The house where Anne Frank hid and produced her famous diary, comprises several parts, with the front of the house featuring the restored former office of Otto Frank and an area where helpers worked. The story of Anne Frank is traced using references and quotes from Anne’s diary, and the displays are supplemented by original documents, objects and photographs, serving to strengthen the personal account of when Anne was hiding, and the family’s deportation to the camps. Three short films connect Anne’s personal story to a vast historical background. The canal-side house, located at 265 Prinsengracht, next to Otto Frank’s office, has been thoroughly renovated to provide information on Anne’s diary and its significance. Anne Frank’s original first diary is set on permanent display here.

More than six months after the German invasion, Otto Frank moved his Pectacon and Opekta office, as well as storerooms, from the building set at street 400 Singel to 263 Prinsengracht. The ground floor storeroom comprises three parts, with the rooms at the front for dispatching goods and the middle part reserved for the machines for grinding and mixing spices; the spices where packaged in the back. There were also two mixing drums for jellying agents for jam. The Frank family went into hiding in the Secret Annex of the office building on a Monday morning. One of the structure’s upper floors had been used as a laboratory for a short while, and during the months before going into hiding, the place had been prepared to look as inconspicuous as possible.

The Secret Annex was situated in a long row of houses located on the garden side behind Prinsengracht Canal, some of which were laid further back than others. The neighbours were given the impression that the house which comprised the annex was not in use. On July 13, 1943, the Van Pels family went into hiding, followed by the eighth person in hiding Fritz Pfeffer, on November 16. Their betrayal and arrest came on August 4, 1944. Following the war, Otto Frank returned to Amsterdam as a sole survivor and moved in with Jan and Miep Gies for several years. The Opekta company was still active and the helpers still worked there, under the director Johannes.

Otto left the company in 1953 and devoted his time to the diary of his daughter Anne. Together with Kleiman, he took steps to preserve the building. The adjacent structures, however, were chosen for demolition, which directly posed a threat to 263. Furthermore, the building was in bad condition and beyond repair, and Opekta could no longer afford to keep the building and relocated. Still, the building and its collection were saved under public pressure and by the then-mayor of Amsterdam, Gijsbert van Hall. The Anne Frank Museum opened in 1960. Otto Frank wrote concerning the house: “During the restoration of the house, it was the intention to modernise the front part of the building, to be able to use it as an international youth centre, and to leave the Secret Annex in its original condition as much as possible.”