A revealing biography of Anne Frank, exploring both her life and the impact of her extraordinary diary.

In this innovative biography, Ruth Franklin explores the transformation of Anne Frank (1929–1945) from ordinary teenager to icon, shedding new light on the young woman whose diary of her years in hiding, now translated into more than seventy languages, is the most widely read work of literature to arise from the Holocaust.

Comprehensively researched but experimental in spirit, this book chronicles and interprets Anne’s life as a Jew in Amsterdam during World War II while also telling the story of the diary—its multiple drafts, its discovery, its reception, and its message for today’s world. Writing alongside Anne rather than over her, Franklin explores the day-to-day perils of the Holocaust in the Netherlands as well as Anne’s ultimate fate, restoring her humanity and agency in all their messiness, heroism, and complexity.

With antisemitism once again in the news, The Many Lives of Anne Frank takes a fresh and timely look at the debates around Anne’s life and work, including the controversial adaptations of the diary, Anne’s evolution as a fictional character, and the ways her story and image have been politically exploited. Franklin reveals how Anne has been understood and misunderstood, both as a person and as an idea, and opens up new avenues for interpreting her life and writing in today’s hyperpolarized world.

Ruth Franklin will be in conversation with author Jonathan Rosen. Book sales and signing will follow the program. Get a discount on the price of your ticket if you pre-order the book.

Thank you to Ancestry, the Center for Jewish History’s Family History sponsor for International Holocaust Remembrance Day programming.

Presented with Jewish Lives and Jewish Book Council

Part of the Center’s programming series Anne Frank in History and Memory in connection with Anne Frank The Exhibition. Purchase your tickets to the exhibition here.

Ruth Franklin is the author of A Thousand Darknesses: Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction, a finalist for the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, and of Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Jonathan Rosen is the author, most recently, of The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions, which was named a top ten book of the year by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Slate and People Magazine, and was chosen by Barack Obama as one of his Favorite Books of 2023. The Best Minds was also a finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize. Rosen is also the author of the novels Eve’s Apple and Joy Comes in the Morning, and two additional non-fiction books: The Talmud and the Internet: A Journey Between Worlds and The Life of the Skies: Birding at the End of Nature. His essays and articles have appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and other publications. He is a consulting editor at The Free Press.

In the documentary film UnBroken, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor embarks on an international quest to uncover answers about the plight of her mother and her six siblings who, as mere children, escaped Nazi Germany relying solely on their own youthful bravado and the kindness of German strangers.

UnBroken chronicles the seven Weber siblings who evaded certain capture and death, and ultimately escaped Nazi Germany following their mother’s incarceration and murder at Auschwitz. After being hidden in a laundry hut by a benevolent farmer, the children spent two years on their own in war-torn Germany. Emboldened by their father’s mandate that they ‘always stay together,’ the children used their own cunning and instincts to fight through hunger, loneliness, and fear, and survive bombings and attacks. Their journey culminates with a painful ultimatum, when, separated from their father, they are told that they must declare themselves orphans in order to escape to a new life in America. Unbeknownst to them, this salvation would become what would finally tear them apart, not to be reunited for another 40 years.

After the screening, join us for a panel discussion with the film’s director, producer, and writer Beth Lane and subject (Beth’s mother) Ginger Lane.

View the trailer here.

Thank you to Ancestry, the Center for Jewish History’s Family History sponsor for International Holocaust Remembrance Day programming.

Presented with The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme

Part of the Center’s programming series Anne Frank in History and Memory and film series Holocaust History on Film: Anne Frank and Beyond in connection with Anne Frank The Exhibition. Purchase your tickets to the exhibition here.

This screening is made possible by The Weber Family Arts Foundation.

Come by and see the new Ancestry Research and Reflection Room at the Center for Jewish History’s Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute.  Dedicated to collecting, preserving and sharing the family histories of Jewish communities worldwide, the new space offers visitors the opportunity to explore millions of Holocaust-era records available on Ancestry and conduct research on their own family histories.

