Anne Frank exhibit brings her diary and recreation of secret annex to Griffin Museum of Science and Industry

For decades, Anne Frank's story has symbolized resilience in the midst of terror. Her father, Otto Frank, made sure the world would see his daughter's diary and learn her story. Now, you can get a special look into Anne Frank's life at the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry.

Anne Frank The Exhibition is an experience that is haunting yet heart-warming, telling the story of a life that ended tragically and far too soon.

"She had this incredible curiosity about the world around her," said head curator Voula Saridakis.

But Anne's world grew smaller as the Franks and four others hid from the Nazis for over two years in a secret annex in back of the Amsterdam building that housed her father's business. It was the height of World War II and Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler had two goals: to control the world and to rid it of all Jews.

The exhibit's visitors can get a chilling feel for the time, with full scale recreations of the annex rooms where Anne and her family hid from the Nazis.

There's the moveable bookcase that concealed the hiding place and the staircase helpers used to bring the Franks food and news of the day.

It also includes recreations of Anne's tiny bedroom, a living room, a board game played to pass the time.

Most prominently, it includes multiple replicas of Anne Frank's diary, which has been published in more than 70 languages with more than 30 million copies sold.

One of the replicas features the same red and blue checkered pattern from her actual diary.

The exhibit also includes artifacts; real items that come directly from Amsterdam.

"The artifacts go all the way from before Anne Frank was born all the way to the times that Otto Frank, who was the only survivor of all of those people in the secret annex, when he made his way back to Amsterdam," Saridakis said.

The artifacts include Otto Frank's desk chair, products from his business, and a beautiful tea set and table linens.

Photos in the exhibition also are striking. Otto with Anne's mother, Edith. Anne and her sister, Margot. Anne in her kindergarten class.

It's all fascinating, but why is it at the Museum of Science and Industry? Saridakis said the museum is expanding its reach.

"We are the Museum of Science and Industry. That industry could be the comic book industry, the movie industry," Saridakis said. "Like in the case of Anne Frank, again, it speaks to our core mission, which is to inspire that inventive and I would add creative genius in all of us, and that was so much a part of what Anne Frank was all about."

After her family was arrested by the Gestapo in 1944, Anne Frank died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, just months before the camp was liberated. She was 15 years old.

This exhibition of her life is meant to stir emotion and thought.

"It kind of shook me in a way, because it's like, 'Wow this was how they were actually living,'" said exhibit visitor Kamiah Hicks.

Young visitors to the exhibit seemed especially touched.

"Anybody can learn about what she went through and try to thrive or try to get motivated by that," said Lakendra Frazier.

Saridakis said that is the goal.

"That creative spark you find in her diary and in her writings, we want to be able to inspire all of those qualities in our visitors, to have people learn about her humanity and to gain a deeper understanding about the past and how it impacts the present," she said.

Anne Frank The Exhibition is open through early 2027 at Griffin Museum of Science and Industry.