Anne Frank House opening hours 2024

Anne Frank House opening hours | Anne Frank is probably one of the world’s best-known Jewish Holocaust victims of the Nazi regime. Whether in history or literature classes, people have known about Anne Frank and her famous diary, which she wrote in her family’s hiding place during World War II, since their school days.

No wonder, then, that the hidden back house in Amsterdam at Prinsengracht 263, where she and her family found refuge, is now one of the Dutch metropolis’s main tourist attractions.

The house had already been set up as a documentation center and museum by Anne Frank’s father, Otto Heinrich Frank, who was the only one of the eight Jews hiding in the back house to survive the horrors of World War II.

Anne Frank opening hours at a glance

✅ Essential: The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam is open almost all year round. The opening hours are from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., except in the winter months until 7:00 p.m. they are very generous. The aim is to allow the most significant number of visitors to access this historic house.

Despite the long admission times, the relatively small museum can only admit a limited number of visitors at a time. Demand far exceeds supply, so tickets can now only be purchased online in advance.

Opening hours on public holidays

As mentioned above, the Anne Frank Museum is open all year round. There are deviations in the access times on the following dates and the official opening hours. Please note.

Waiting times and last admission at the Anne Frank House

The fact that tickets are only available in advance online sales means that the long lines of people that used to form every day early in the morning in front of the entrance have disappeared. The last admission is the latest booking option in advance online ticket sales.

Best time of year to visit Anne Frank House

Amsterdam is one of the most popular cities for international city trips. Visitors come from all over the world, and besides visiting the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum, a visit to the Anne Frank House is undoubtedly a must.

Amsterdam is a year-round destination, and demand for tickets is always high.

Best time of day to visit the Anne Frank Museum

Day-trippers and the ever-increasing number of cruisers usually arrive in the city late in the morning. Guests who have yet to book accommodation in the center are then also no longer among the likely museum visitors, despite the often long opening hours.

Thus, the chance to get a ticket on the Internet in the early morning or late evening with a bit of luck is still the highest.

During the week or on the weekend?

Amsterdam is close to major metropolitan areas in Germany, Belgium, and France. Even from Paris or Luxembourg, the Dutch metropolis can be reached quickly.

The tourist rush is thus particularly pronounced on weekends. Therefore, the possibility of booking entrance tickets online for the weekdays is certainly more favorable.

A typical Amsterdam house

The inconspicuous house at Prinsengracht 263 already had a long history before the Frank family moved in. Initially built in the 17th century as a private residence, it was later used as a warehouse, a horse stable, and a workshop. Then, in 1940, the Opteka company moved in on the first floor, with Otto Frank as its business manager. While the business premises and production facilities were located in the front part of the building, there was also a rear building protected from view by the surrounding neighboring houses

It would have been an ideal hiding place for the eight people until the end of the Second World War if someone had not betrayed them. I am unsure who informed the German Gestapo, which had all the hidden people arrested and deported to concentration camps on August 4, 1944. Employees of Otto Heinrich Frank were only able to save a few items belonging to the family, including Anne Frank’s valuable diary.

A life in exile

The impulsive girl with dark eyes was born Annelies Marie Frank in 1929 in Frankfurt am Main, where she also spent the first years of her life. The Frank family was of Jewish faith but was usually integrated into the Roman Catholic and Protestant environment. Shortly after the National Socialist Party NSDAP took power in 1933 and the first anti-Semitic demonstrations began, the Frank family moved to Amsterdam.

Father Otto Frank had been allowed by a friend to take over a company branch there. Until 1939, the family lived in Amsterdam relatively carefree, and Anne Frank went to a Dutch public school with sister Margot.

Finally, in 1940, the Netherlands was occupied by Hitler’s troops. The situation became more and more acute, and Jewish laws and calls for deportations to labor camps were issued. As a result, the family retreated to a hiding place in the back house at Prinsengracht 263. Shortly before, Anne had received a red and white checkered diary as a gift for her 13th birthday and began to write down her experiences and thoughts in it, which became so important for posterity.

If you want to learn more about life in Amsterdam during the Second World War, you should join one of the many guided tours that give an insight into that time. These include the Anne Frank Tour or the Anne Frank Tour with entrance to the Jewish Cultural Quarter.

For small groups, it may also be worthwhile to take the Anne Frank & World War II tour.

❌ Tours do not include admission to the Anne Frank House.

Entrance fees Anne Frank House

Since tickets can only be purchased online in advance, you must read my article about buying tickets for the Anne Frank Museum.

Despite the extended opening hours, there are also no opportunities for bargain hunters or hopefuls to purchase tickets on-site, as there are now no ticket counters or other outlets for tickets at the Anne Frank House.

Online ticket sales begin every first Tuesday of the month for the following month. On-site ticket sales do not take place, as already mentioned.

What awaits visitors to the Anne Frank House?

In addition to the house at Prinsengracht 263, the annexes have also been taken over over the years by the Anne Frank Foundation, founded in 1957 by Anne’s father, Otto Frank, and set up as a museum. In the Anne Frank House, which today consists of the entire building complex, various exhibitions are presented on National Socialism, anti-Semitism, and World War II with photos, videos, documents, and letters from contemporary witnesses.

The actual hiding place in the back of the house, which the Nazis almost wholly cleared out following the family’s arrest, is unfurnished and contains only Anne’s collection of photos of famous movie stars, a wallpaper on which father Otto Frank recorded his daughters’ growth spurts, and a map documenting the Allied advance.

Unforgettable moments

When you enter the Anne Frank House, where visitors move through the rooms almost wordlessly, you get an excellent impression of how oppressive life must have been here with eight people. At all, for a growing teenager looking for his freedom, who would like to go to the movies or meet outside with friends.

The exhibits, which revolve around the atrocities of the Nazi period, the events of the war, and the hard life of ordinary people during wartime, also leave a deep impression.

The Anne Frank House – World Famous and much visited

Shortly after the Diary of Anne Frank was published, and the Anne Frank House was not yet a museum, the first visitors came to see these rooms with their own eyes. Today, the Anne Frank Museum is one of the most important tourist destinations in Amsterdam, attracting several 100,000 visitors from all over the world every year.

The in-house bookstore and café, which only opened after the latest renovations in 2018, are always busy. However, access here is also only accessible via the museum.

If you want to know more about the Anne Frank House, you can also read my article, Visiting the Anne Frank House.

Jewish Quarter

Interested people will learn a lot about the history of Jews in the Netherlands during a visit to the Jewish Historical Museum, located at Nieuwe Amstelstraat 1, about two kilometers away from the Anne Frank House. Opening hours are available on the ticket provider’s page.

Just a few meters from the museum is the Portuguese Synagogue, also from the Golden Age of Amsterdam. Here, too, it is worthwhile to stop by.

An Anne Frank tour also starts in front of the Jewish Historical Museum, which aims to give an insight into life at that time. The exciting tours are also offered in English. Participation is an excellent compensation if you do not get tickets to the Anne Frank Museum yourself!