The Anne Frank House, founded by Otto Frank, brings the Midwest its foremost learning experience outside of Amsterdam with Anne Frank: The Exhibition, at Chicago’s Griffin Museum of Science and Industry. The limited-time exhibit debuted this month and features a recreation of the Annex attic rooms where Anne, her family, and their neighbors hid for two years to evade Nazi persecution. It also includes more than 130 artifacts, heirlooms, personal belongings, and correspondence from the Frank family dating back to Otto Frank’s (Anne’s father) young adulthood.
The exhibit offers an audio tour tracing the Frank family’s story from the beginning, starting with Otto’s youth in Germany and continuing through Anne’s enduring legacy as a writer who bravely documented her and her family’s struggles with anti-Semitic hatred and persecution. The exhibit functions like a family scrapbook, documenting the family’s growth and history as the world around them changes with the rise of Hitler and the eventual outbreak of World War II.
After the introduction, visitors are brought to 1910s Germany. The first artifact on display is Otto’s trunk, which he used while traveling to New York during his college years to work at Macy’s while studying business. At the time, Otto’s family lived in a large house in the Frankfurt countryside. A display case containing belongings such as silverware and furniture from the home is shaped like the mansion itself. In 1914, Otto was conscripted into the German army during World War I and eventually achieved the rank of lieutenant. After the war, Otto took over the family business and met Edith, his wife, in 1925.
Around this period, Hitler’s Nazi Party began blaming Jews for Germany’s postwar struggles and steadily rose to power. The family banking business suffered further after the Stock Market Crash of 1929, the same year Anne was born. Driven by financial hardship and an anti-Semitic landlord, Otto canceled the lease on the family’s larger house and moved them into a smaller two-story home in Aachen. This transition is reflected in the next artifact display case, which is shaped like the smaller home and noticeably reduced in size as their rights as Jews decreased.
When Hitler became Chancellor in 1933, Otto realized his family could no longer remain in Germany. The following year, when Anne was still under four years old, the Franks moved to Amsterdam. Otto Frank established Opekta in the Netherlands in 1933 and later co-founded Pectacon in 1938, a company specializing in spices and seasonings. Several of their products are on display with their original labels still intact. Meanwhile, Nazi imagery becomes increasingly present throughout the exhibit as Hitler consolidates power and dismantles the democratic system Otto had once fought to defend. Jews gradually lost their rights as deportation efforts intensified, a progression shown through a video presentation. At the center of the theater sits the final house-shaped display case representing the Annex.
By this point, World War II had begun, and the Nazis had invaded the Netherlands. Otto could no longer legally work or own a business. In 1942, the family went into hiding after Nazi authorities targeted Margot, Anne’s older sister. Their story might have been lost forever if not for one thing: the diary Anne received for her 12th birthday earlier that year. Instead of another artifact display case, visitors enter the hidden passage behind the bookcase leading into the Franks’ hiding place.
The first room visitors encounter is the upper-floor common room, which also served as the bedroom for Hermann and Auguste van Pels. Every aspect of daily life takes place in this cramped space: cooking, eating, listening to the news, and playing board games, one of which remains on the table. Beyond their room is Peter’s bedroom, where the ladder leading to the attic is located. He was the only resident with a room of his own.
Downstairs was the room shared by Otto, Edith, and Margot. Two beds had to accommodate all three family members. The only other furniture consisted of a table with chairs and a single nightstand used by Otto. Next door was the room Anne shared with the family dentist, Fritz Pfeffer. Visitors can see the room’s lone writing desk, which Anne and Pfeffer famously argued over: Anne wanted to write in her diary, while Pfeffer wanted to study Spanish. Adjacent to their room was the single bathroom shared by the entire household.
After recounting the family’s discovery and arrest, the exhibit shifts to the broader reality of the Holocaust during the years the Franks were in hiding. Visitors walk across a map of Europe marking concentration camps and ghettos, see a photograph of Anne’s kindergarten class with nearly half the students missing, and learn the fates of each member of the Frank family after their capture. Yet the exhibit also highlights moments of hope. A white hallway symbolizes Otto’s journey back to Amsterdam and his eventual receipt of Anne’s diary, which he published to share her story with the world.
The final room is the exhibit’s largest, featuring an expansive display case stretching across the gallery with editions and translations of The Diary of a Young Girl from around the world. Anne had always dreamed of becoming a writer. Today, her diary has become one of the most translated and bestselling books of the 20th century. Each generation has been touched as visitors lined up, pointing out the editions they remember reading in school.
Dr. Chevy Humphrey, Griffin Museum of Science and Industry President and CEO said, “Anne Frank’s story is a powerful reminder of what happens when fear and hatred are allowed to take root. At the same time, it reveals the quiet but enduring strength of curiosity, creativity and resilience, values that sit at the heart of our mission. We hope this exhibition offers meaningful moments of reflection for our guests, particularly young people, and encourages them to think critically about their role in the world they are inheriting.”
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