The diary kept by Anne Frank in hiding was published in Holland in 1947 and first in Germany in 1950. Within a few years, the book became a worldwide bestseller and its author a symbolic figure for Jewish suffering. However, the ongoing offensive marketing of their story soon met with fierce criticism.

Even the inclusion of Anne Frank in her hiding place in the canon of Madame Tussauds wax museum – most recently in Vienna in 2013 – was not without controversy: The operator argued to exhibit living history here and to make a contribution to the culture of remembrance. Others see it as a sensationalist show and ultimately the obscene capitalization of a murdered woman, who is abused in this museum presentation as a setting for visitors’ selfies.

“Reconstructing Anne Frank” follows the Studio Artist of Madame Tussauds Vienna on her daily routine maintaining the wax figure of Anne Frank.

— Hannes Sulzenbacher (Chief Curator, Jewish Museum Vienna)