Anne Frank in colour

AMSTERDAM 1935 – 1945 FROM BLACK AND WHITE INTO COLOUR

Almost everybody knows what Anne Frank looked like. A dark haired, bright eyed, young girl with a dazzling smile. She touched the furthest corners of the world with her intimate and brave diary entries, which document the atrocities of the Holocaust with unrelenting optimism. Despite her tragic death at only 15 years old, Anne’s wisdom, courage and endless love continue to move strangers to this day. As Anne herself said, “Who would ever think that so much went on in the soul of a young girl?”

But her words, and photos, have become so iconic, that we tend to forget Anne Frank was also just a little girl. Living in Amsterdam with her sister Margot, and her parents, playing with her friends and their dolls.  And to them the world was not iconic, nor black and white. It was a time where nothing was certain anymore. An extremely dangerous time when you where Jewish, gay or a Gypsy.

The Netherlands Institute for War Documentation, and the Anne Frank House, asked Dutch visual designer Michael Danckaarts, to combine details of Anne’s life with knowledge about contemporary Amsterdam. Resulting in these amazing and riveting photographs and a wonderful app called “Anne’s Amsterdam”.

Danckaarts combined black-and-white photographs from Anne’s lifetime with a contemporary image of the city streets. Thus transporting viewers to the Nazi-occupied Netherlands where Anne once lived in hiding, causing an almost physical shock. I’ve been living in Amsterdam for over 25 years, and to me those images are a sharp reminder that the war and the holocaust might be in the past, but is very much interconnected with our time and with whom we are.
Let us know what you think. The app and website are translated into German and English. But some of the video’s are in Dutch. If you need any translation, please let us know.

“The Jewish quarter” first signs appear in Amsterdam 1941, at the corner of the City hall and the Mozes and Aaron church

Photo Montage: Michel Dankaarts, LBi Lost Boys
© Anne Frank House© NIOD / Anne Frank House

German Soldiers drive into Amsterdam on the Berlage bridge on May 15, 1940 

Photo Montage: Michel Dankaarts, LBi Lost Boys
© Anne Frank House© NIOD / Anne Frank House

The German police closes of the Jewish neighbourhood at the Blauwe Brug (blue bridge) February 12, 1941. The ’39 Mercury is probably confiscated.

Photo Montage: Michel Dankaarts, LBi Lost Boys
© Anne Frank House© NIOD / Anne Frank House

Anne Frank and her friends in 1936. The Franks lived in south of Amsterdam in a neighborhood were many other Jewish refugees have sought refuge. The building behind them is the first “skyscraper’ in Amsterdam, built by architect Staal.

Photo Montage: Michel Dankaarts, LBi Lost Boys
© Anne Frank House© NIOD / Anne Frank House

The leader of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, speaks to the newly formed Amsterdam Police Battalion on the Museumplein. 18 May 1942

Photo Montage: Michel Dankaarts, LBi Lost Boys
© Anne Frank House© NIOD / Anne Frank House

On 22 and 23 February 1941, the Nazis hold one of the first major raids in the Netherlands The arrests are a reprisal for fighting between Jews and Dutch and German antisemitic. A total of 427 Jewish men are rounded up in the streets round the Waterlooplein and the Jonas Daniël Meijerplein. They are then deported to concentration camps Buchenwald and Mauthausen via prison camp Schoorl. Only one of them survived the war. Note the (probably confiscated) ’39 Mercury in the middle. 

Photo Montage: Michel Dankaarts, LBi Lost Boys
© Anne Frank House© NIOD / Anne Frank House

During the last raid almost all Jews in the South of Amsterdam are being arrested, June 20, 1943
Jews walking to the grassy area in front of the ‘skyscraper’ on the Daniël Willinkplein. They must assemble here and wait until they are taken away by the Germans. After the war the name of this square is changed to Victorieplein. It’s not far from where Anne used to live on the Merwedeplein before she went in to hiding.
During the raid on Sunday 20 June 1943 about 5500 Jews from Amsterdam-Zuid and Oost are picked up. Many have been compelled to move to Amsterdam from other parts of the Netherlands in the previous year.

Photo Montage: Michel Dankaarts, LBi Lost Boys
© Anne Frank House© NIOD / Anne Frank House

Singel 400, Amsterdam 1935. Anne Frank is standing on the steps of the house where Otto Frank is setting up a new business ‘Opekta’ In 1933 the Frank family fled from Germany to Amsterdam. 

Photo Montage: Michel Dankaarts, LBi Lost Boys
© Anne Frank House© NIOD / Anne Frank House