the secret annex
a hidden home
The secret annex was an area in the top attic area of Mr. Franks buisness. The door was hidden behind a bookshelf that was on hinges that way noone could see that there was a room up there. It was very cramped for the Franks and Van Daan's to all live up there for 2 years.
How it was set up?
Anne's room
A the second floor, through the door that is concealed by a bookcase, you are standing in a tiny vestibule. In front of you is the extremely steep staircase up to the third floor; straight ahead of you, on the left side of the vestibule, is the door to the room of Mr. and Mrs. Frank and their daughter Margot. To the right is the door to the bathroom. into the parents' room, which is part of a large room which has been divided by a wall to create two rooms; the other part is Anne's room which she shared with the dentist, Dr. Friedrich Pfeffer. The parents' room is 13 feet long by 8 feet wide and Anne's room is 13 feet long by 6 feet wide. A door on the right-hand wall of the parents' room opens into Anne's room. Before Dr. Pfeffer joined the Franks and the van Pels in the annex, Anne shared her room with her sister, Margot. After four months, 16-year-old Margot moved into the room that her parents shared, to make room for Dr. Pfeffer to move in with Anne. Although Anne was 13 years old at that time, and very precocious, her parents obviously still considered her to be a child or they would never have allowed a grown man to sleep in the same room with her. Dr. Pfeffer was the same age as Anne's father; both were born in 1889, the same year as their arch enemy, Adolf Hitler. According to Anne's diary, her parents had a marriage of convenience and Otto was not in love with his wife, so apparently having their teen-aged daughter sleeping in the same room with them did not bother them.