This article in the NY Times talks about changes that are coming to the Anne Frank House.
It appears they will be adding exhibits that include more historical context about the Holocaust. Also, it looks like they will make some changes to allow them to accommodate more visitors.
Well, us old people learned about her when we were growing up and the horrors of WWII were fresh in the minds of the adults around us who lived through the 1940's. That's 70 years ago and most of today's teens have probably not met more than a couple people who remember WWII. That teens don't know much (about anything) isn't so disturbing. After all, they are still learning. What is disturbing is the number of people double and triple their age who are so woefully uneducated.
I read Anne's diary when I was 10 (that was in 1974) and it made a huge impression on me and the main reason I am visiting Amsterdam is to finally tour the house--11 am, 4/21, can't wait. We also read Corrie Ten Boom's "The Hiding Place", but I won't have time for her house in Haarlem this trip. Those 2 books started a lifelong interest in not just WWII but the experience of the Jews in particular and I have sought out many locations and museums pertaining to this interest in my European travels. One can only hope that maybe these young people--any age, really--who don't know Anne or her story will be intrigued to learn more after touring the house.
I think it is not really shocking teens born in the 2000s to be more oblivious to atrocities of World War 2. It is just an effect of the passage of time. Sometime in the 2080s the events of 9/11 will be another blip, few people who have living memory of its happening will be alive, and its museum/remembrance center in New York will need to provide context of Islamic terrorism, anti-American fatwas etc. for people to understand better the events that are remembered there.
I can tell you that the kids in the K-5 Anne Frank Elementary School in the Bustleton section of Philadelphia (part of the dying Philadelphia School system, and renamed "Anne Frank" around 1985) sure do know about Anne Frank. And this is a school with approximately 45 nationalities in the student body. I can also suggest that one of the prime reasons for the lack of knowledge has to do with the fact that public school curricula is mandated by politicians. My better half, BTW, is a recently retired teacher from this same Anne Frank school.
Lots of young people DO know. My daughter was not assigned the book in school but this 17 year old is reading on her own right now. This was prior to us deciding to go to Amsterdam this summer. We will go to Anne Frank Huis but I sure hope we don't have to wait in line for hours. I went in March of 2015 and made a reservation the same day. Sigh. I am GLAD folks are going but no one loves lines.
