AnneFrank.org - The Anne Frank House Website Helps Keep the Memories Alive

At 263 Prinsengrcht, you'll find the Anne Frank house, where Anne Frank and her family hid from the Nazis for slightly over two years, before being anonymously betrayed and arrested. The family was taken to the concentration camps, where they died. Only Otto survived.

At this location, you'll discover the Anne Frank house exactly as it was in the time when Anne and her family hid there. The front section was the spice and gelling offices of Opekta and Pectacon, but hidden behind a hinged bookcase was the entrance to where Anne, her family, and other Jews evaded arrest.

If you can't find time to visit Amsterdam, or you live too far away to visit the museum in person, make sure to check out AnneFrank.org, where you can learn a great deal about the life of this amazing young girl and her family's story.


Anne Frank Main Page


While the Museum is a core theme of the Anne Frank website, it isn't all the site is about. Once you visit the main page, it quickly becomes apparent just how much information is available at this website.

The site actually won a Webby award for its clean design. You'll have no problem navigating through the sections using the interactive dropdown menus at the top of the page, or clicking through the feature boxes on the page itself.


Exploring the Site


One of the most amazing and comprehensive sections of the website is "Anne Frank's History." As you can see from the dropdown menu, there is a section of the site devoted to each stage in the history of Anne Frank's family, her diary and even the history of the museum itself.


A History in Words and Photos


The entire history of Anne Frank and her family is laid out in a beautiful mix of a written history, original photographs and detailed photo captions. The entire history starts with Anne's parents and the birth of her siblings, and lead up to the cataclysmic events of World War II.



A Photo History


The detailed history is well written, and the large, high-quality photographs are poignant and powerful. If you can't make it to the museum to learn all about the history of the Frank family, these well made pages are an excellent alternative.


The Museum


When you visit the museum section of the website, you'll have access to everything you need to know about where it's located, the exhibitions that you'll find there, and even areas where you can learn more about setting up group visits for school children or adult visitors. This is also the area where you can purchase tickets online.


A Museum Tour


On the museum page, when you explore the exhibits, you'll find a detailed description of the exhibits, complete with photographs of some of the areas in the museum. It's a great way to see the museum even if you can't actually visit it in person.

For example, the photo above was the actual hinged bookcase that hid the entryway into the hiding place the Frank family used for two years to evade police. Visitors to the museum have an opportunity to explore that hiding place, and experience the cramped quarters and living spaces that Jews had to live in during this period in history when they were evading arrest.


News, Education and More


The "To Worldwide" menu option is where you'll experience the activist side of the Anne Frank museum. In this section of the website, you'll find news reports related to Anne Frank and the museum, and you can also sign up for a newsletter from the museum. The Racism & Extremism Monitor is an effort to identify and report on cases of "racial discrimination, anti-Semitism and extremism" from across the world. The idea is to always keep a close watch on hate-filled ideas wherever they should occur, in order to battle them before those ideas take hold.


Inspiring Content


Under the "Inspiring" menu item, you'll find even more ways that you can interact with the Anne Frank website, including the Facebook and YouTube accounts, and you can sign the guestbook or offer donations.

One of the most interesting and truly inspiring areas of the site is the Anne Frank Tree.


Read Memorial Leaves


The Anne Frank Tree is a beautiful, realistic tree with its leaves waving in the wind. You can hear wind, the birds and the forest in the background. Occasionally, a leaf will come to the forefront, and it will display the words of inspiration that other website visitors left behind as a memorial to the tragedy of the holocaust.


Leave Your Own Leaf


If you feel truly inspired, click "Place your leaf" from the previous menu screen, and when you visit the tree, you'll see a leaf off to the right of the screen. Just hover over the leaf, and an entry form will come up so that you can fill out the form with your name to leave a message behind on the leaf for future visitors to read.

Even though the Anne Frank museum reflects a very tragic moment in the history of humankind, the museum itself, and particularly this website, serves as an important memorial for future generations to always remember what took place at this important and historic home.