Opening of ’Anne Frank The Exhibition’ in Chicago

On Friday, May 1, 2026, Anne Frank The Exhibition will open at the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry (Griffin MSI) in Chicago. The exhibition is groundbreaking in several respects. Visitors walk through a life-size, fully furnished reconstruction of the rooms in the Annex, where Anne Frank, her parents and sister, and four other Jews lived in hiding for two years.

The exhibition premiered on January 27, 2025, in New York City. The exhibition’s unique and powerful character is a key reason for taking it on tour across the United States.

The exhibition highlights Anne Frank’s life (1929–1945) in the context of the Second World War and the persecution of the Jews: her early years in Frankfurt am Main, the rise of the Nazi regime, the move to Amsterdam, and the period in hiding in the Annex, leading up to her arrest and deportation to the concentration camps Westerbork and Auschwitz-Birkenau, and her untimely death in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The exhibition also explores Anne Frank’s work and global significance, a cause to which her father was deeply committed. Otto Frank was the only one of the eight people in hiding in the Annex to survive the war. After returning from Auschwitz, he became the driving force behind the publication of his daughter’s diary and the dissemination of her life story worldwide.

Anne Frank The Exhibition features an unique, life-size reconstruction of the Annex, faithfully recreated and furnished in the style of the hiding period. The exhibition also includes more than 130 original collection items from the Anne Frank House collection. Among the objects on display are Anne Frank’s first photo album; her typed and handwritten invitation to her friend Jacqueline van Maarsen for a film screening at her home (in 1942, anti-Jewish measures prohibited Jews from going to the cinema); handwritten verses by Anne and her sister Margot in friends’ poetry albums; and Aus Grimms Märchen: 20 der schönsten Märchen der Brüder Grimm, a German fairy-tale book that belonged to Anne and Margot.

In addition to the many original objects, visitors can view an accurate replica of Anne Frank’s first red-checkered diary. The original red-checkered diary and the subsequent volumes are on display at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

“Anne Frank The Exhibition makes you think,” says Ronald Leopold, Executive Director of the Anne Frank House.

‘As you step into the world of Anne and her family, you realize that antisemitism, racism, and hatred are still deeply present in our world today. Commemoration is not something passive—it is a moral act that calls for empathy, engagement, and reflection on the times in which we live. The Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, founded on the idea that knowledge should be accessible to everyone, embodies this moral responsibility.’ - Ronald Leopold, Executive Director of the Anne Frank House

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The Griffin Museum of Science and Industry offers free admission to the exhibition for school groups from Chicago and Illinois. All students will also receive a diary to reflect on Anne’s words and to discover how powerful their own voices can be.

Website of Griffin Museum of Science and Industry

’Anne Frank The Exhibition’ - Griffin MSI Press Kit