Netherlands: Anne Frank’s house will become a polling station

Voters in Amsterdam who will take part in the Dutch elections on November 22 can exercise their right to vote in an unusual location: the famous Anne Frank house, the museum announced today.

Amsterdam city hall clarified that the decision was made by the museum, which is managed by the Anne Frank Foundation.

“The Anne Frank House is one of those places that reminds us of what can happen when democracy and the rule of law disappear,” the museum explained in a statement, hoping more young people will go to the polls.

Mayor Femke Halsema said in a letter to the city council yesterday that “given the situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories, special attention will be paid to the security of this polling station.”

Voters will be able to visit the house on Amsterdam’s canals, one of the city’s main tourist attractions, for free. In theory it will remain closed to other visitors, unless turnout is low.

The museum preserves the house where the Jewish Frank family hid from the Nazis and where Anna wrote her famous diary, one of the most remarkable accounts of the Holocaust, which has sold nearly 30 million copies.

After two years, Anne Frank and her family were arrested in 1944. She and her sister died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945. The museum welcomes about one million visitors each year.

The Van Gogh museum and a mosque in the western part of the Dutch capital (Westermoskee) will also be special polling stations, according to the municipal authority.

The Dutch go to the polls on November 22 for what appears to be political event-earthquake in the country, with new parties shaking up the establishment. Outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte has announced his retirement from politics after a record 13 years at the helm of government.

The battle will be close according to opinion polls, with a new party created by MP Pieter Omzigt currently holding a narrow lead, followed by traditional centre-right and centre-left parties.