Anne Frank House

During World War II many Jews hid from the Nazis in secret rooms below houses. One of the most famous of this Jews is Anne Frank. She wrote a diary of her experiences of living in secrecy with her and four other Jews. Her father Otto Frank published this diary in 1947 after her death at the concentration camps in Dutch entitled Het Achterhuis.
Otto Frank, Anne’s father, moved his offices of spice and gelling companies, Opteka and Pectacon, to Prinsengracht 263 from an address on the Singel canal on December 1, 1940. The Achterhuis or Secret Annex, where the Frank family and four other Jews hid, is the rear extension of the building that is hidden away from view by four houses surrounding it. It was an ideal hiding spot from Nazi persecution because of its seclusion. Anne Frank wrote that it was relatively luxurious hiding place compared to others that they had heard about, but its total floor space was 500 square feet. The Franks and the other Jews stayed hidden in this place for two years and one month. Someone anonymously betrayed them to the Nazi authorities and they were arrested, deported, and died in concentration camps. Only Otto Frank survived the war out of all those hidden in the building. After they were arrested, all of their remaining belongings were seized by the government and redistributed to bombed-out families in Germany.
The museum located on the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam, The Netherlands is now dedicated to Anne Frank. It highlights the life and times of Anne Frank and brings to light all forms of persecution and discrimination while preserving the hiding spot of the Frank family. It was opened to the public May 3, 1960. This was only three years after it was saved by a foundation from developers who wanted to demolish the entire block. Today it is a very successful museum.
For more information about the Anne Frank House go to http://www.annefrank.org/content.asp?pid=3&lid=2 or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Frank_House .