The new initiative will launch Friday, July 11th through Friday, August 29th.
This summer, Anne Frank The Exhibition will offer enhanced access and free admission to thousands of public service champions, including teachers, first responders, active military, and librarians. The immersive and historically significant exhibition, presented by the Anne Frank House in Union Square at the Center for Jewish History, will launch the new initiative beginning Friday, July 11th through Friday, August 29th.
"We are honored to welcome public servants through enhanced access to the exhibition, inviting them to draw strength from Anne Frank's enduring legacy of humanity and courage," said Ronald Leopold, Executive Director of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, which organized the New York City exhibition. "Summer of Service not only recognizes the profound impact public servants have in safeguarding our freedoms, but also affirms their power to shape a more just world. By experiencing Anne Frank The Exhibition firsthand, they harness their collective empathy and resolve, becoming even stronger champions of human dignity and leading the way in the fight against hatred and intolerance."
The new summer initiatives include:
● Teacher Tuesdays:
○ From 9:30-11:30am, teachers will be granted free access for up to 2 adults and 4 children.
○ Valid school ID and email address is required for free entry.
● First Responder and Active-Duty Wednesdays:
○ From 12:30-3:30pm, all first responders (including NYPD, FDNY, EMS, and PAPD) as well as active-duty service members, will be granted free access for up to 2 adults and up to 4 children.
○ Valid government-issued ID is required for free entry.
● Public Librarian Weekday Evenings:
○ On Monday through Thursday, from 5:00-6:30pm, all NYC public librarians will be granted free access for up to 2 adults and up to 2 children.
○ Valid ID and NYC public library email address is required.
● Free Friday Extended Hours + NYC Library Card Priority Access:
○ From 2:45-5:00pm, the exhibit is offering free entry to all visitors (last entry at 4:00pm).
○ The first 100 NYC library cardholders to arrive will receive expedited access on these Free Fridays.
Free Friday afternoon access is offered on a first-come, first-served basis, and is limited to 250 visitors each Friday. Last entry is 4:00 pm, one hour before closing (5:00pm on Fridays). Teacher Tuesdays, First Responder and Active-Duty Wednesdays, and Public Librarian Weekday Evenings begin on July 11th and will last through August 29, 2025. Originally planned to close earlier this year, Anne Frank The Exhibition is now extended through October 31, 2025 to offer even more New Yorkers the opportunity to learn about Anne's life and writings.
A tribute to public servants, Summer of Service extends Summer of Reflection: The Legacy of Anne Frank with a powerful message of gratitude to those who educate and protect New Yorkers. Summer of Service expands exhibition access for New York City's everyday heroes, such as teachers, first responders, and librarians.
Summer of Reflection: The Legacy of Anne Frank includes the distribution of 10,000 copies of Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl across New York City and is made possible thanks to the generosity of Bank of America and UJA-Federation of New York, in collaboration with the New York City Public Schools Office of Library Services, New York City Public Schools Department of Social Studies & Civics, New York City Public Schools Summer Rising enrichment program, and the New York Public Library, Queens Public Library, and Brooklyn Public Library.
Anne Frank The Exhibition is the first time in history that the Anne Frank House presents a pioneering experience outside of Amsterdam to immerse visitors in a full-scale recreation of the Annex rooms, fully furnished, where Anne Frank, her parents and sister, and four other Jews spent two years hiding to evade Nazi capture.
Moving through the exhibition, visitors can immerse themselves in the context that shaped Anne's life-from her early years in Frankfurt through the rise of the Nazi regime and the family's phased move to Amsterdam across 1933 and 1934, 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.
Four exhibition galleries immerse 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 provides 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 occupies over 7,500 square feet of gallery space in the heart of Union Square. This marks the first time dozens of artifacts can be seen in the United States-many have never been seen in public.
Artifacts in the exhibition include:
● Anne Frank's first photo album (1929-1942);
● Anne Frank's typed and handwritten invitation to her friend for a film screening in her home (by 1942, anti-Jewish measures prohibited Jews from attending the cinema); and
● Handwritten verses by Anne Frank in her friends' poetry albums.
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