An Anne Frank exhibit is opening in Chicago

Chicago is about to step inside one of the most famous rooms in modern history.

On May 1, the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry will debut “Anne Frank The Exhibition,” marking the Midwest’s first time hosting the immersive experience created by the Anne Frank House. The show features a full-scale, fully furnished recreation of the secret annex, the hidden rooms in Amsterdam where Anne Frank, her parents, her sister Margot and four other Jewish refugees lived in hiding for two years during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.

Visitors will walk through a meticulous reconstruction of the space where Frank wrote the diary that would become one of the world's most translated books. Beyond the recreated rooms, the exhibition spans multimedia galleries layered with video, sound, photography and animation, tracing Frank's life from her early childhood in Frankfurt to her family’s move to Amsterdam, their arrest in 1944 and her deportation through Westerbork and Auschwitz-Birkenau to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where she died at 15.

The Chicago presentation features more than 130 original artifacts from the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, many of which have never publicly displayed before. Among them are letters from Anne, Margot and Otto Frank; Anne’s first photo album (1929–1942); handwritten verses in friends’ poetry albums; and a 1945 “List of Returned Jews Arriving at Amsterdam Central Station.” The objects ground the story in tangible detail, reminding visitors that Frank was a normal teenager with friendships, crushes, ambition and a sharp sense of humor.

Originally premiering in New York on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the exhibition is designed for adults and children ages 10 and up. All tickets include an audio guide in English and Spanish. The museum will also offer the exhibition free to all field trip groups, in addition to its existing free general admission policy for Illinois school groups. Students will also receive journals to reflect on Frank's words and perhaps channel a little “Dear Kitty” energy of their own.