Anne Frank House

Last updated

The Anne Frank House Anne Frank House logo SVG replacement.svg
Amsterdam (NL), Anne-Frank-Huis -- 2015 -- 7185.jpg
Canal house and museum entrance in 2015 (has black facade at ground level)
Amsterdam centre map.png
Red pog.svg
Location in the city centre of Amsterdam
Established3 May 1960 (1960-05-03)
Location Prinsengracht 263-267 [1]
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Coordinates 52°22′31″N4°53′04″E / 52.37525°N 4.88432°E / 52.37525; 4.88432
Type Biographical museum
Historic house museum
Visitors1.2 million (2023) [2]
Founder Otto Frank [3]
DirectorRonald Leopold [4]
President Wim Kok [4]
Public transit accessWestermarkt [1]
Trams lines: 13, 14, 17 [1]
Bus lines: 170, 172, 174 [1]
Website www.annefrank.org

The Anne Frank House (Dutch : Anne Frank Huis) is a writer's house and biographical museum dedicated to Jewish wartime diarist Anne Frank. The building is located on a canal called the Prinsengracht, close to the Westerkerk, in central Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

Contents

During World War II, when the Netherlands was occupied by Germany, Anne Frank hid from Nazi persecution with her family and four other people in hidden rooms, in the rear building, of the 17th-century canal house, later known as the Secret Annex (Dutch : Achterhuis). She did not survive the war but her wartime diary was published in 1947. Ten years later the Anne Frank Foundation was established to protect the property from developers who wanted to demolish the block.

The entire museum, which occupies the three adjacent buildings on the street front of Prinsengracht 263 to 267, [1] opened on 3 May 1960. It preserves the hiding place (the Secret Annex at rear of 263), with the other buildings expanding the permanent exhibition on the life and times of Anne Frank, and has an exhibition space about all forms of persecution and discrimination. In 2017, the museum had 1.27 million visitors and was the third most visited museum in the Netherlands, after the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum.

Building history

Canal house

Canal-side facade of the former Opekta building on Prinsengracht canal in 2008. The Secret Annex (Achterhuis) is at the rear in an enclosed courtyard. AnneFrankHouseAmsterdamtheNetherlands.jpg
Canal-side façade of the former Opekta building on Prinsengracht canal in 2008. The Secret Annex (Achterhuis) is at the rear in an enclosed courtyard.
Model of the former Opekta front building (left) and rear building (right) where Anne Frank stayed Anne Frank House Model.JPG
Model of the former Opekta front building (left) and rear building (right) where Anne Frank stayed
Amsterdam from the Westerkerk w/partial view of the Secret Annex (just up from the dark gray building on near-right corner, just right of block-like square gray roof of 2nd building from corner) with light-tan wall and a single small window Amsterdam Westerkerk Blick vom Turm 15.jpg
Amsterdam from the Westerkerk w/partial view of the Secret Annex (just up from the dark gray building on near-right corner, just right of block-like square gray roof of 2nd building from corner) with light-tan wall and a single small window
The Twentieth Century
Searchtool.svg Otto Frank at bookcase with Daniel Schorr [5] [6]
The (reconstructed) movable bookcase that covered the entrance to the annex, built by Bep Voskuijl's father Johannes Voskuijl in 1942 AnneFrankHouse Bookcase.jpg
The (reconstructed) movable bookcase that covered the entrance to the annex, built by Bep Voskuijl's father Johannes Voskuijl in 1942

The house – and the one next door at number 265, which was later purchased by the museum – was built by Dirk van Delft in 1635. [7] The canal-side façade dates from a renovation of 1740, [8] when the rear annex was demolished. It was a private residence until the nineteenth century - in 1821, for instance, a Captain Johannes Christiaan van den Bergh, plaats-majoor der tweede klasse (adjutant third class) resided there. [9]

Subsequently, the building became a warehouse, and 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.

World War II

On 1 December 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 Singel canal to Prinsengracht 263.

