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Number 3 of 20 in Amsterdam

Anne Frank House: the hiding place on the Prinsengracht

Behind a bookcase on the Prinsengracht is the door to the rooms where eight people hid for more than two years. The rooms are empty now, as Otto Frank, the only one of them to survive, asked them to be. What fills them is his daughter's diary.

What it is
Museum
Time to allow
1 to 1.5 hours
Cost
Ticket sold only on the museum's own site
Best time
Book six weeks ahead, the Tuesday tickets are released

Amsterdam this week

    Why the Anne Frank House is worth it

    The house was built in 1635, and its front was rebuilt in 1740. In 1940 Otto Frank moved the offices of his firms here, and in July 1942, when his elder daughter Margot was called up for a labour camp, the family went into hiding in the rear building, the Achterhuis. Four others joined them.

    They were betrayed and arrested on 4 August 1944. Anne died at Bergen-Belsen in the early months of 1945. Her diary, kept by one of the helpers, was published by her father in 1947.

    The museum opened in 1960, after a foundation had saved the block from demolition. It takes in the three houses at numbers 263 to 267, and the annex itself is kept as it was found: bare, with the pictures Anne pasted on her wall.

    What to see

    1. The bookcase

      The hinged bookcase that hid the stairs to the annex, built by one of the helpers, still in its place on the landing.

    2. Anne's room

      The room she shared with Fritz Pfeffer, with the film stars and postcards she glued to the wall still there.

    3. The diary

      The red-checked notebook she was given for her thirteenth birthday, shown with the other notebooks and loose pages she wrote in hiding.

    4. The Westerkerk

      The church next door, whose bells Anne heard from the annex and wrote about. Rembrandt is buried inside it, in a grave that has been lost.

    5. The statue on the Westermarkt

      Mari Andriessen's small bronze of Anne, standing alone by the church a few steps from the house.

    How to do it well

    • Tickets are sold only on the Anne Frank House's own site, for a set time. They are released every Tuesday at ten in the morning, Amsterdam time, for the visit six weeks later, and they go quickly.
    • There are no tickets at the door.
    • The stairs in the annex are steep and narrow, as in most canal houses.
    • The walk below, with a guide, does not include the house. It tells the story around it: the Jewish Quarter, the occupation and the places of Anne's life.
    • Read the diary before you go, if you have not. The visit means much more with it.

    Where it is

    Address

    Prinsengracht 263, beside the Westerkerk

    Nearest station

    Westermarkt tram stop, two minutes on foot

    Museums and sights nearby

    Distances are in a straight line.

    Tickets and tours: Anne Frank House

    Anne Frank House: common questions

    How do you get tickets for the Anne Frank House?
    Only on the museum's own site, for a set time. Every Tuesday at ten in the morning, Amsterdam time, it releases the tickets for the visit six weeks later. No tickets are sold at the door.
    How long does a visit to the Anne Frank House take?
    About an hour inside the house and the annex. Allow longer if you stay for the exhibition at the end.
    Who hid in the Secret Annex?
    Otto and Edith Frank and their daughters Margot and Anne, Hermann and Auguste van Pels and their son Peter, and Fritz Pfeffer. Otto Frank was the only one of the eight to survive.
    How much time do you need for the Anne Frank House?
    Allow 1 to 1.5 hours. That is this site's estimate for an unhurried visit.

    What visitors say about the Anne Frank House

    Rating from Google

    4.5

    76,714 ratings on Google

    Google's figures as read on 19 October 2026.

    Read every review on Google

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