Web Review

The Official Anne Frank House Website
www.annefrank.org
Designed and constructed by The Anne Frank Stichting
Reviewed Nov. 23, 2009

To young scholars across the world, Anne Frank is the face and the voice of the Holocaust. The personal confidences in her diary touch people in all corners of the globe and give the history of antisemitism a personal relevance for millions of people. The Anne Frank House recognizes her valuable contribution not only to history but to social consciousness. Because of the compelling nature of her story, the Anne Frank House designed a website that provides a moving experience, secondary only to visiting the museum itself.

The content of the website is primarily instructional. These features are primarily directed to the curious and casual visitor. In addition to discovering the basic facts about the museum, a visitor also has access to brief biographies of Anne Frank, her family, their benefactors, and the others in hiding. These biographies are enhanced with images that portray the people mentioned in Anne’s diary, their secret attic, and their surrounding community in Amsterdam. The creators of the website have recently developed the Anne Frank channel on YouTube, which provides access to interviews with witnesses of the events surrounding Anne’s life, including Otto Frank. The channel also features the only known video footage of Anne herself, in which she gazes out of a balcony, only a few weeks before going into hiding. Through the biographies, images, and videos, the website creates a unique personal connection between the visitor and Anne Frank.

The website’s most useful features cater directly to teachers and their students. The “Anne Frank Guide” is a useful tool for middle and high school teachers to use The Diary of Anne Frank as a means to teach students about the Holocaust. This page provides condensed historical information about Anne Frank and World War II in conjunction with suggested activities and lesson plans. Furthermore, the site provides unique guides for eighteen different countries, each in their own language and containing specific facts about how that particular nation was impacted by the war. The guide also takes the events of Anne’s diary out of their context and demonstrates how they can be related to present-day acts of genocide and, with equal importance, acts of humanity.

Students benefit from the interactive aspects of the website. A section on homework help allows accessible information about Anne Frank and World War II and provides a quiz. A graphic novel on the Holocaust dilutes the horrific event to an acceptable context for very young visitors. But, more importantly, the website encourages young people to relate Anne’s experience to their own life. The site has a forum for responses and discussion of the diary and its history. Additionally, the Anne Frank Tree allows guests to “leave a leaf” on Anne’s interactive monument. On a virtual leaf, a visitor chooses a theme that characterizes Anne’s legacy, such as humanity or courage, and then leaves his or her name along with a brief message or picture. These are then added to the tree, which visitors are free to peruse for inspiration.

The Official Anne Frank House website provides an educational and meaningful look into the life of an extraordinary young woman and the history that shaped her. Through its ease of use and caliber of content, it achieves a quality of experience that is rare on the internet. This website is a valuable resource for all audiences.