Anne Frank House

[Adrian Stevenson]

Oli, if you wish to believe that, it is up to you...


But I do not wish to see this thread go down that road please.

Cheers, Ade.

[johannes post]

oliver !oliver! i hope you are drunk at the moment
johan

[behblc]

Sad.

I agree with Ade its sad to see this thread being taken in a "revisionist" direction , there is simply no need.

[DonC]

I too wish the rooms had been furnished - I would agree with Peter that there was a lot of room in the AFH (especially to a New Yorker... ), but you have to realize that this was their world for the time that they spent there - no walks in the park, no trips out of that particular space - and a huge excursion was to visit the first floor of the building. I for one probably would have gone insane.

For me, I sort of felt like many who posted here - it was a little disappointing and commercialized, until I saw the pencil marks on the wall where the Franks had measured their daughter's growth. I remembered my folks doing the same thing, and that brought it home.

Don

[Tino]

My wife and I went there about 10 years ago. I was surprised how big it was, if the place was searched by the Germans you would think they must of realized that there was more to the building than they had access to.

[Richard]

Just how big is it? Are there any approximations on the size of the area in which they lived (sq ft?). I had always envisioned it to be dark and cramped. Even if big, it had to have seemed small when you consider you are confined to a limited space for years with no place to go. I remember getting cabin fever when we were confined indoors while visiting my father's aunt and uncle in Florida for only a two week period during rainy season, and we had the ability to drive somewhere when we wanted.
Richard

[Peter_Suciu]

Just how big is it? Are there any approximations on the size of the area in which they lived (sq ft?).

Here is the Web site:
http://www.annefrank.org/content.asp?pid=1&lid=2

By New York standards it is HUGE. It was three stories with numerous rooms. But again, being confined to even that much space must have felt like a prison.

[Richard]

Hi Peter, thanks for the link. Didn't see any type of schematics that would give an indication of the space or the layout but it appears they had 3 floors.

Knowing that you cannot go outside the 4 walls, would make any place seem small in a short period of time. Imagine the fear you would have to live with wondering if you would be discovered at any minute and what would happen if you were. That combination of stress and confinement must have been a load to bear.

Of course having ben in a New York aparment before, I can relate to the fact that almost anything would be huge by those standards. I still think you must have some superb organizational skills to be able to fit a helmet collection into your place.
Richard V

[Tino]

I found an old brochure that shows the layout of the house and the living quarters of Anne Frank and her family (marked in red)

[Tino]

Here is a more detailed picture.
#1 shows the hinged bookcase that served as the door to the hiding place
#2 is the room of the Frank family, Mr.and Mrs.Frank and their oldest
daughter slept there.
#3 is Anne's bedroom, which she shared with Mr.Dussel.
#4 is the room of Mr. and Mrs. van Daan.
#5 is Peter's room, here you see the stairs leading to the attic, with the
only window that safely could be opened.

[Bcarver]

Hey guys I thought I would chime in with a question. Does anyone know who turned the Frank family in, and what happend to him/her after the war? I saw that David Irving did some research into it but forget what conclusions he came up with.

[Adrian Stevenson]

No one has ever discovered who betrayed the family's presence at the house.

Cheers, Ade.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Here are a few pics taken outside the house. The weather was very cold. Lez and myself outside the front door.

[Adrian Stevenson]

The modern building next door with the new entrance to the museum, book shop and cafe. The queue was smaller than when we joined it earlier in the day.

[Adrian Stevenson]

View from the house looking out over the canal. A pleasant Christmas scene in 2005.

Thanks for adding the cut-away drawings Tino

Cheers, Ade.