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Inside the Anne Frank House

Anne Frank


Take a Virtual Tour of Charter Oak's Anne Frank House Secret Annex Exhibit




Due to high demand, the exhibit run has been extended through December 31st.

Our galleries are open from 10am- 4pm Monday through Friday and on evenings and weekends during our events.

 

The Charter Oak Anne Frank House In the News

Angels Keep Anne Frank Spirit Alive

By Susan Campbell, Hartford Courant - October 24, 2007

This is a story about a rabbi, a toilet and a host of angels with regular street names like Rodney and Phil.

(Yes, an angel named Rodney is strange, especially when the angel's job is tracking down a vintage toilet. But neither angel nor toilet are ordinary. Have faith. Keep reading.)

To kick off a five-week Celebration of Jewish Arts and Culture, Rabbi Donna Berman, executive director at Hartford's Charter Oak Cultural Center, wanted to re-create the hiding place of Anne Frank and her family. Earlier, a California group had built a reproduction with impressive results; Berman thought a walk through the re-creation of the hiding place of one of history's best-known diarists would be a powerful entry into her center's message of inclusion and respect. read more

 

The Power Of Teaching Tolerance

By Bessy Reyna, Hartford Courant - October 19, 2007

When I pulled out the bookcase hiding the entrance to the Anne Frank House - on exhibit at the Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford - and walked into the exact replica of the small attic, I had not expected to feel so viscerally the physical and psychological burdens that the Frank and Van Daans families carried for the two years they hid from the Nazis in Amsterdam.

Anne provided a blueprint of their hiding place in her diary entry of July 9, 1942. A year later, Aug. 4, 1943, she described a day in her life starting with the logistics of going to bed, the lack of privacy, the tensions that ensued from living in constant fear, in complete silence during the day, in an overcrowded environment and hearing air raid sirens and shootings at night. read more

Replica of Anne Frank’s Hidden Annex on Exhibit

By Sujata Srinivasan, Jewish Ledger - October 23, 2007

HARTFORD-On the first floor of 263 Prinsengracht, a tiny, frosted window opens out to nowhere. A cold and spartan cot lies bereft of soft, human touch. A lonely pillow, once the cradle of sweet dreams, now provides refuge to an abandoned doll. A pink dressing gown is all laid out and waiting, waiting, waiting to be worn. From their high heaven on the wall, movie stars gaze from the world of the free into the room a 13-year-old fan, a girl in hiding. Later, her diary, lying on the stark wooden writing table, will pour forth unto the world the beauty, innocence and heart-wrenching tragedy of Anne Frank.

Stepping into the scene above - a recreation by the dynamic team at Charter Oak Cultural Center at Hartford - one is sucked into a world of fear and despair, of cramped spaces and raw nerves, but also of hope and longing, of love and faith, and most of all, the resilience of the human spirit as exemplified by this one, brave little girl. read more

Storm Damages Anne Frank House Replica
Hartford Annex Nearly Exact Replica Of House

WFSB Eyewitness News - October 16, 2007

HARTFORD, Conn. -- The only replica of Anne Frank's hideaway on the East Coast has been damaged by flooding.
Chris Philips of the Charter Oak Center built an almost-exact replica where Anne Frank and her family hid for two years during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam. The replica is built in the basement of the Charter Oak Center.
The stairway to the annex where the family hid was located behind a bookcase.
The Hartford replica contained furniture from the period, and photos of celebrities Anne described in her diary. read more

Hartford Remembers Anne Frank

By Vicky Sawtelle, The Recorder, Central Connecticut State University - October 10, 2007

Sixty years have passed since the publication of the most famous Holocaust narrative ever written. The Diary of Anne Frank captures a time of oppressive fear and hatred that no one has been able to replicate. The Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford, however, manages to replicate Anne Frank’s hideaway in its newest exhibition that is on display now.
In 1942, Anne Frank’s family went into hiding in the back section of an office building. It was in that Secret Annexe that Anne wrote stories of her incognito life. In 1960, her family’s hideout in Amsterdam was converted into a public museum. But now, the famous historical place of refuge can be seen in Connecticut.

When I first arrived at the Cultural Center, I rang the doorbell and a woman let me into a somber foyer. It was dimly lit and void of people except for the two of us. I inquired about the exhibit and she led me back to a bookcase hinged on to a plain white wall. She held the bookcase ajar for me, and I stepped inside. read more

Comments From the Exhibit


“This is more moving that I had imagined. Thank you to those who made it possible.”

“Extremely moving.”

“I found out by accident – I came on purpose – thank God.”

“Creative, sad, and inspiring combination of media that moved us deeply.” – Carl, Shirley, & Dudley

“I love it!!!” – Simone T.

“Very moving and informative. Are there any plans to bring school groups? Excellent!”

“Invokes sad memories. Very well done.”

