Previously unseen possessions to go on display in Anne Frank’s hometown

Anne Frank is getting a new annex — this time at the Jewish Museum in her German hometown.

The Frankfurt Jewish Museum announced Tuesday that it will soon be expanding in order to display paintings, photos, letters and other items that once belonged to Frank and her family, who fled Germany for the Netherlands when Frank was 4. The pieces will be displayed in the museum’s new Frank Family Center, and will be presented as part of the broader history of Frankfurt and German Jewry.

A statement issued by the Frankfurt Jewish Museum notes that the new facility was approved “after careful consideration of several locations” by the Anne Frank Fonds, an organization founded by her father, Otto, to protect her legacy. “The Jewish Museum, [which] has been committed to this project for several years, will facilitate the opening of our archives to researchers and to the public alike,” said Buddy Elias, Frank’s cousin and the president of the Anne Frank Fonds.

Famous internationally for the annual Frankfurt Book Fair, the city is also home to S. Fischer Verlag, “one of the major publishing houses of Anne Frank’s Diary and other works about her and her family,” the press release notes.

Frankfurt’s city council approved funds earlier this month for the expansion of the Jewish Museum.

Frank’s most famous possession — her diary — will remain at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, where it was written in hiding before its author’s deportation and death.