Anne Frank House, Amsterdam

The Anne Frank Huis (House) is a museum in Amsterdam dedicated to the story of German-born Jewish girl Annelies Marie “Anne” Frank, located in the place where Anne and her family were in hiding, trying to escape the Nazi persecution of European Jews during World War Two. It is one of the most visited museums in The Netherlands, with over a million visitors per year.

The museum is housed in a typical Dutch canal-side house where the “secret annex”, the hiding place of eight persons, had been for two years from 1942 to 1944. Unfortunately, the concealed refuge did not succeed; in August 1944, the three members of the family and four other occupants of the house were arrested by the Gestapo and deported to concentration camps. Only one of them, Otto Frank, the father of Anne, survived the camps. Anne died in Bergen-Belsen, presumably of typhus, in early 1945. Yet, the diary that Anne wrote during the hiding period was discovered after the war, eventually becoming a world-known denounce of Nazi brutality and a touching account of Anna’s life.

Schematic view of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

The place was saved from demolition and transformed into a memorial, a youth center and a museum in 1960. The center, due to its increasing popularity, was then renovated and expanded and now includes the Frank family’s house, the Anne Frank foundation offices, and the museum. The museum contains the original writings and drawings by Anne Frank along with exhibition material focused on human rights, freedom, and against violence, war, racism, oppression, and discrimination. The permanent exhibition features original documents, graphics, scale models, photos and, after the 1999 renovation, also multimedia and interactive exhibits. A fundamental element of the exhibition itinerary is the visit to the hiding place of Anne and her companions. The Anne Frank Foundation also organizes temporary exhibitions, family programs, educational activities, and guided tours.

The modern wing of the museum is fully accessible to physically impaired people while the old house and the secret annex are not, due to the typical narrow structure of Amsterdam’s canal-side residences. The Anne Frank House also accommodates a bookshop and a cafe.

Interior views of the Anne Frank Huis permanent exhibition.

Cover image: The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
All images © Anne Frank House / Photographer: Cris Toala Olivares