The ground floor consisted of three sections; the front was the goods and dispatch entrance, behind it in the middle section were the spice mills, and at the rear, which was the ground floor of the annex, was the warehouse where the goods were packed for distribution. Directly above the ground floor were the offices of Frank's employees, with Miep Gies, Bep Voskuijl (known in the early version of The Diary of a Young Girl as Elli Vossen) and Johannes Kleiman occupying the front office while Victor Kugler worked in the middle office. The rear office held a large radio that the people in hiding used until 1943, after which the radio was handed in by the employees when the Nazis began confiscating Dutch radios. [10]

The Achterhuis (Dutch for "back house") or Secret Annex – as it was called in The Diary of a Young Girl , an English translation of the diary – is the rear extension of the building. It was concealed from view by houses on all four sides of a quadrangle. Its secluded position made it an ideal hiding place for Otto Frank, his wife Edith, two daughters, Margot and Anne, of whom Anne was the younger, and four other Jews seeking refuge from Nazi persecution. Though the total amount of floor space in the inhabited rooms came to only about 450 square feet (42 m2), Anne Frank wrote in her diary that it was relatively luxurious compared to other hiding places they had heard about. They remained hidden here for two years and one month until they were raided by the Nazi authorities, arrested, and deported to their deaths in concentration and death camps. Of the hidden group, only Otto Frank survived the camps.

After those in hiding were arrested, the hiding place was cleared by order of the arresting officers and all the remaining contents (clothes, furniture, and personal belongings) of the Frank family and their friends were seized and distributed to bombed-out families in Germany. Before the building was cleared, Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl, who had helped hide the families, returned to the hiding place against the orders of the Dutch police and rescued some personal effects. Amongst the items they retrieved were books and papers that would eventually be compiled into The Diary of Anne Frank . [11]

Publication of the diary

After Otto Frank returned to Amsterdam in June 1945, he was given Anne's diaries and papers and subsequently compiled the two versions of his daughter's diaries into a book published in Dutch in 1947 under the title Het Achterhuis, which Anne had chosen as the name of a future memoir or novel based on her experiences in hiding. Achterhuis is a Dutch architectural term referring to a back-house (used comparatively with voorhuis meaning front-house). However, when the English translation began production, it was realised that many English-speaking readers might not be familiar with the term and it was decided that a more evocative term (the 'Secret Annexe') would better convey the building's hidden position.[ citation needed ] Otto Frank's contributions to the diary were such that he is recognized as a co-author. [12]

Museum history

Shortly after the book was published, Otto Frank's employees showed visitors the secret rooms where the families hid. However, by 1955, the clothing manufacturing company, the Berghaus Company, bought the row of houses on Prinsengracht and had plans to demolish for and rebuild for their company's growth. Due to public pushback, the demolition was cancelled. A campaign to save the building and to list it as a protected monument was started by the Dutch paper Het Vrije Volk on November 23,1955. The building was saved by campaigners who staged a protest outside the building on the day of demolition. [13]

The Anne Frank Foundation was established on May 3, 1957 in leadership of Otto Frank, with the primary aim of collecting enough funds to purchase and restore the building. In October of that year, Berghaus Company donated the building to the foundation as a goodwill gesture. The collected funds were then used to purchase the neighboring 265 Prinsengracht house, shortly before the remaining buildings on the block were pulled down as planned. The restoration of 263 Prinsengracht began and the building was opened as a museum to the public in 1960. [13]

The former hiding place of Anne Frank attracted a huge amount of interest, especially as translations and dramatizations of the diary had made her a figure known throughout the world. Over 9,000 visitors came in the museum's first open year. In a decade, there were twice as many. Over the years, the building required renovations to manage such a large number of visitors, and it closed temporarily for this reason in 1970 and 1999. To accommodate the growing number of visitors, in the late 1980s the City of Amsterdam proposed a new building be constructed on the corner of Prinsengracth and Westermarkt. This building became a part of the larger Anne Frank House complex that was in the process of implementing "The Maintenance and Future of the Anne Frank House" initiative in 1999. This project resulted in the preservation of the annex, front of 263 Prinsengracht, educational and functional purposes of 265 Prinsengracht, and the newly built corner structure that housed the entrance, cashier, cafe, and other amenities. [13]

Throughout the 1999 restructuring process, ideas of a virtual journey of the museum were brought about. The first virtual reality tour was produced as a CD-Rom and consisted of photographs of an interpretation of the furnished house depicting the 1942-1944 years. In 2004, the www.annefrank.org website was published in six different languages to accommodate international audiences. The 2010 50th anniversary of the museum concurred with the production of a 3-D virtual reality, which was introduced at the event. For three important reasons a virtual tour was encouraged. First, for visitors who are unable to travel to Amsterdam they would have access to the exhibits virtually. Second, visitors could better prepare for their visit by visiting the virtual exhibit before attending the physical museum. Last, a virtual reality tour would address the capacity and accessibility problems the museum faced regularly. Additionally, the virtual tour would include parts of the annex that is off limits to the physical visitor. [13] The virtual reality experience of the exhibit today is not an incredible, modern resource that allows users to experience the Anne Frank House experience from their own home.

