Anne Frank House alsmost torn down in 1954

In the fifties, A project developer wanted to build an office building on the location which is now one of the busiest and moste well-known Amsterdam attractions, the Anne Frank House.

The government had no objections against the demolition, as it found that the house 'had no real significance for Dutch history, nor was the house important from an architectural or art point of view'.

Pressure by American citizens had caused the Dutch ambassador to write a letter about the planned demolition to the Dutch government. In his letter to the ambassodor, Mr Joseph Luns, the then Foreign Secretary, found it a good idea to keep the memory to Anne Frank alive, but the rest of the government apparently found otherwise.

The letter was found during the move of a part of the embassy's archives to the Netherlands National Archive in The Hague.

The Anne Frank Foundation is not surprised about the letter. It says that in those times there was a spirit of looking forward, not backward. The Foundation wants to make the letter part of the museum collection.