Anne Frank House – Amsterdam
Filed under The Netherlands
“The Anne Frank House on the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, is a museum dedicated to Jewish wartime diarist Anne Frank, who hid from Nazi persecution with her family and four other people in hidden rooms at the rear of the building. As well as the preservation of the hiding place — known in Dutch as the Achterhuis — and an exhibition on the life and times of Anne Frank, the museum acts as an exhibition space to highlight all forms of persecution and discrimination.
It opened on May 3, 1960 with the aid of public subscription, three years after a foundation was established to protect the property from developers who wanted to demolish the block.
The house — and the one next door at number 265, which was later purchased by the museum — were built by Dirk van Delft in 1635. The canal-side facade dates from a renovation of 1739 when the rear annex was demolished and the taller one which now stands in its place was built. It was originally a private residence, then a warehouse, and in the nineteenth century, the front warehouse with its wide stable-like doors was used to house horses. At the start of the 20th century a manufacturer of household appliances occupied the building, succeeded in 1930 by a producer of piano rolls, who vacated the property by 1939. On December 1, 1940 Anne’s father Otto Frank moved the offices of the spice and gelling companies he worked for, Opekta and Pectacon, from an address on the Singel canal to Prinsengracht 263.”
“One million visitors came to the Anne Frank House in 2007. Despite some renovations, the core of the museum, the Secret Annex, has remained in authentic condition.”
“At the opening, Otto Frank writes: ‘During the restoration of the house, it was the intention to modernize the front part of the building, to be able to use it as an international youth center, but to leave the Secret Annex in its original condition as much as possible.’”
“The building is a typical Amsterdam four-story canal house which faces the Prinsengracht, one of Amsterdam’s most beautiful canals. Behind the house at 263 Prinsengracht street is a separate building that was constructed at a later time: a four-story annex with an attic. The annex is separated from the main house by a space that is about 12 feet wide, but it is connected to the main house by passageways.
The annex is the place where Anne and her family hid for 25 months from the Nazis, along with the van Pels family and Dr. Friedrich (Fritz) Pfeffer, a dentist who was a friend of the Franks.
On the left in the photograph above, there is an Italian restaurant which advertises on a sign in English: “Two steps down, Best Coffee in Town.” In front of the Anne Frank House, but not shown in the photograph, are some tables and benches where customers of the restaurant can eat their take-out food.”
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