The Anne Frank House Secret Annex Online wins Webby Award

Amsterdam - The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences announced yesterday that the Secret Annex Online has won a Webby Award in the Best Cultural Institutions category. LBi Lost Boys and the Anne Frank House who developed the Secret Annex Online in close cooperation are delighted with this prize.

Ita Amahorseija, ICT Program Manager at the Anne Frank House: “It is fantastic to receive a Webby Award for the Secret Annex Online. To win the prize for ‘Best Cultural Institutions’ on the day that the Anne Frank House celebrates its 51st year as a museum makes it extra special. This unique jury prize and the fact that visitors stay on the site for a long time shows that together with LBi Lost Boys we have succeeded in keeping Anne Frank’s memory alive in a unique way. We consider this the pinnacle of our online work.”

Marcel Houtman, Managing Director LBi Lost Boys: “It is great that by winning this award Anne Frank’s important message, which has never been more relevant, is spread further around the world. It has been an honor to work on this project with the Anne Frank House. Enormous thanks go to all the employees at the Anne Frank House and my colleagues at LBi Lost Boys who worked so hard with passion and pleasure on this project.”

The Webby Awards are internationally awarded annually to the best websites in the World. Approximately 340 projects were nominated from almost ten thousand entries from 60 countries and all US states. The Secret Annex Online was nominated for the categories Best Cultural Institutions and Best Visual Design – Function.

The winners will be honored in a ceremony on 13 June in New York.

The Secret Annex Online

The Secret Annex Online is a virtual version of the building at 263 Prinsengracht in Amsterdam where Anne Frank was in hiding for more than two years and where she wrote her world famous diary. Although Anne’s story is known worldwide, the virtual hiding place adds another dimension. For the first time visitors can really step into her environment and experience how frightening and oppressive daily life in the hiding place must have been. Like millions of others Anne Frank did not survive the horrors of the concentration camps.

At its launch in April 2010 The Secret Annex Online received a great deal of attention from both national and international media. Since then 800,000 people have visited the website. The unique combination of technology and content raises many enthusiastic audience reactions. The fact that visitors stay on average 17 minutes on the site shows how it manages to captivate young and old alike.

The BankGiro Loterij, the Anne Frank Fonds , the VSB Fonds, the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management and the Mondriaan Foundation made this project financially possible.

Official Honorees

In recognition of the exceptional quality of submissions received this year, the Academy has acknowledged outstanding entries as Official Honorees. This distinction is awarded to the top 10% of entrants of exceptional quality.

The Secret Annex Online was designated as Official Honoree in the category Best Visual Design – Aesthetic. The Anne Frank Facebook Quotes Application was also designated Official Honoree in the category Rich Media: Non-Profit/Educational. Via the Quotes Application the Anne Frank House and LBi Lost Boys used the power of Facebook, the biggest social media site in the world, to draw the public’s attention to The Secret Annex Online and further spread Anne Frank’s story.