On display at the museum is the Academy Award that Shelley Winters won, and later donated to the museum, for her performance as Petronella van Daan in the 1959 film The Diary of Anne Frank . The award now sits in a bullet-proof glass case in the museum.

In 1998, the Anne Frank Zentrum in Berlin was opened after the completion of a cooperation agreement with the Anne Frank House.

Administration

Visitors queueing in front of the museum entrance AnneFrankMuseum.jpg
Visitors queueing in front of the museum entrance

Ronald Leopold has been executive director of the museum since 2011 and Garance Reus-Deelder has been managing director since 2012. [14]

The museum had 1.15 million visitors in 2012, 1.20 million visitors in 2013, [15] and 1.23 million visitors in 2014. [16] It had 1.29 million visitors in 2016, with ongoing renovations during 2017 marginally reducing visits to 1.27 million; for 2017, it was the third most visited museum in the Netherlands, after the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum. [17] [a]

The museum is a member of the Museumvereniging (Museum Association). [18]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The linked List of most visited museums in the Netherlands article includes all tourists visiting the Zaanse Schans#Attractions for its second place ranking, counting the entire large area of historic windmills and numerous associated museums as a single entry. For unitary museum complexes, Rijksmuseum is second and Anne Frank House is third. For example, per the available 2017 figures, the Zaans Museum itself only had 142,000 visitors. [17]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Otto Frank</span> Father of Anne Frank (1889–1980)

Otto Heinrich Frank was the father of Anne Frank. He edited and published the first edition of her diary in 1947 and advised on its later theatrical and cinematic adaptations. In the 1950s and the 1960s, he established European charities in his daughter's name and founded the trust which preserved his family's wartime hiding place, the Anne Frank House, in Amsterdam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miep Gies</span> Dutch citizen who hid Anne Frank (1909–2010)

Hermine "Miep" Gies was one of the Dutch citizens who hid Anne Frank, her family and four other Dutch Jews from the Nazis in an annex above Otto Frank's business premises during World War II. She was Austrian by birth, but in 1920, at the age of eleven, she was taken in as a foster child by a Dutch family in Leiden to whom she became very attached. Although she was only supposed to stay for six months, this stay was extended to one year because of frail health, after which Gies chose to remain with them, living the rest of her life in the Netherlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Frank</span> Jewish diarist and Holocaust victim (1929–1945)

Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank was a German-born Jewish girl who kept a diary documenting her life in hiding amid Nazi persecution during the German occupation of the Netherlands. A celebrated diarist, Frank described everyday life from her family's hiding place in an Amsterdam attic. She gained fame posthumously and became one of the most-discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust with the 1947 publication of The Diary of a Young Girl, which documents her life in hiding from 1942 to 1944. It is one of the world's best-known books and has been the basis for several plays and films.

<i>Anne Frank Remembered</i> 1995 British documentary film

Anne Frank Remembered is a 1995 British documentary film produced and directed by Jon Blair about the life and posthumously published diary of the German-Jewish diarist Anne Frank, who spent most of her life in the Netherlands. The film was produced in association with the Anne Frank House, Disney Channel, and the BBC, and features narration by Kenneth Branagh and extracts from Frank's diary read by Glenn Close. It originally aired on television in April 1995 before it was screened theatrically by Sony Pictures Classics in February 1996.

