Our Mission
The Anne Frank Center USA inspires emerging adults through creative educational programs in order to build the informed and compassionate world Anne imagined in the pages of her diary.
Our Vision
(Inspired by Otto Frank)
The young people of the world will join together to strive for peace.
Our History
The Anne Frank Center USA traces its roots to the efforts of Otto Frank to raise funds in the United States to support the restoration of Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. He established the Anne Frank Foundation in New York as a fundraising organization dedicated to this purpose. Committee members of the Foundation included Senator John Kennedy and honorary chairperson and former first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt. Otto Frank’s efforts were successful! Anne Frank House in Amsterdam opened to the public in 1960.
The Anne Frank Foundation evolved into the Anne Frank Center USA, securing official 501(c)(3) nonprofit status in New York in 1977. Its leader was Holocaust survivor Jack Polak. Polak served as AFC USA’s president and chairman for many years. In 1992 he was knighted by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands for his work.
AFC USA, which is still based in New York, functions as a decentralized organization. This makes it possible for the organization to direct most of its funds toward programs and people rather than toward rent and utilities, allowing us to dramatically increase the impact of our educational programs.
The Anne Frank Fonds, based in Basel, Switzerland, is the Frank family’s universal heir and devotes itself to the distribution of the Diary of Anne Frank.
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Your support helps us to bring more programs to communities throughout America.
