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Anne Frank's birthday

It's hard to believe that Anne Frank would be 74 years old this month. Her birthday was June 12. It's also hard to believe that the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington opened its doors 10 years ago.

In honor of Frank's birthday and the museum's anniversary, a stirring and sobering exhibit, Anne Frank the Writer - An Unfinished Story, will be on display now through Sept. 12 in the Wexner Learning Center at the museum.

Anne Frank wrote voraciously during her two years in hiding, from the age of 13 to 15, penning short stores, essays, fairy tales and the beginnings of a novel. She filled five notebooks and more than 300 loose pages. These original handwritten writings, as well as an array of photographs and other memorabilia will be on exhibit for the first time in the United States. They have never been seen anywhere but in Amsterdam. They miraculously survived the war.

Otto Frank, Anne's father and the only family member to have survived the Holocaust, donated in his will all of Anne's writings to the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD) in Amsterdam.

The exhibit "Anne Frank the Writer - An Unfinished Story" will be on display through Sept. 12 at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place S.W., Washington. Hours are 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Wednesdays-Mondays and 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesdays. Timed-entry passes are required for admission to this exhibit. Tickets are free. (However, there is a service fee through tickets.com.) Tickets are available the day of arrival, but are on a first-come, first-served basis. Advance tickets are strongly recommended. Call 800-400-9373 or visit www.tickets.com.

Cape May fest finale

The Cape May Music Festival in New Jersey is winding down with a performance tonight by Klezmerfest! and a final concert Sunday by the Steve Turre Quintet. The festival, presented annually by the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts, offers a month-long celebration of music of all genres.

Tonight's show by Klezmerfest! features Eastern European dance music, Yiddish instrumental music and old favorites from the Yiddish theater.

Closing out the festival Sunday evening is the jazz group the Steve Turre Quintet. Trombonist Turre began working professionally as a musician at the age of 13. Among his first performances were gigs in Europe and New York with Ray Charles in 1972.

Klezmerfest! performs at 8 p.m. today, and the Steve Turre Quintet performs at 8 p.m. Sunday at the Cape May Convention Hall, Beach Drive and Stockton Place in Cape May, N.J. Admission to each show is $20; $10 seniors; $5 students. Call 609-884-5404 or 800-275-4278 or visit www.capemaymac.org.

Civil War hospital

During the Civil War, in March of 1862, the Army of the Confederacy transformed the grand and stately Exchange Hotel in Virginia into the Gordonsville Receiving Hospital - out of necessity - with the farmlands in central Virginia becoming deadly battlegrounds.

And so the hospital treated soldiers from both sides. By the war's end, more than 70,000 soldiers had been seen and treated at the facility. Some 700 were buried on the surrounding grounds.

This weekend, a Civil War re-enactment will take place at the Exchange Hotel Civil War Museum, restored in 1971 by Historic Gordonsville Inc. Visitors can tour the site, watch living history presentations of encampments, surgeries, the "Ladies Aid Society," blacksmithing and more.

The re-enactments will take place 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Exchange Hotel Civil War Museum, 400 S. Main St., Gordonsville, Va., which is on U.S. 15 between Fredericksburg and Charlottesville. Cost is $6; $3 children, and includes museum admission. Call 540-832-2944.