Here in Bookstore Jimmink, at the end of Rijnstraat, Anne Frank and her father chose her thirteenth birthday present: a diary. Not just any notebook, but a red-checkered one that would soon become her confidant.
Two days later she wrote, "I'll just start from when I got you, that is, when I saw you on my birthday table (because buying, which I also attended, doesn't count). - Sunday, June 14, 1942
Anne lived on Merwedeplein, just around the corner from here. In the weeks following her birthday, she began writing intensively, until the day her family had to go into hiding. What began in this bookstore grew into one of the most famous voices of the twentieth century.
Gert-Jan Jimmink, owner of the bookstore, was later the initiator of the Anne Frank statue on Merwedeplein.
Sources. Story: Source story: https://boekhandeljimmink.shop/ Photos: Source photo: Stadsarchief Amsterdam