<i>The Diary of a Young Girl</i> Diary by Anne Frank

The Diary of a Young Girl, commonly referred to as The Diary of Anne Frank, is a book of the writings from the Dutch-language diary kept by Anne Frank while she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The family was apprehended in 1944, and Anne Frank died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945. Anne's diaries were retrieved by Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl. Miep gave them to Anne's father, Otto Frank, the family's only survivor, just after the Second World War was over.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Silberbauer</span> SS Nazi Officer, responsible for the arrest of Anne Frank and her family

Karl Josef Silberbauer was an Austrian police officer, Schutzstaffel (SS) member, and undercover investigator for the West German Bundesnachrichtendienst. He was stationed in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam during World War II, where he was promoted to the rank of Hauptscharführer. In 1963, Silberbauer, by then an inspector in the Vienna police, was exposed as the commander of the 1944 Gestapo raid on the Anne Frank House Secret Annex and the arrests of Anne Frank, her fellow fugitives, and two of their protectors, Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleiman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margot Frank</span> Older sister of Anne Frank and Holocaust victim (1926–1945)

Margot Betti Frank was the elder daughter of Otto Frank and Edith Frank and the elder sister of Anne Frank. Margot's deportation order from the Gestapo hastened the Frank family into hiding. According to the diary of her younger sister, Anne, Margot kept a diary of her own, but no trace of it has ever been found. She died in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp from a typhus outbreak.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan Gies</span> Dutch Resistance member; Dutch Righteous Among the Nations; World War II humanitarian

Jan Augustus Gies was a member of the Dutch Resistance who, with his wife, Miep, helped hide Anne Frank, her sister Margot, their parents Otto and Edith, the van Pels family, and Fritz Pfeffer from Nazi persecution during the occupation of the Netherlands by aiding them as they resided in the Secret Annex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor Kugler</span> Austrian person who hid Anne Frank

Victor Kugler was one of the people who helped hide Anne Frank and her family and friends during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. In Anne Frank's posthumously published diary, Het Achterhuis, known in English as The Diary of a Young Girl, he was referred to under the pseudonym Mr. Kraler.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johannes Kleiman</span> Concealer of Anne Frank

Johannes Kleiman was one of the Dutch residents who helped hide Anne Frank and her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. In the published version of Frank's diary, Het Achterhuis, known in English as The Diary of a Young Girl, he is given the pseudonym Mr. Koophuis. In some later publications of the diary, the pseudonym was removed, and Kleiman was referred to by his real name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bep Voskuijl</span> Dutch secretary who helped hide Anne Frank (1919–1983)

Elisabeth "Bep" Voskuijl was a resident of Amsterdam who helped conceal Anne Frank and her family from Nazi persecution during the occupation of the Netherlands. In the early versions of Het Achterhuis, known in English as The Diary of a Young Girl, she was given the pseudonym "Elli Vossen".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edith Frank</span> Mother of Anne Frank (1900–1945)

Edith Frank was the mother of Holocaust diarist Anne Frank and her older sister Margot. After the family were discovered in hiding in Amsterdam during the German occupation, she was transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Opekta</span> Former German pectin and spice company

Opekta was a German pectin and spice company that existed between 1928 and 1995. It is notable for its Dutch operation being based in the building at Prinsengracht 263 that later became the Anne Frank House. Opekta was based in Cologne and expanded into the Netherlands in 1933, at which time Otto Frank moved from Germany to Amsterdam to become managing director of the new Dutch operation. Otto Frank was in charge of the manufacturing and distribution of the pectin-based gelling preparations, to be used in jam making.

<i>The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank</i> 1988 television film

The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank is a 1988 television film directed by John Erman. It is based on Miep Gies's 1988 book Anne Frank Remembered. The film was broadcast as part of an ad hoc network, Kraft Golden Showcase Network. Playwright William Hanley received an Emmy for his script. The film premiered on CBS on April 17, 1988.

<i>Tales from the Secret Annex</i>

Tales from the Secret Annex is a collection of miscellaneous prose fiction and non-fiction written by Anne Frank while she was in hiding during the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands. It was first published in The Netherlands in 1949, then in an expanded edition in 1960. A complete edition appeared in 1982, and was later included in the 2003 publication of The Revised Critical Edition of The Diary of Anne Frank. These stories show what life in the Annex was like. For example, one story describes Mrs. Van D’s ‘dentist appointment’. Others show life before the Annex, such as telling on the class for cheating. Anne also describes loneliness in the Annex, like missing her friends.

The Diary of Anne Frank is a BBC adaptation, in association with France 2, of The Diary of a Young Girl originally written by Anne Frank from 1942 to 1944 and adapted for television by Deborah Moggach.

