"Anne Frank and Us"

Inaugurating the new Anne Frank Center USA downtown is the initial portion of its permanent exhibit, "Anne Frank and Us." In a space that re-creates Anne Frank's bedroom in the Secret Annex, kids can sit and reflect on the life of the brave diarist, who bore witness to life's wonder and her own fears even as she hid with her family in an attic during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam. Audio loops of sounds she would hear—church bells ringing, wind in the trees—and quotations of her diary let children connect to the young writer viscerally. Other kid-friendly offerings include a dollhouse-like model of the Secret Annex, facsimiles of her diary and family photo albums, and the 26-minute video "The Short Life of Anne Frank."