Come see unique letters sent by Anne Frank’s father, Otto Frank, to American officials pleading for permission to emigrate to the United States in 1941, as well as other, related documents.  Discovered by YIVO archivists in the Institute’s vast archival holdings in 2005 and unseen by the public for more than a decade, the letters provide a moving perspective on the desperate efforts of a Jewish refugee to save his family.

Bestselling author Alice Hoffman delivers a stunning novel, aimed at a young adult audience, about one of contemporary history's most acclaimed figures, exploring the little-known details of Anne Frank's life before she went into hiding.

Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl has captivated and inspired readers for decades. Published posthumously by her bereaved father, Anne's journal, written while she and her family were in hiding during World War II, has become one of the central texts of the Jewish experience during the Holocaust, as well as a work of literary genius.

With the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, the Frank family's life is turned inside out, blow by blow, restriction by restriction. Prejudice, loss, and terror run rampant, and Anne is forced to bear witness as ordinary people become monsters, and children and families are caught up in the inescapable tide of violence.

In the midst of impossible danger, Anne, audacious, creative, and fearless, discovers who she truly is. With wisdom far beyond her years, she will become a writer who will go on to change the world as we know it.

Critically acclaimed author Alice Hoffman weaves a lyrical and heart wrenching story of the way the world closes in on the Frank family from the moment the Nazis invade the Netherlands until they are forced into hiding, bringing Anne to bold, vivid life. When We Flew Away features archival content provided by the Anne Frank House, as well as information about Otto Frank's desperate bids to get his family to safety in America gathered from correspondence between Otto Frank and Nathan Straus, Jr. from the Straus Historical Society’s Archives. Based on extensive research and published in cooperation with the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, When We Flew Away is an extraordinary and moving tour de force.

Alice Hoffman will be in conversation with her editor at Scholastic, Lisa Sandell. Book sales and signing will follow the program. Get a discount on the price of your ticket if you pre-order the book.

Part of the Center’s programming series Anne Frank in History and Memory in connection with Anne Frank The Exhibition. Purchase your tickets to the exhibition here.

Presented with Scholastic

Thank you to Ancestry, the Center for Jewish History’s Family History sponsor.

About the Speaker:
Alice Hoffman is the highly acclaimed author of over 30 novels for readers of all ages, including The Dovekeepers, The World That We Knew -- winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, The Marriage of Opposites, Practical Magic, Incantation, The Foretelling, and most recently, The Invisible Hour. Her previous novels for Scholastic Press are Aquamarine, which was made into a major motion picture, Indigo, Green Witch, and Green Angel, which Publishers Weekly, in a boxed, starred review, called "achingly lovely." She lives outside of Boston.

The Anne Frank Gift Shop was shortlisted for the 2024 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short. The film, written and directed by Mickey Rapkin, premiered at L.A. Shorts in 2023 and won the Film Movement Award at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival and a completion grant from JFI. Of the film, GQ magazine's Sarah Seltzer wrote: "Featuring darkly funny and ultimately moving turns by a strong cast including Ari Graynor and Chris Perfetti and comedian Mary Beth Barone as a stone-faced Gen Z influencer, The Anne Frank Gift Shop provides a poignant meta-commentary on our continually robust Anne Frank discourse. It’s a film that, per Sarah Paulson on Instagram, 'makes you laugh your face off AND FEEL things'." The film won the Audience Award in Philadelphia and has screened around the world at festivals including SCAD, the Cleveland International Film Festival, and the Hong Kong Jewish Film Festival.

A panel discussion and Q&A featuring writer/director Mickey Rapkin, Ari Graynor, and Avinoam Patt,moderated by the bestselling author of Grief Is for People, Sloane Crosley will follow the screening.

Part of the Center’s film series Holocaust History on Film: Anne Frank and Beyond in connection with Anne Frank The Exhibition. Purchase your tickets to the exhibition here.

Thank you to Ancestry, the Center for Jewish History’s Family History sponsor

About the Speakers
Mickey Rapkin made his directorial debut with The Anne Frank Gift Shop which was shortlisted for the 2024 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short. He also wrote the film, a dark comedy about antisemitism starring Ari Graynor and Chris Perfetti. Rapkin is a screenwriter and journalist whose first book, Pitch Perfect—about the world of competitive a cappella singing groups—inspired the film franchise of the same name. Previously a senior editor at GQ, he has written for the New York Times, WSJ, Town & Country, and Esquire. 

