Anne Frank House

In front of you is the best-known house in Amsterdam, and also the quietest. Number 263 Prinsengracht, a building from 1635, housed the offices of Opekta, the company of Otto Frank, a German Jewish businessman who had moved to Amsterdam with his family to escape Nazism.

1The Secret Annex

When the Germans occupied the Netherlands and the deportations began, Otto Frank prepared a hiding place in the rear annex of the building. On 6 July 1942 the family went into hiding there: Otto, his wife Edith and their daughters Margot and Anne. Four more people joined them later. The entrance was concealed behind a swinging bookcase. A few of the firm's employees, led by Miep Gies, brought them food and news at the risk of their own lives.

During that time Anne, who was thirteen when she arrived, kept a diary. She wrote about fear, about living together, about her dream of becoming a writer. From the attic window she could see a chestnut tree and hear the bells of the Westerkerk.

'I want to go on living even after my death,' Anne wrote on 5 April 1944.

On 4 August 1944 all eight were discovered and deported. Anne died in early 1945 in the Bergen-Belsen camp. Only Otto survived. In 1947 he published the diary under the title 'Het Achterhuis', 'The Secret Annex'. The museum opened on 3 May 1960.

2What to look out for

• The narrow façade of number 263, just as the neighbours saw it during the war.
• The windows of the top floor: the annex lies behind, invisible from the canal.
• The Westerkerk tower, whose carillon marked the hours in the hiding place.