer free admission for children on organized school field trips as well as free diaries for students. Outside school trips, tickets cost $19 for adults and $15 for children plus general admission fees. The exhibition opens May 1 and is scheduled through early 2027.
