Step into the history of WWII Amsterdam and follow the story of Anne Frank through the very streets where she lived, hid, and wrote her world-famous diary.
This powerful 2-hour walking tour takes you from Amsterdam’s historic Jewish Quarter to the exterior of the Anne Frank House on the Prinsengracht canal. Along the way, your local English-speaking guide brings to life the history of Jewish Amsterdam, the Nazi occupation, the Dutch resistance movement, and the daily reality faced by families forced into hiding during the war.
Beginning near the H'ART Museum, you will discover how Amsterdam became a refuge for Jewish families fleeing Germany in the 1930s, including the Frank family who arrived in 1933. Your guide explains how life changed after the German occupation in May 1940, when anti-Jewish restrictions gradually isolated Amsterdam’s Jewish community.
During the tour, you will visit several of the city’s most important WWII and Holocaust memorials, including the Portuguese Synagogue, the Auschwitz Monument, the Hollandsche Schouwburg deportation theatre, and the National Holocaust Names Memorial engraved with the names of 102,000 Dutch Holocaust victims.
You will also learn about the remarkable acts of resistance that took place across the city, including the February Strike of 1941, the only mass civilian protest against Jewish deportations in occupied Europe and the underground networks that helped families survive in hiding using false papers, secret addresses, and ration cards.
As you walk through Amsterdam’s canal belt toward the Jordaan district, your guide tells the story of the individuals who risked their lives to protect the Frank family, including Miep Gies, Johannes Kleiman, Victor Kugler, and Bep Voskuijl.
The tour continues to Westerkerk, whose bells Anne Frank famously described in her diary, before ending outside the Anne Frank House itself. Standing in front of the building where eight people remained hidden for more than two years, your guide recounts the final months in the Secret Annex, the arrest in August 1944, and how Otto Frank later brought Anne’s diary to the world.
This tour is specifically designed for travellers who want a deeper historical understanding of Anne Frank’s story and wartime Amsterdam.