Where Is Anne Frank is a 2021 animated magic realism film by visionary Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman, Academy Award-nominated director of Waltz with Bashir. The film follows Kitty, Anne Frank's imaginary friend to whom she addressed her diary, manifesting in contemporary Amsterdam. Seeking to learn what happened to her creator, Kitty attracts worldwide attention.

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian wrote, "The story of Anne Frank and her diary is retold in this fervent, heartfelt and visually wonderful animated film." Sheri Linden of The Hollywood Reporter said the film "expresses the story's unspeakable sadness with eloquence and sensitivity." Pete Hammond of Deadline Hollywood called it "a complete Anne Frank story reinvention that should resonate in the hearts of the young audience at which it is aimed".

The screening of a new version of the film, never before seen in the United States, will be followed by a panel discussion with director Ari Folman.

Watch the trailer here

Part of the Center’s film series Holocaust History on Film: Anne Frank and Beyond in connection with Anne Frank The Exhibition. Purchase your tickets to the exhibition here.

Thank you to Ancestry, the Center for Jewish History’s Family History sponsor

Where Is Anne Frank is a 2021 animated magic realism film by visionary Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman, Academy Award-nominated director of Waltz with Bashir. The film follows Kitty, Anne Frank's imaginary friend to whom she addressed her diary, manifesting in contemporary Amsterdam. Seeking to learn what happened to her creator, Kitty attracts worldwide attention.

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian wrote, "The story of Anne Frank and her diary is retold in this fervent, heartfelt and visually wonderful animated film." Sheri Linden of The Hollywood Reporter said the film "expresses the story's unspeakable sadness with eloquence and sensitivity." Pete Hammond of Deadline Hollywood called it "a complete Anne Frank story reinvention that should resonate in the hearts of the young audience at which it is aimed".

The screening of a new version of the film, never before seen in the United States, will be followed by a panel discussion with director Ari Folman.

Watch the trailer here

Part of the Center’s film series Holocaust History on Film: Anne Frank and Beyond in connection with Anne Frank The Exhibition. Purchase your tickets to the exhibition here.

Thank you to Ancestry, the Center for Jewish History’s Family History sponsor

Bau: Artist at War is a remarkable film is based on the true love story of Joseph and Rebecca Bau, whose wedding took place in the Plaszow concentration camp during WWII, an event immortalized in Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List. Using his artistic skills and sense of humor in the camps, Joseph manages to stay alive and ultimately helps hundreds to escape. Years later, when called to be a key witness in the trial of the brutal Nazi officer who tortured him and killed his father, he is thrust back into vivid memories of the Holocaust. Emile Hirsch stars as Joseph Bau.

The screening will be followed by a conversation with writer/producer Deborah Smerecnik andJoseph Bau’s daughters Clila and Hadasa Bau.

Watch the trailer here.

Presented with Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme and UJA

Part of the Center’s film series Holocaust History on Film: Anne Frank and Beyond in connection with Anne Frank The Exhibition. Purchase your tickets to the exhibition here.

Thank you to Ancestry, the Center for Jewish History’s Family History sponsor

About the Speakers
Deborah Smerecnik spent 14 years developing and producing "Bau, Artist at War." Her production company has a slate of projects, in different stages of development, including "VOICES", a dystopian sci-fi television series, "Wake-Up", a feature highlighting the sex trafficking industry of Ventura County, California, and a mini-series centered around the diaries of Rebecca Bau. A graduate of Scripps College with a diverse professional background in finance, management, and restaurant ownership, Smerecnik was deeply inspired by the Bau family's story. This project has profoundly impacted her, instilling a deep sense of gratitude for the opportunity to bring the Bau’s inspiring journey to life.

Clila Bau Cohen is a lecturer and performer. Hadasa Bau is an actress, singer, songwriter, lecturer and graphic artist. They both serve as managers of the Joseph Bau House, a museum focusing on the life and work of Joseph Bau.

Here Lived: The Stolpersteine Story won Best Documentary at the Jewish Film Festival in 2024 and has been screened at many festivals around the world.

