Hidden door bookshelves are an amazing addition to any home. Whether you need a private getaway or a place to keep your valuables. It is important to remember that bookshelves at one time were the difference between life and death. The following is an excerpt taken from Anne Frank’s diary on August 21, 1942.
“Now our Secret Annex has truly become secret…Mr. Kugler thought it would be better to have a bookcase built in front of the entrance to our hiding place. It swings out on its hinges and opens like a door. Mr. Voskuijl did the carpentry work. (Mr. Voskuijl has been told that the seven of us are in hiding, and he’s been most helpful.).”
Anne Frank was a Jewish girl living during Word War II. She and her family had to go into hiding to escape the Nazis. Anne kept a diary while hiding at Prinsengracht in Amsterdam. Ultimately, Anne and her family were discovered and sent to concentration camps. Anne’s father, Otto Frank, was the only who survived.
The hiding place for the Frank’s was hidden in an empty space of Otto Frank’s company. The hiding place was fairly large, easily fitting two families. After a little bit of time the door to the hidden annex was concealed behind a bookshelf. Father Voskuijl, the warehouse manager, constructed the bookcase in attempts to conceal the family’s identity.
Otto would later acquire Anne’s diary and fulfill her wish to have it published. When Otto first acquired the diary he was hesitant to read it. After a month or so he opened his daughter’s diary and couldn’t put it down.
“I began to read slowly, only a few pages each day, more would have been impossible, as I was overwhelmed by painful memories. For me, it was a revelation. There, was revealed a completely different Anne to the child that I had lost. I had no idea of the depths of her thoughts and feelings.”
The diary of Anne Frank has become an inspiration to many people. It gives us an in-depth look at her life and a personal understanding of what her family went through.