Day 7: Amsterdam: Anne Frank House

I did not take notes during our walk through the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. I also respected their no photography rule and did not take any pictures. I only saw one person violate that rule. She actually took selfies in the museum.

In June Don and I went to New York City to see the traveling Anne Frank Exhibit.

To me it felt like a consolation prize. I still wanted to be in the room where it happened.

Tickets go on sale six weeks in advance on a Tuesday at 10 am. I didn't set my alarm, but I still woke at 4 am to buy the ticket. That time of year, though, they were only five hours ahead of us. Back to sleep for an hour. I rose at 5 am to buy our tickets. I watched the 10 am tickets disappear as I was trying to juggle the extra security our credit card has on it. No problem, we went with 9:45 am instead.

As we walked around the museum, I realized we all bought our tickets at the
same time. It was almost a shared experience on top of the shared experience of being there. 

Very meta.

Similar to the Castle of the Counts in Ghent, the Anne Frank House offers two different tours: the dry one, and one presented by an actress pretending to be Anne Frank. We went with the latter. At times the phrasing was awkward when she talks about herself in the past tense, but overall I'm glad we made that choice.

The lead up to seeing the house was less than what we learned in New York. In New York we learned about the history of the Frank family juxtaposed with global history. There were more pictures before the Holocaust. Some heirlooms either from the family, or representing what the family would have had. That culminated with a replica of the secret annex. 

In Amsterdam it is about being in the actual bare rooms. The rooms where the office work took place. Seeing the bookcase that blocked their hiding spot. Stepping up two feet to climb into the secret annex. Silently walking in and through the tiny rooms. I can't imagine eight people living there together with no outside light, no opportunity to go outside, their only contact being the couple of people who knew where they were hiding. Those hiding had to be silent during the day when the office was open. We saw the walls where Anne hung pictures of movie stars cut out of magazines, and later works of art she added to make the place less depressing.

Anne and her sister Margot shared a room about seven feet wide, barely wide enough for two beds and a small table. When her parents decided four months later they could hide an eight person, Margot moved into the room with their parents and a dentist about the age of their parents shared a room with Anne. There was another couple who had a larger room which they also used as their kitchen and dining room. Peter, their son, lived upstairs.

They were discovered 761 days later. The eight people in hiding, and two helpers were captured.

The experience ended with a special exhibit about her father, Otto Frank's, journey back to Amsterdam. He was the only one of the eight to survive. He was the force behind publishing Anne's journal, and opening the Anne Frank House. It was at his insistence that the rooms remain the way they were after the Nazi's emptied them of everything valuable. It is by sheer luck that Miep saw the red plaid covered journal and kept it hidden until after the war. She hoped to return it to Anne, but instead gave it (unread to her father).

There are many lessons we should be learning. I've read a comment that these times are similar to 1930s Germany with the big difference that we know what happened then and we should be learning from the past.

Later we walked around the Holocaust Memorial. I found the blocks for Anne Frank and her sister, Margot. It adds another layer to making it feel real. We did not visit the Jewish section in town or look for their stumbling stones (though we did see other stumbling stones).

Afterwards I asked Don which exhibit he preferred: New York or Amsterdam. He said New York, partially because that was the first one he saw and partially because the New York exhibit gave more background information. 

I preferred Amsterdam because though they had a replica of the Secret Annex in New York, it felt more real in Amsterdam. Having learned their back stories, I did not need that to make the experience more powerful. 

If you get the chance to see either, do it. Spread the word that hating others just because they are the "other" is never acceptable.