22nd Feb 2025: Anne Frank’s secret annex in the Netherlands

My daughter studied the Holocaust in WWII at her local school in the UK. Following that, we visited Anne Frank’s secret annex in the Netherlands. It struck me as deeply ironic that Anne’s dream was to become a novelist, and yet her words only reached the world after her death—thanks to the efforts of her father, Otto Frank, who published her diary, which later became a global bestseller. I sincerely hope that such a tragedy will never happen again.

As many of you already know, Anne Frank was a Jewish girl who went into hiding in Amsterdam during World War II to escape Nazi persecution. Born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1929, she moved to the Netherlands with her family after the rise of the Nazis. When the Netherlands was occupied in 1940, the persecution of Jews intensified, and from 1942 for about two years, Anne lived in a “secret annex” behind her father Otto Frank’s company.

During this time, Anne wrote in her diary about daily life, her hopes for the future, her fears, and her relationships with family and friends. After the war, her diary was published as The Diary of Anne Frank and became one of the most widely read books in the world. Her words convey not only the horrors of war but also a profound longing for freedom and human dignity.

In 1944, the hiding place was discovered, and Anne was deported to Auschwitz and later to Bergen-Belsen, where she died in early 1945 at the age of 15. Her father Otto, the only survivor, published her diary, and Anne’s message of “never losing hope” continues to resonate worldwide. Photography inside the museum was strictly prohibited, so the images shown here (almost B&Ws) are borrowed from “Anne Frank - Photograph | Holocaust Encyclopedia” , “Anne Frank: The Face of an Icon Through Old Photographs - Rare Historical Photos”, and “Anne Frank may have been discovered by chance, new study says - BBC News”.

Taken with iPhone 14 Pro