A full-scale replica of the secret annex where Anne Frank penned her famous diary opened in New York City on Jan. 27 as the world marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The exhibit at the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan represents the first time the annex  has been completely recreated outside of Amsterdam, where the space is a central part of the Anne Frank House museum.

         While the original annex has been intentionally left empty, the New York reconstruction shows the five rooms as they would have looked while the Frank family and others lived in hiding. The spaces are filled with furniture and possessions, including a reconstruction of the writing desk where Anne Frank wrote her diary.

Ronald Leopold, director of the Anne Frank House, said furnishing the recreated space was important to tell Anne’s story in a new and immersive way, especially for those who may not get to visit the Amsterdam museum, which also houses Frank’s original diary.

The Frank family hid with other Jews for two years in the attic of Otto Frank’s office in Amsterdam as the Nazi German army occupied the Netherlands during WWII. They were discovered in 1944 and sent to concentration camps, including Auschwitz-Birkenau, which was liberated by Soviet troops 80 years ago on Jan. 27.

Anne and her older sister Margot died of typhus at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945. Their father, Otto, was the only person from the annex to survive the Holocaust. After the war, he published his 15-year-old daughter’s diary, which is considered one of the most important works of the 20th century. Otto Frank died in 1980 at the age of 91.

The New York exhibit, which runs through April 30, spans more than 7,500 square feet and includes more than 100 photos and other artifacts, many never before displayed publicly, according to officials.