Johannes Hendrik Voskuijl was one of the people who helped to hide Anne Frank and the other people of the Secret Annex in Amsterdam. In the earliest editions of Het Achterhuis, known in English as The Diary of Anne Frank, Voskuijl is referred to as "Mr. Vossen", as he was the father of helper Bep Voskuijl, who is named "Elli Vossen" in the diary. Voskuijl built the famous bookcase that covered the hiding place.

<i>Das Tagebuch der Anne Frank</i> 2016 German film

Das Tagebuch der Anne Frank is a 2016 German drama film directed by German filmmaker Hans Steinbichler and written by Fred Breinersdorfer. It stars Lea van Acken as the titular character, Martina Gedeck, Ulrich Noethen, and Stella Kunkat. The film is based on Anne Frank's famous diary and tells the story of Anne Frank, the Jewish girl who went into hiding with her family in Amsterdam and became a victim of the Holocaust.

ANNE is a 2014 play dramatising the story of Jewish diarist Anne Frank's period in hiding in the Secret Annex in Amsterdam during the Second World War. The play was the first major new adaptation of Frank's diary since the 1955 play, and was both authorised and initiated by the Anne Frank Foundation in Basel, the organisation set up by Frank's father Otto Frank to preserve his daughter's legacy and work. As such, Anne was the first adaptation allowed to quote literal passages from the diary. After a near two-year run in the Netherlands, the play closed in 2016, and had production runs in Germany and Israel. The play also formed the basis for the first German film adaptation of the diary.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Opening hours, prices, location, Anne Frank House. Retrieved 11 July 2014.
  2. ↑ "Annual Report 2023". annefrank.org. Anne Frank House. Retrieved 2 September 2024.
  3. ↑ Saved from demolition, Anne Frank House. Retrieved 11 July 2014.
  4. 1 2 Management Archived 23 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine , Anne Frank House. Retrieved 11 July 2014.
  5. ↑ "⁨See 'Who Killed Anne Frank ?' On CBS". Jewish Sentinel . Chicago: National Library of Israel & Tel Aviv University. 10 December 1964. Retrieved 22 January 2022.
  6. ↑ "Who Killed Anne Frank?". New Jersey Jewish News. Jewish Historical Society of New Jersey. 11 December 1964. p. 40. Retrieved 22 January 2022. "Who Killed Anne Frank? will be presented on The Twentieth Century Sunday at 6 P.M. on CBSTV. 'The series is sponsored by The Prudential Insurance Co.
  7. ↑ van Oord-de Pee, Annemieke (1991). The Canals of Amsterdam. SDU. ISBN   90-12-06553-4. Together with no. 265, no. 263 was built by a certain Dirk van Delft in 1635.
  8. ↑ "Bureau Monumenten & Archeologie – Anne Frank Huis" (in Dutch). City of Amsterdam. Archived from the original on 22 February 2013. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  9. ↑ Naamwijzer en adresboek der leden, uitmakende het stedelijk bestuur van Amsterdam over den jare 1821 [Name guide and address book of the members constituting the city council of Amsterdam over the year 1821] (in Dutch). P. den Hengst en zoon. 1821.
  10. ↑ "Otto's private office". Anne Frank Website. 17 October 2018. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
  11. ↑ Goldstein, Richard (11 January 2010). "Miep Gies, the Last of Those Who Hid Anne Frank, Dies at 100". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 26 October 2019.
  12. ↑ Carvajal, Doreen (13 November 2015). "Anne Frank's Diary Gains 'Co-Author' in Copyright Move". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  13. 1 2 3 4 Hartmann, Rudi (October 2013). "The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam: A Museum and Literary Landscape Goes Virtual Reality". Journalism and Mass Communication. 3 (10): 641.
  14. ↑ Executive Board Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine , Anne Frank House. Retrieved on 13 July 2014.
  15. ↑ Annual Report 2013, Anne Frank House, 2014. Retrieved on 28 June 2014.
  16. ↑ Record number of visitors (press release), Anne Frank House, 2015. Retrieved on 24 July 2015.
  17. 1 2 "Musea in 2017 | Zaans Museum verdubbelt aantal bezoekers in twee jaar" [Museums in 2017 | Zaans Museum doubles the number of visitors in two years]. Het Parool (in Dutch). Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau. 9 January 2018. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  18. ↑ (in Dutch) Anne Frank Stichting [Anne Frank Foundation] Archived 14 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine , Museumvereniging. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.