Where:
Prinsengracht 263-267, 1016 GV Amsterdam - Netherlands
What:
Museum
When:
1960
Admission:
Adults: euro 9
Age 10-17:
euro 4,50
Age 0-9: free
European Youth Card: euro 4,50
The building: The building was built by Dirk van
Delft in 1635. It had many uses before Otto Frank moved the office where he
worked for to the place, in 1940. The main restoration took place from 1993 to
1999, and was led by the Dutch architecture office Benthem Crouwel Architects.
Context: The Anne Frank House is a well-known museum. It
was the place in which Anne Frank, her family and four more people hid in the
times of war, inside the so-called Secret Annexe. They had been there for two
years until they where betrayed and arrested by the Dutch police.
The house is
located in Prinsengracht 263 and was turned into a museum in 1960 with the help
of Otto Frank, Anne Frank's father and only survivor of the Secret
Annexe. After the war the building was bought by a company that planned
to demolish the whole block, what caused public commotion. A campaign was
carried out to preserve the house that was, then, donated by the company to the
Anne Frank Foundation in 1957. As the Anne Frank history became famous,
so became the museum, and in 1970 a renovation was required. By then the museum
had already almost 20000 visitors per year. The main problem was that people
had to enter and exit by the same place, making the visit complicated. It was
built a new balcony, plastering and flooring, and a passage was built from the
Annexe, on top floor, to the street, making it a one-way system. Although it
changed a bit the way people would perceive the space (it no longer caused a
sensation of complete enclosure), this was necessary for maintaining it as a
museum.
Another
renovation took place in mid 1990’s, to better deal with the crescent number of
visitors and to update the space. This renovation was not only for the interior
of the house, but also the exterior. The goal was to completely reproduce the
house as of it was in wartime. The front section of the house was
reconstructed, and more renovation took place in the rest of the house. The
Anne Frank room was redecorated, in order to resemble the way it was. The building
attached to the museum, which already belonged to the Anne Frank Foundation,
was also renovated – it was a student dormitory that was replaced by more
exhibition rooms and museum facilities. There is still student housing located
in the attached building, over the museum part, respective to an agreement the
Foundation signed with the City Council and the University.
The exhibition: The visit starts in the side
building, where you are guided towards the Secret Annexe. The walls are filled
with photographs, documents and quotations from the ones who lived there and
their helpers. The front part of the Prinsengracht 263, as well as the Secret
Annexe don’t have any furniture, as this was a demand of Otto Frank, but there
are two models of how the rooms looked like in wartime. The house itself is
really well kept and it reproduces well the way it was supposed to be in the
past. After leaving the Annexe you are taken to the exhibition, that has more
videos, photographs and some personal belongings from the residents. Pages of
the original diary are displayed. The visit ends with a compilation of
testimonials from different kinds of people, between them Nelson Mandela and
Natalie Portman, saying what they think about the Diary of Anne Frank. There is
also a book shop with versions of the book in many different languages and a
café.
Personal
impressions: The testimonials are really touching,
especially Otto Frank’s video testimony. They are an important part of the
exhibition, and play a large role in settling the mood of the exhibition, which
is really heavy.
It is not
permitted to take pictures inside the Anne Frank House as the museum say it is
a place really touching for many visitors and taking photos would disturb,
which seemed a good recommendation after you finish the visit. As the visit
goes on, a growing mourning feeling seems to dominate the place, as visitors
seems to get really touched by their experience in this house.
The Anne
Frank House is probably more touching than many holocaust museums as it is more
personal. You know who were the ones that lived there, their faces, names, and
how they died. It offers a really intimate experience. The fact that it is the
original location, and looks like it was in wartime also helps to create this
kind of connection with the visitor.
References:
http://www.benthemcrouwel.nl/portal_presentation/museums/anne-frank-house
