Anne Frank House

September 12, 2020
Blog, International Destinations
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Anne Frank House: A Unique Museum in Amsterdam

The Anne Frank House is one of the most popular museums in Amsterdam and receives over a million visitors a year. Today the site is a museum, but in World War II it was the hideout of 8 people who feared for their fate during the Nazi occupation in Amsterdam. One of these people, Anne Frank, was 13 years old when she started writing a diary in hiding, which was later published as a book: The Diary of Anne Frank. In the museum, you can find some quotes on the walls, photos, films, and original objects that illustrate what life was like in hiding and the thoughts that flowed through Anne Frank’s head.

How to get to Anne Frank House?

Anne Frank House is very close to the city center at Prinsengracht 263-267. From the center, you can easily walk to the location, but if you want to arrive by public transport, the easiest way is to take a tram (tram). Anne Frank House can be accessed by Trams 13, 14, and 17, getting off at the Westermarkt stop which is practically next to the museum. See our post showing how to use public transport in Amsterdam.

How to visit Anne Frank House?

Anne Frank House can be visited all year round, except on Yom Kippur Day, one of Judaism’s most important holidays. Between the beginning of November and the end of March, the museum opens from 9 am to 7 pm and from the beginning of April until the end of October it opens from 9 am to 9 pm. On Saturdays, the museum closes a little later. There are some schedule exceptions during other holidays that can be found here.

Tickets can be purchased on the spot or in advance. We highly recommend purchasing tickets in advance as the queues can be very long (the queue was almost two hours when we went). Buying in advance online, you choose the day and time and print your ticket to present at the entrance to the museum. The ticket purchased on the spot costs 9 Euros and, if you buy in advance, the value is 9.50 Euros (January / 2015 prices). The ticket can be purchased at this link.

If you also intend to take a boat tour of Amsterdam, we recommend buying the ticket through our partner company TicketBar, which offers a great combo condition of the museum with a boat trip through Amsterdam.

See more ticket options in Amsterdam and make your purchase by clicking on this link. You have discounts at various attractions, avoid queues and the blog still earns a commission from TicketBar. You can visit a cool attraction and it’s a great way to return the information you had on the blog. Everyone wins!

It is important to mention that the Anne Frank House is not included in the I Amsterdam City Card and it is also not allowed to take pictures inside the museum.

Anne Frank House

You can’t tell me about the museum without telling a short story about Anne Frank, who was a 13-year-old girl who hid during World War II to escape the Nazis. Together with his father Otto, his mother Edith, his sister Margot and 4 others, they hid in the “Secret Annex” of Otto Frank’s work building. The 8 people remained closed for 671 days with the help of 4 employees of the company and it was during this period that Anne Frank started writing a diary telling more about her ideas, her fears, and her worldviews.

It is not yet known how, but the 8 people were reported to the Nazis and deported to concentration camps. Anne Frank died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp when she was 15 and the only survivor among the 8 people was her father, Otto Frank. As soon as he returned to Amsterdam, he received the diaries that had been kept by one of the employees and decided to publish them in the form of a book that is currently known worldwide.

The visit to Anne Frank House is made in a linear way. First, you pass through the “known” area of the building where the Opekta companies that produced a gelatinous agent for jellies and the Pentagon company that created spices for meats worked. You see a little of the warehouse and the offices where the 4 people who helped the family were, providing food, drink, magazines, newspapers, and other items.

Behind a bookcase begins the “ Secret Annex ” where the 8 people lived for almost two years. They needed to stay inside the room night and day and the curtains were always closed so that the neighbors could not see them. In addition, no noise could be made during the day so that other workers in the company would not discover the hiding place. They are cramped rooms that make you think of the difficulties that the 8 people had living in such a small space for so long.

Throughout the journey, through the Anne Frank House, you see several quotes on the walls, objects that were part of everyday life for those who were hiding, videos that show testimonials from people involved in this action, including Otto Frank himself. There is also plenty of historical information that helps visitors to locate themselves at the time that people were hiding. At the end of the visit, there is Anne Frank’s original diary and several translated versions that began to be printed around the world.

Visiting Anne Frank House is a mandatory program to do in Amsterdam. The whole story is engaging and very moving which makes us wonder how these people lived for so long in the place. The fate of these people was tragic, but fortunately Otto Frank survived the Holocaust to publish the diaries of Anne Frank, a Jewish girl who represents millions of Jews killed during this period.