2022 Annual Report
In the museum, in our publications, and in our online and offline exhibitions we tell the life story of Anne Frank in the context of the persecution of the Jews and the Second World War.
After the lockdown, from 15 December 2021 to 25 January 2022, the museum reopened its doors. After nearly two years of being closed many times and for many months, we could welcome visitors again from 26 January. Visitors from home and abroad soon came to visit the Anne Frank House in large numbers. In the summer, with new colleagues, the museum was back to full strength.
‘The Anne Frank House had never been closed for more than a day since its opening on 3 May 1960, and remained open to visitors even during renovations. 2020 and 2021, when we were largely closed due to the corona pandemic, were therefore unprecedented years. We were delighted to welcome visitors back to the Anne Frank House and share Anne Frank's hiding place and life story with the outside world again. Come, visit and be welcome!’
The Anne Frank House received 887,121 visitors in 2022. A respectable number, after two corona years when the museum could welcome only 396,779 visitors in 2020 and 277,901 in 2021.
The number of educational and introductory programmes also increased in 2022. After two lean corona years the number of programmes was almost at its previous level.
1,060 primary and secondary school groups, trainee teachers and college students followed educational programmes in the Anne Frank House in 2022. These programmes last for two hours, and are given in Dutch, German or English.
For museum visitors there are half-hour introductory programmes prior to their museum visits. In 2022 we gave 4,318 introductory programmes in the Anne Frank House.
25 June 2022 marked the 75th anniversary of the first edition of Het Achterhuis, as the diary of Anne Frank is called in Dutch. This called for a temporary exhibition at the Anne Frank House.
The book was published in the Netherlands in 1947, just over five years after Anne’s thirteenth birthday, when she was given her diary. She had come up with the Dutch title of the book herself: Het Achterhuis (‘The Secret Annex’). Looking back, Otto Frank wrote: “How proud Anne would have been if she had lived to see this. For on 29 March 1944, she wrote: ‘Just imagine how interesting it would be if I were to publish a novel about the Secret Annex.’”
In the exhibition museum visitors could follow what happened from the first publication to the present day. Some of the objects and documents on display had to do with the first American edition (1952), the Broadway production (1955), and the film directed by George Stevens (1959). Accompanying the American edition, for instance, we showed the telegram from first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who wrote the foreword, we had the script used by Joseph Schildkraut, who played Otto Frank in the play; and we had the Oscar that Shelley Winters received for her role as Auguste van Pels in the film.
The exhibition also contained several works of art from our own collection. To conclude, we gave an impression of Anne Frank’s presence on social media in a specially created video. Even 75 years after that first publication, her life and diary are still a source of inspiration.
Saturday 5 November was Museum Night. With a special ticket bought in advance, young and old alike could visit all the museums in Amsterdam from 7 PM to 2AM. The Anne Frank House took part once again, with a special programme linked to the temporary exhibition Anne Frank’s diary – 75 years.
At the museum, so-called ‘heritage bearers’ gave talks: Jona (13) and Kirsten (15) told the stories of Amsterdam Holocaust survivors Betty Radema, Virry de Vries Robles and Theo Coster. In the small rooms of the Secret Annex, museum staff talked about the period in hiding. They also read passages from Anne Frank’s diary and answered visitors’ questions. At the end of the museum route, visitors could write down their dreams and ideals and share them with fellow visitors.
Visitors arriving after 10pm were able to see Otto Frank's office: a space not normally accessible to everyday visitors, but opened exclusively during the late hours of Museum Night.
Through its social media platforms and the website annefrank.org the Anne Frank House reaches millions of people all around the world.
The Anne Frank House wants as many people as possible, especially young people, to learn about Anne Frank’s life story. Social media are ideally suited for this. Instagram, YouTube and TikTok are important channels for young people. Our social media channels give us an enormous reach.
Our social media channels continued to experience steady growth in 2022. We developed posts that appeal to our followers. The starting point is almost always Anne Frank.
We continued to steadily grow: on Twitter from 70,000 followers in 2021 to 77,000 followers in 2022, on Instagram from 157,000 followers in 2021 to 183,000 followers in 2022 and on YouTube from 215,000 subscribers in 2021 to 222,000 subscribers in 2022. On Facebook, our many fans remain loyal to our channel and, against the trend, we increased from 896,000 followers in 2021 to 911,000 followers in 2022. On TikTok, which is hugely popular among young people, the number of followers almost tripled from 13,000 to 38,000. We started this channel in spring 2021.
Our Instagram account gained an honourable fourth place in the 2022 ranking of the Dutch Instagram Top 100. This is compiled on the basis of independent research among the most successful Dutch accounts, and is judged by the number of followers and the engagement rate.
‘Finally, the Anne Frank House. Slowly but surely, this account is growing in followers and engagement ratio. The authentic and informative content receives many likes and keeps followers engaged.’
Saturday 25 June 2022 marked exactly 75 years since Anne Frank's Het Achterhuis (The Secret Annex) was published by Contact publishers, on 25 June 1947. We asked our followers on social media to share a copy of the diary on their own socials with the hashtag #mycopy. We also asked what Anne Frank’s diary means to them.
On our website you can read a selection of the reactions Otto Frank received after sending out the first copies of Anne Frank’s diary to friends and teachers of Anne and her sister Margot, and to others outside their circle, such as Minister Frits Bolkestein and Princess Juliana.
In the museum, a special exhibition was dedicated to the anniversary: Anne Frank’s diary – 75 years.
At our request, author Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, winner of the prestigious International Booker Prize 2020, wrote a poem to mark the occasion: Swimming freely. It was translated by Michele Hutchison.
The annefrank.org website attracted over 14 million visitors in 2022, a substantial increase of almost 70% compared to the 8.5 million visitors in 2021.
Most visitors were from the United States (25%) followed by visitors from the Netherlands (11%), Germany (8%), Britain (8%) and Mexico (5%).
55% of all visitors visit the website on their smartphones.
With financial support from the David Berg Foundation, the original Dutch-language episodes of Anne Frank - After the Arrest were dubbed into English, making the series more accessible and easier to follow for young people outside the Netherlands.
Anne Frank - After the Arrest is the sequel to the Anne Frank video diary. In three episodes, Anne Frank, played by Luna Cruz Perez, shares her life, thoughts and feelings about the time after the period she spent in hiding. With this sequel we’ve answered the questions of many young people about what happened to Anne after her arrest; the period she couldn’t describe in her diary.
The Anne Frank Knowledge Base was launched in December. (The official launch was on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, 27 January 2023.) This online knowledge base in Dutch and English offers professionals and others a wealth of information about the history of Anne Frank and the seven other people who lived in hiding in the Secret Annex, all set in the context of the Second World War and the persecution of the Jews. Information previously only available for internal use is now made accessible to interested parties worldwide, thanks to financial support from the Mondriaan Fund. The knowledge base can be accessed directly or through Anne’s World, an online world map with events and stories.
The Anne Frank Knowledge Base can be accessed directly or through Anne’s World (a new section on the website). Any information about events, persons, locations or topics can be retrieved by simply typing the relevant keywords in the knowledge base. One can also wander from one entry to the next. The knowledge base is available in Dutch and English, and contains around 1,100 items, 300,000 words and 300 pictures. The Anne Frank Knowledge Base will never be ‘finished’: new information is always being added to it, and the inclusion of items from the collection and videos is on the agenda.