When conceptual artist Gunter Demnig first conceived the idea of laying Stolpersteine (literal translation: stumbling stones) for Roma, Sinti, and disabled victims of National Socialism (Nazis) in his native Germany, he never imagined his project would grow to become the world’s largest decentralized memorial.

The Stolpersteine he crafted are, in theory, quite simple: concrete blocks measuring 10x10cm, topped with polished brass plates that are hand stamped with the names and fates of victims of Hitler’s reign of terror. These handmade stones are laid into the pavement in front of the last voluntarily chosen residence of those murdered by the Nazis. The stones, requested by surviving family members, represent a deeply personal commemoration to those affected by the horrors of Nazi occupation. Today, Stolpersteine have been placed in 30 countries across Europe, and on May 23, 2023, 3 Generations filmed Gunter Demnig laying the 100,000th Stolperstein.

Against the backdrop of a war in Europe, the perpetual plague of anti-Semitism and racism around the world, and the upcoming 80th anniversary of the Nazi’s defeat, this extraordinary tale of resilience, remembrance, and community deeply resonates with our contemporary moment. Here Lived is a timely and profoundly moving testament to the enduring power of human compassion and solidarity.

The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with producer and director Jane Wells, historian Emile Schrijver, producer Ulrika Citron, and professor Dienke Hondius.

Watch the trailer here.

Presented with Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme and UJA

Part of the Center’s film series Holocaust History on Film: Anne Frank and Beyond in connection with Anne Frank The Exhibition. Purchase your tickets to the exhibition here.

Thank you to Ancestry, the Center for Jewish History’s Family History sponsor

About the Speakers
Ulrika Citron, Producer, is the grandchild of Dutch Holocaust victims and the daughter of a hidden child. She was born and raised in Sweden, but has lived and worked in the USA for the last 30 years. In the film, Ulrika journeys to the Netherlands to honor her family and reclaim her Jewish identity.

Dienke Hondius has been a staff member at Anne Frank House since 1984 and works as senior researcher and docent at the Erasmus University, Rotterdam. She is the author of Absent: Memories of the Jewish Lyceum in Amsterdam, 1941-1943 and many articles published in scholarly Dutch journals.

Emile Schrijver is the General Director of The Jewish Cultural Quarter and professor of Jewish Book History at the University of Amsterdam. A world-renowned expert on Jewish history, he explains the horrors faced by Jewish people during the Nazi occupation, as well as his role in the initiative to place 733 stones in his hometown of Haarlem.

Jane Wells, an Emmy-Award nominated filmmaker and activist, is the director and producer of HERE LIVED. Over fifteen years, Wells has produced groundbreaking documentaries chronicling a diverse range of social issues. TRICKED is an unflinching examination of sex trafficking in the United States; The Devil Came on Horseback chronicles the genocide in Darfur. Most recently, HERE LIVED focuses on the families impacted by the Nazis during World War II and the generational trauma that atrocity precipitates. In HERE LIVED, Wells and her team capture the story of the world’s largest decentralized memorial, explore the unknown history of the Netherlands’ hidden children, and give a platform to the relatives of Nazi victims and key figures in the Stolpersteine project to reflect on the meaning of the memorial and its role as a source of healing and reconciliation. As the daughter of Sidney Bernstein, who was responsible for documenting the liberation of the Nazi Concentration Camps for the Allies in World War II, Jane knows the power film has to shape history and empower survivors. This history led her to build her own legacy as a filmmaker focused on telling the stories of survivors of crimes against humanity. Over more than 15 years, Wells has produced 50 short films and documentaries. Her projects have been featured in international film festivals, such as Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca Film Festival, NY Jewish Film Festival, Atlanta Film Festival, Thessaloniki International Film Festival, and Human Rights Watch Film Festival. The films have been recognized by distinguished media outlets, such as the New York Times, the Huffington Post, CNN, and the BBC, among others. Wells wholeheartedly immerses herself in all of her projects. Actively participating in every stage of each production, she ensures her presence on the ground. However, what she holds dearest is the enduring relationships she has fostered with the individuals featured in her films. It is their stories that inspire her and drive her team to continue with their mission and work.