Anne Frank House. With her diary having sold more than 30 million copies, Anne Frank is by far the most successful and famous author of the 20th century, testimony to the inspiring story of a girl who died at age 15 in a tragic denouement of the two-year saga now known to readers around the world. In the precious pages of The Diary of Anne Frank (published in 1947 as The Annex by her father after her death) the young Anne kept her sad record of two increasingly fraught years living in secret confinement from the Nazis. Along with the Van Daan family, the Frank family felt the noose tighten, so decided to move into a hidden warren of rooms at the back of this 1635-built canal house.

Anne Frank was born in Germany in 1929; when she was four her family moved to The Netherlands to escape growing anti-Jewish sentiment. Otto Frank operated a pectin business and decided to stay in his adopted country when the war finally reached The Netherlands in 1940. In July 1942, the five adults and three children sought refuge in the attic of the annex "backhouse," or achterhuis, of Otto's business in the center of Amsterdam, in a hidden warren of rooms screened behind a hinged bookcase. Here, as one of many onderduikers ("people in hiding") throughout all of Amsterdam, Anne dreamed her dreams, wrote her diary, and pinned up movie-star pictures to her wall (still on view). The van Pelsen family, including their son, Peter (van Daan in Anne's journal), along with the dentist Fritz Pfeffer (Dussel) joined them in their cramped quarters. Four trusted employees provided them with food and supplies. In her diary, Anne chronicles the day-to-day life in the house: her longing for a best friend, her crush on Peter, her frustration with her mother, her love for her father, and her annoyance with the petty dentist, Dussel. In August 1944, the Franks were betrayed and the Gestapo invaded their hideaway. All the members of the annex were transported to camps, where Anne and her sister, Margot, died of typhoid fever in Bergen Belsen a few months before the liberation. Otto Frank was the only survivor of the annex. Miep Gies, one of the friends who helped with the hiding, found Anne's diary after the raid and kept it through the war.

A recent expansion by Benthem Crouwel Architects has allowed the re-creation of Otto Frank's business in the original house and provided space for more in-depth exhibitions, a bookstore, café, and offices for the employees -- which now number 100 -- of the Anne Frank Foundation. One of the most frequently visited places in the world, this house receives more than 800,000 visitors a year; the wooden stairs behind the swinging bookcase have to be replaced every two years. Anne's diary has now been translated into more than 50 languages, making Anne the international celebrity she always dreamed of being. COST: EUR6.50.