Anne Frank hid in a concealed section of her father’s business premises at Prinsengracht 263 in Amsterdam, in a space now known as the Secret Annex. This hidden annex was a rear part of the 17th‑century canal house, sealed off behind a movable bookcase and surrounded on all sides by other buildings, which kept it out of sight from the street.

Quick Scoop

  • The Secret Annex was in the back of Otto Frank’s office building on a canal in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
  • Anne, her family, and four other Jewish people lived there in hiding from July 1942 until their discovery in August 1944.
  • The rooms were small but, as Anne noted, relatively “luxurious” compared with many other hiding places Jews had during the Nazi occupation.

What the hiding place was like

Inside, the Secret Annex consisted of several cramped rooms spread over multiple levels, including living spaces and an attic area used for storage and occasional solitude. The entrance was concealed by a hinged bookcase, allowing helpers from Otto Frank’s staff to bring food and supplies while keeping the annex invisible to outsiders.

From hiding place to museum

After the group was arrested in 1944, the annex was emptied, but Anne’s diary was preserved and later published, making the site world‑famous. The building at Prinsengracht 263, including the Secret Annex, was later preserved and opened to the public as the Anne Frank House museum in 1960.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.