“Thank you.” – T.J. Noel Sullivan

“Still hard to believe.” – Norma Bursach

“Very meaningful.” - Florence Jacobson

“My husband left Germany in ’33 – now I see how it was.” - Lil Rosenburg

“We must remember!” - Roslyn Lyons

“Very moving and very well done.” – Rhoda London

“This is a very nice and eye-opening exhibit.” – DCU

“Very powerful, puts into perspective what my mother and father were doing at this time in their lives. Anne Frank was two years younger than my mother, who turned 80 this summer.” – DLV

“How many other beautiful, talented, innocent lives were lost? Anne is their voice to us all.”

“I was freaked out by the reality of the hiding place.”

“This makes it all very real. I hope Anne didn’t give up hope.”

“I learned many facts that I didn’t know! Also, I can’t imagine hiding for two years in that very tiny attic.” – Andrew G.

“Thought-provoking. There is goodness in all people.” - Lois and David Galinsky

“Thank you for giving us a chance to see this horrific experience – it really has brought out some very uncomfortable feelings inside me.”
O. Ould

“Thank you.” – Eva Hausman

“It was so moving, thank you.” – Stephanie A.

“Thank you for making this exhibit possible!” Amy, Alyssa, Daniel, & Michael

“It was effective. It put me into Anne’s space, in her (and others) shoes. Terrible pangs of sympathy – realizations, despairs, and hope.”

“Very moving and important. Gracias.”

“This is amazing. Great job, very creative and well done.”

“So important. Very nicely done. Great concept.”

“Thank you for keeping their memory alive!”

“Meaningful and very important for public to view.”

“Thank you for this exhibit, it is very important and well done.”

“Great exhibit, but it was hard to hear everything on DVD due to music.”

“I was very moved by the courage of Anne Frank. I have not been so emotionally wrung out since I was in the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. Please keep people aware of the horrors that can befall an entire people. Sincerely, Fred W.”

“Anne Frank’s story’s very moving. I read her diary many years ago. It is good to be reminded of the evil that was done, so that we may take care to stop future evil in its tracks.” – V. Mill

“Man is indeed a brutal creature.” – Cornell Lewis

“I think that you guys did a great job with the whole thing.”

“Great replica, guys, it was really inspiring.”

“This was awesome! I am inspired!”

“This exhibition is a good school for children.” – Yefim Eydelshteyn

“I read the diary a few years ago – very wise thoughts from a pure heart. This is a great exhibit. Thank you.” – Paul T.

“Thank you for bringing this exhibit to Hartford.” -- Susan Israel

“Thank you – very moving exhibit.”
“This diagram shows what it was like back then, and gives much information on how Anne lived. Thank you for explaining her life…”

“Thank you for letting me see how life would be back then. I don’t agree that Hitler should have killed all of those Jews. We are all people. Thank you once again.”

“LOVED IT!”

“Very moving. Seems so real. Very well done. Thank you.”

“Awesome!” – Mariah, age 9

“Well done. Very moving. Really breathtaking.”

“I love it. I’m sorry I don’t have money.”

“It was great! You should build the whole thing, it would have been better.”

“NICE JOB!!!”

“The movie was kind of confusing, but the rooms were cool.” – Emily, age 12

“The exhibit was good, but were the pictures in the movie from the real attic/thing? Very moving.”

“It really opened my eyes to how real and awful it was. The Franks didn’t even have it the worst at how awful they lived.”
- Charlotte, age 12

“It was great – the rooms seemed really authentic.” – Nora, age 12

“It was a great exhibit. I really liked the movie and the timeline.”

“I liked the wonderful exhibit, it was divine. I liked her room.”

“Thank you for building this exhibit. It is wonderful exposure for people in this area.”

“It was amazing to see the Secret Annex. I really enjoyed this exhibit.”

“Thank you for this beautiful exhibit and reminder of “Man’s inhumanity of man.” We shall never forget – and we must remain vigilant!”

“The world needs more exhibits like this one!”

“Excellent exhibition. Thank you!”

“Quite poignant.”
“Amazing, but it makes me want more. Give me more. Thank you.”

“Amazing – thank you.”

“Makes me cry.”

“Great exhibit!”

“WOWIE WOW WOW!”

“Cool.”

“Well done, very informative. I enjoyed the young people giving us the tour.”

“Amazing.”

“Exciting.”

“This was an excellent exhibit! I am very impressed.”

“Thank you COCC for bringing this to Hartford.” – Bobsie

“The Annex replica looks just like the real one. Amazing work.”

“Well done, thank you!”

“Well done, great piece of work.”

“Thank you – we have to remember.”

“Awesome! You can’t make me forget it.”

“Job well done!!!”

“I felt good when this happened!”

“Wow. Thank you.”

“I will be back with grandchildren! Amazing!”

“Not at all what I expected. Great!”

“Great job!!! Excellent!!!”

“Thank you so much.”

“I don’t like Anne Frank.”

“This was a good experience for me.”

“This is a wonderful way to bring history to life. So many of us will never get to Holland, but now we can be a part of it too. Thank you.”

“Wonderful exhibit and film.” – D.B.

“Well done.” – Trudy Singer

“Simply amazing.”

“Excellent film. Thank you for creating this exhibit.”

“Beautiful exhibit.”