Annual report 2018
After two years of renewal work the Anne Frank House is ready to welcome a new generation of visitors. His Majesty King Willem-Alexander opened the renewed museum on 22 November.
Interest in the life story of Anne Frank is undiminished. Many of our visitors are under 25 years old, and come from countries outside of Europe. So it is important to go deeper into the historical context and the background of the life story of Anne Frank in the Anne Frank House. The number of visitors has grown considerably in recent years. We receive over 1.2 million visitors every year, and so the public facilities have also been extended and renewed.
‘The exhibition are deliberately not crammed with photos and items from our collection. The emptiness that you feel as you walk through the building is part of your experience as a visitor. This emptiness symbolises the disappearance of the people in hiding.’
Partly thanks to an additional contribution of €910,000 by the BankGiro Lottery, we have been able to adapt the route through the museum and construct a new entrance, cloakroom and educational areas. In the museum we give more information on the Holocaust in the Netherlands. We also tell more about the life of Anne Frank, the other people in hiding in the secret annexe and their helpers. We offer an audio tour in nine languages: visitors can absorb the history of the period in hiding in their own languages. The authentic character of the house remains intact; the primary focus is on the experience of the house and its significance.
‘The fact that we now have a cloakroom may not seem so spectacular but the fact is that until recently we asked 1.2 million visitors per year to keep their jackets on and wear their bags or rucksacks on their fronts to avoid damage to the house.’