A full-scale replica of Anne Frank's hidden annex is heading to New York for an exhibition

AMSTERDAM (AP) — The annex where the young Jewish diarist Anne Frank hid from Nazi occupiers during World War II is heading to New York.

A full-scale replica of the rooms that form the heart of the Anne Frank House museum on one of Amsterdam's historic canals is being built in the Netherlands and will be shipped across the Atlantic for a show titled “ Anne Frank The Exhibition ” at the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan.

“For the first time in history, the Anne Frank House will present what I would call a pioneering experience outside of Amsterdam. To immerse visitors in a full-scale, meticulous recreation of the secret annex. Those rooms where Anne Frank, her parents, her sister, four other Jews, spent more than two years hiding to evade Nazi capture,” Anne Frank House director Ronald Leopold told The Associated Press in an interview detailing the upcoming exhibition.

In July 1942, Anne Frank, then aged 13, her parents Otto and Edith, and her 16-year-old sister Margo went into hiding in the annex. They were joined a week later by the van Pels family — Hermann, Auguste and their 15-year-old son, Peter. Four months later, Fritz Pfeffer moved into the hiding place, also seeking to evade capture by the Netherlands' Nazi German occupiers.

They stayed in the annex of rooms until they were discovered in 1944 and sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp. Anne and her sister Margot were then moved to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they both died of typhus in February 1945. Anne was 15.

Her father, Otto, the only person from the annex to survive the Holocaust, published Anne's diary after the war and it became a publishing sensation around the world as a symbol of hope and resilience in the face of tyranny.

Leopold said the New York exhibit promises to be “an immersive, interactive, captivating experience" for visitors.

It opens on Jan. 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

While the faithfully rebuilt annex of rooms will be the heart of the exhibit, it also will trace the history of Anne's family from their time in Germany, their move to the Netherlands and decision to go into hiding, to their discovery by Nazis, deportation, Anne's death and the postwar decision by her father to publish her diary.

“What we try to achieve with this exhibition is that people, our visitors will learn about Anne not just as a victim, but through the multifaceted lens of a life, as a teenage girl, as a writer, as a symbol of resilience and of strength. We hope that they will contemplate the context that shaped her life.”

The exhibition comes at a time of rising antisemitism and anger at the devastating war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza that has now spread to the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon following the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel.

“With ever fewer, fewer, survivors in our communities, with devastating antisemitism and other forms of group hatred on the rise in the U.S. but also across the world, we feel ... our responsibility as Anne Frank House has never been greater," Leopold said. "And this exhibition is also in part a response to that responsibility to educate people to stand against antisemitism, to stand against group hatred.”

Anne's diary will not be making the transatlantic trip.

“We unfortunately will not be able to travel with the diary, writings, the notebooks and the loose sheets that Anne wrote. They are too fragile, too vulnerable to travel," Leopold said.

Among 125 exhibits that are traveling from Amsterdam for the New York exhibition are photos, albums, artefacts such as one of the yellow stars Jews were ordered to wear in the occupied Netherlands, as well as the Best Supporting Actress Oscar won by Shelley Winters for her role in George Stevens’ 1959 film “The Diary of Anne Frank.”

The Best Supporting Actress Oscar won by Shelley Winters for her role in George Stevens' 1959 film, "The Diary of Anne Frank." is displayed by Remco van Doren, manager of the Anne Frank House collection in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

A maquette of the secret annex is displayed at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

One of the yellow stars Jews were ordered to wear in the occupied Netherlands is displayed next to a sign reading "Forbidden For Jews" at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

A sheet of pictures of Anne Frank is displayed in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, ahead of an exhibit in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

A sheet of pictures of Anne Frank is displayed in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, ahead of an exhibit in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Anne Frank House director Ronald Leopold talks about the upcoming exhibit in New York during an interview in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Anne Frank House director Ronald Leopold talks about the upcoming exhibit in New York during an interview in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Anne Frank House director Ronald Leopold talks about the upcoming exhibit in New York during an interview in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Wallpaper is being prepared for an exact replica of the secret annex which will travel to New York for an exhibit, in the village of Erp, southern Netherlands, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Aleksandar Furtula)

Wallpaper is being prepared for an exact replica of the secret annex which will travel to New York for an exhibit, in the village of Erp, southern Netherlands, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Aleksandar Furtula)

Wallpaper is being prepared for an exact replica of the secret annex which will travel to New York for an exhibit, in the village of Erp, southern Netherlands, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Aleksandar Furtula)

A friendship album with Anne Frank's writing is displayed in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, ahead of an exhibit in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

