Anne Frank House requests public assistance following coronavirus outbreak
The Anne Frank House, built around the secret apartment where the Jewish teenager and her family hid from the Nazis, has been closed since the onset of the coronavirus outbreak.
By ZACHARY KEYSERPhotos are seen inside the Anne Frank House museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 21, 2018. (photo credit: REUTERS/EVA PLEVIER)
Sixty years to the day after the opening of the Anne Frank House Museum in Amsterdam on May 3, 1960, the museum dedicated to the memory of the world-renowned German-born diarist and Holocaust victim of World War II is calling on the public for support to keep their doors open, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to grip nations worldwide.When the world is not on lockdown, the museum and tiny apartment where Anne wrote her diary -- which has become the most widely-read document to emerge from the Holocaust -- attracts 1.3 million visitors annually."The world is going through an unprecedented crisis, which has an enormous impact on people everywhere and on the Anne Frank House as well…We are an independent museum that is not subsidized by the state or the city. If we are to continue to spread the memory of Anne Frank and her father’s mission, we desperately need financial support," said Ronald Leopold, executive director of the museum, according to DutchNews.nl.The Anne Frank House, built around the secret apartment where the Jewish teenager and her family hid from the Nazis, has been closed since the onset of the coronavirus outbreak - prompting directors to turn to the public in order to keep its educational programs and museum afloat during these trying economic times.The educational programs, which have an intended worldwide reach, are funded mainly through the ticket sales stemming from the museum's 1.3 million yearly visitors.‘When we can reopen, we don’t know the amount of visitors we can have, but we predict it will be 20% of the normal amount,’ she said. ‘Ninety percent of our visitors also come from abroad. We have never actively fund raised before, but we are an independent museum, and we have to carry our own weight: this is why we are reaching out," said the spokeswoman for the Anne Frank House Annemarie Bekker, according to DutchNews.nl.Even when the museum was renovated in 2018 to receive a new generation of visitors whose grandparents were born after World War II, the museum still raked in €11.2 million in entrance fees, garnering a €174,000 profit on the year - this year they are heavily projected to wind up in the red due to the coronavirus pandemic.Museums and public attractions such as the Anne Frank House have been instructed to be closed until June 1 at the earliest. With 90% of their visitors hailing from abroad, the resumption of international tourism weighs heavily on the museum's ability to climb out of the hole the coronavirus pandemic put them in.
