80 Years of Freedom: Open Jewish Houses

From April 27 to May 5, 2025, some two hundred homes, shops, and schools will open their doors to reflect on the Jews who once lived and worked at these locations. In living rooms, attics, behind counters, and between sliding doors, you will meet victims, survivors, and resistance fighters of the Second World War. Who were they? How did they live? Where was their hiding place? And what became of them? Through personal stories, Open Jewish Houses makes the consequences of the Second World War tangible. The most famous is, of course, the Anne Frank House. But do you also know the history of the Manuskowski stamp dealership?

Anne Frank House (Amsterdam)

The Anne Frank House is a museum at Westermarkt 20 in Amsterdam dedicated to Anne Frank and her Jewish family who were in hiding during World War II. The museum is built around their hiding place, the Secret Annex at Prinsengracht 263, where Anne Frank wrote her famous diary, The Secret Annex.

The Netherlands (2010): Anne Frank House (a museum with a story).

The museum is a non-profit organization housed in a foundation funded by admission fees and donations. It attracts more than 1 million visitors per year, nearly 90% of whom are from abroad. In 2019, a record number of 1,3 million visitors arrived. They came from 95 countries. The largest group is between 20 and 30 years old (32 percent).

The Netherlands (2009): Anne Frank and the Secret Annex.

Anne Frank House (New York)

For the first time, the Secret Annex—the hiding place where Anne Frank, her parents, sister, and four other Jews hid for two years to escape the Nazis—has been fully reconstructed and is on display in the United States in the exhibition Anne Frank The Exhibition in New York. The exhibition is on view at the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan, New York, and opens its doors on January 27, 2025, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

The exhibition highlights Anne Frank's life (1929–1945) in the context of the Second World War and the persecution of the Jews: her early years in Frankfurt am Main, the rise of the Nazi regime, the move to Amsterdam and her time in hiding in the Secret Annex, up to her arrest and deportation to the concentration camps Westerbork and Auschwitz-Birkenau, and her premature death in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The exhibition also highlights Anne Frank's work and its global significance, which Anne's father championed. Otto Frank was the only one of the eight people hiding in the Secret Annex to survive the horrors of war. After his return from Auschwitz, he helped publish his daughter's diary and disseminate her life story.

Togo (2019): 90 years of Anne Frank (1929 – 1945)

Ronald Leopold, General Director of the Anne Frank Foundation: “Anne Frank’s words continue to inspire. Almost eighty years later, we still carry her voice worldwide. Anne Frank was one of the 1,5 million children murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators simply because they were Jewish. As the Anne Frank Foundation, we have the responsibility to introduce young people in particular to the origins of antisemitism, its further development, and how this fueled the Nazi ideology that ultimately led to the Holocaust. The exhibition provides insight into how this could have happened and what it means for us today. By bringing the exhibition to New York—a place with strong ties to Anne Frank’s story—we, as a Foundation, expand the reach of our mission. We want not only to keep the memory of Anne Frank alive but also to encourage young people to reflect on and respond to her history and significance for today. Important questions in this regard are: What choices do we make to safeguard equal rights for everyone? How can we contribute to an open, free society in which everyone can be themselves?”

Manuskowski Stamp Dealers (The Hague)

Manuskowski is a stamp shop that opened its doors on August 3, 1925. It has been located at Wagenstraat 105 in The Hague for nearly a century. Abraham Manuskowski was the youngest of a large Jewish family in The Hague. During the Second World War, he went into hiding. After the war, he continued his business on Wagenstraat until he sold the shop to Mr. Visser in 1971. In 1973, Mr. van Beek joined Manuskowski as manager. In 1990, he took over the shop from Mr. Visser. Axel Schoenmaker took over the shop in early December 2022 to continue the stamp trade for the coming decades.