Anne Frank House is a museum in Amsterdam at the Prinsengracht canal. The Anne Frank house is established in memory of Anne Frank. Here Anne Frank and her family hid in the famous back house for the Nazis. Worldwide Anne Frank is symbol of the Jewish population during the Second World War. This is the reason why the museum is very popular. Daily there long queues, sometimes up to a few hours!
Index
1. History
2. Anne Frank Museum
3. Tips
4. Trivia
5. Location
1. History of the Anne Frank House
The canal houses where the Anne Frank House is housed, were built in 1635. Around 1740 there was a wealthy merchant, who built here the famous back house. The canal houses first were used as residences for years. From the 19th century the buildings were used as business premises on the Prinsengracht. Here, several companies have established their business. In the year 1940, the companies of Otto Frank moved in. Otto Frank was the father of Anne Frank. The company contributed for nearly four years to this perfect hideaway. In the company’s warehouse there was a bookcase. Behind the bookcase was the entrance to the secret back house. The back house was used as a hiding place for the Germans and their sympathizers. Here the family Frank and the family Pels, together with an acquaintance of Otto Frank lived for years.
In the summer of 1944, the Gestapo raided the back house. This hiding place was invaded after a telephone tip and the families unfortunately were discovered. Fortunately for all of us Anne Frank’s diary was saved by employees of Otto Frank.
Long queue lines at Anne Frank House Museum (Photo credit: Massimo Catarinella)
2. Anne Frank House Museum
The father of Anne Frank was the only survivor of the family. After the liberation by the Allies, he returned to the canal house on the Prinsengracht. Here Otto Frank proceeded with one of his companies. Eight years later he retired and the company moved from the canal house. After this, the owner planned to demolish the building. The old building had to make place for offices. Many people were fierce opponents of these plans, whereafter the owner donated the canal houses. Later this property became property of the Anne Frank Foundation. In 1960 the Anne Frank House museum was opened here and became very popular the years after. Because of this popularity in 1997, they demolished the adjacent student house. This placed needed to be used to expand the Anne Frank House Museum
3. Tips
– Daily the museum has long queues, therefore we recommend to purchase your tickets in advance.
– At this link you can do a virtual tour through the hiding place of Anne Frank.
– Anne Frank House is easy to reach with a Hop on Hop off Canal Cruise tour. Close-by you can find a stop at the Prinsengracht.
4. Trivia
The museum attracts about 1.2 million visitors each year. Just over 10% of visitors come from Netherlands.