A friendship album with Anne Frank's writing is displayed in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, ahead of an exhibit in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

FILE - Ronald Leopold, executive director of the Anne Frank House, gestures as he talks next to the passage to the secret annex during an interview in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Monday, Jan. 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)

FILE - A woman enters the secret annex at the renovated Anne Frank House Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)

Anne Frank's diary, a red checkered notebook, the cornerstone of the Amsterdam museum's collection, is displayed in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

BEIRUT (AP) — Israeli strikes have killed at least 15 people in the southern Lebanese town of Qana, which has long been associated with civilian deaths after Israeli strikes during previous conflicts with Hezbollah. Israel meanwhile struck Beirut's southern suburbs early Wednesday for the first time in nearly a week.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strikes in Qana late Tuesday. Lebanon's Civil Defense said 15 bodies had been recovered from the rubble of a building and that rescue efforts were still underway.

In 1996, Israeli artillery shelling on a United Nations compound housing hundreds of displaced people in Qana killed at least 100 civilians and wounded scores more, including four U.N. peacekeepers. During the 2006 war, an Israeli strike on a residential building killed nearly three dozen people, a third of them children. Israel said at the time that it struck a Hezbollah rocket launcher behind the building.

Israel also carried out a wave of airstrikes on the southern city of Nabatiyeh, targeting what it said were Hezbollah militant sites embedded among civilians. Lebanon's Health Ministry said at least five people were killed.

Huwaida Turk, the governor of Nabatiyeh province, told The Associated Press that Mayor Ahmad Kahil was among those killed.

The strikes on southern Beirut were the first in six days, and came after Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the United States had given him assurances that Israel would curb its strikes on the capital. There was no immediate word on casualties.

Hezbollah has a strong presence in southern Beirut, known as the Dahiyeh, which is also a residential and commercial area home to large numbers of civilians and people unaffiliated with the militant group.

The Israeli military said it targeted an arms warehouse under a residential building, without providing evidence.

It posted an evacuation warning on the X platform ahead of the strike, saying it was targeting a building in the Haret Hreik neighborhood. An Associated Press photographer saw three airstrikes in the area, the first coming less than an hour after the notice.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on Oct. 8 in solidarity with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, following the surprise Hamas attack on southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza. A year of low-level fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border escalated into all-out war last month, and has displaced some 1.2 million people in Lebanon.

Some 2,300 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon since last October, more than three-quarters of them in the past month, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry.

Hezbollah's rocket attacks, which have extended their range and grown more intense over the past month, have driven around 60,000 Israelis from their homes in the north. The attacks have killed nearly 60 people in Israel, around half of them soldiers.

Hezbollah has said it will keep up its attacks until there is a cease-fire in Gaza, but that appears increasingly remote after months of negotiations brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar sputtered to a halt.

Israel invaded Lebanon earlier this month after airstrikes killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of his senior commanders, and has been carrying out ground operations along the border. It has vowed to continue its offensive until its citizens can safely return to communities near the border.

Israel is still at war in Gaza more than a year after Hamas' attack, in which some 1,200 people were killed, mostly civilians, and another 250 were abducted. Around 100 captives are still being held in Gaza, about a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel has been carrying out a major operation for more than a week in Jabaliya, an urban refugee camp in northern Gaza dating back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation. Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to Jabaliya and other areas after saying that Hamas militants had regrouped.

Hospitals have received around 350 bodies since the offensive began on Oc. 6, according to Dr. Mounir al-Boursh, the director-general of Gaza's Health Ministry.

He told The Associated Press that more than half the dead were women and children, and that many bodies remain in the streets and under the rubble, with rescue teams unable to reach them because of Israeli strikes. “Entire families have disappeared,” he said.

Israel's offensive has killed over 42,000 people, according to the Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters but says more than half were women and children. The offensive has left large areas in ruins and displaced around 90% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million people, forcing hundreds of thousands into crowded tent camps or schools-turned-shelters.

Magdy reported from Cairo.

Find more of AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.

Rescue workers use a bulldozer to remove rubble of destroyed buildings at the site that was hit by Israeli airstrikes in Qana village, south Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

An excavator is used by a rescue worker to remove the rubble of destroyed buildings at the site that was hit by Israeli airstrikes in Qana village, south Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Destroyed buildings that were hit by Israeli airstrikes are seen in Qana village, south Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Rescue workers carry remains of killed people at the site that was hit by Israeli airstrikes in Qana village, south Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Rescue workers remove rubble, as they search for victims at the site that was hit by Israeli airstrikes in Qana village, south Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Smoke rise from Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Smoke rise from Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Smoke rise from Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Smoke rise from Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Smoke rise from Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)