Anne Frank House; A museum with a story
Harry Meijer (Photography) Amsterdam, Netherlands: Anne Frank Stichting, Circa 1995? Unknown. Brochure. The format is a single sheet printed on both sides approximately 17.5 inches by 8.25 inches, folded so that there are six panels per side. Illustrated with photographs and drawings. Discover the poignant tale of Anne Frank, her family, and the other inhabitants of the Secret Annex, all while admiring the beautiful architecture and design of this historic house. This edition features a wealth of information about the Anne Frank House, including its origins, history, and significance. Anne Frank's life is exposed with many family photographs. The historic photo material and the quotes from Anne Frank give an impression of the hiding period and the events during the Second World War. The Anne Frank House 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. 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. 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, 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. 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 realized 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. Otto Frank's contributions to the diary were such that he is recognized as a co-author. Shortly after the book was published, visitors were shown around by the employees who had hidden the families and could see the secret rooms. However, by 1955, the company had moved to new premises and the entire block to which the building belonged was sold to a single estate agent who served a demolition order with the intention of building a factory on the space. A campaign to save the building and to list it as a protected monument was started by the Dutch paper Het Vrije Volk on 23 November 1955. The building was saved by campaigners who staged a protest outside the building on the day of demolition. The Anne Frank Foundation was established on 3 May 1957 in cooperation with Otto Frank, Anne Frank's father, with the primary aim of collecting enough funds to purchase and restore the building. In October of that year, the company who owned it donated the building to the foundation as a goodwill gesture. The collected funds were then used to purchase the house next door, Number 265, shortly before the remaining buildings on the block were pulled down as planned. The building was opened as a museum to the public in 1960. Condition: Good.
Keywords: Anne Frank, Jews, Holocaust, Museum, Secret Annex, Diary, Amsterdam, Hiding Place, Deportation, Stichting, Netherlands, Historical Records, Nazis, Betrayal, Van Daan
[Book #88323]
Price: $25.00