A statue of Anne Frank stands in Merwedeplein, where she lived with her family from 1933 until they went into hiding in 1942.
The statue serves as a memorial for Anne and her family and the thirteen thousand Jewish people who lived in the area and did not survive the war.
Anne Frank (1929-1945) was born to a Jewish family in Frankfurt, Germany. In 1933, after Hitler came to power and enforced antisemitic laws on Jewish citizens, the Frank family moved to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and settled at 37 Merwedeplein street in the Rivierenbuurt neighborhood of Amsterdam. Anne had an ordinary childhood there; she loved riding the bike and reading books and planned her career as a famous writer.
Her life changed in 1940 when Germany invaded the Netherlands and gradually limited the freedom of the local Jews. The family had plans to escape from the country, but when Margot, Anne’s older sister, was summoned to a work camp, the family went underground to a secret annex – a three-story 450 square feet space above Anne’s father’s office building. Within a few months, four more people moved in, and beside them, their only connection to the outside world was through a few workers of Anne’s father, including his secretary, Miep Gies.
Anne documented her life in the annex in a diary she had received for her 13th birthday. She wrote about the mundane activities, her relationships with her mother and sister, her feelings for Peter Van Pels, who lived in the annex with his parents, existential thoughts, and her hopes and fears of the unknown future.
After two years in hiding, the German secret police raided the annex and deported all its eight residents to Auschwitz. Then Anne and Magot were transported to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where both contracted typhus, dying only a few weeks before the war ended.
When Otto Frank, Anne’s father, returned to Amsterdam, he realized that he was the only family member to survive. His secretary, Miep, gave him Anne’s diary, which she found in the annex and kept for her return. To shed light on the impact of the war on children like Anne, he decided to fulfill his daughter’s dream to publish her diary and issued it as a book titled The Diary of a Young Girl. The book was translated into over 70 languages, sold over 25 million copies worldwide, and inspired dozens of TV shows, films, and theater productions.
The artist Jet Schepp created the statue in 1994; it was first placed in Purmerend in North Holland. In 2004, a local bookstore in Merwedeplein started a petition to install a version of the statue on Anne’s street. On July 9th, 2005, it was unveiled in Merwedeplein.
The bronze statue depicts Anne on the early morning of July 6th, 1942, the day she and her family went into hiding. She carries two small bags, the only belonging she could have taken with her when leaving her home in secret. She is looking backward, taking one last look at her home and the life she knew.
The statue stands on a marble plinth inscribed with Anne’s name, year of birth, and year of death.
The Dutch Embassy in Argentina and the Argentinian Ministry of Education gifted a replica of this statue and installed it in Buenos Aires.
More places about women to visit in Amsterdam include the Anne Frank House, the Madame Tussauds wax museum, the Equestrian statue of Queen Wilhelmina, and Belle – the Sex Worker Commemorative Statue.
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