As we rounded the corner, there was a long line of people already queued for entrance to the museum. A street performer was off to the side creating giant bubbles to the delight of the crowd. The atmosphere outside was like a celebration, people enjoying a warm cup of coffee, and laughing as a giant bubble would float over their heads. For a moment we have forgotten the harsh reality of the museum in which 8 people hid from persecution. From a moment we are caught up in the joyous atmosphere as we wait our turn to enter the Anne Frank House.
The house was built in 1635 in Amsterdam right next to a canal. In 1940 Otto Frank moves his business to the house. He had fled his home in Germany due to Nazi persecution and moved his family to Amsterdam where they will be safe. In the same year the Nazi’s occupy the Netherlands. The Frank family tries to leave the country but find they are trapped. At this point Otto devises a plan to create a hiding place for his family in the annex building of his company. His need to move his wife and two teenage daughters into the building happened quicker than Otto had planned, his daughter Margot received papers which ordered her to report to a labor camp. They ransacked their home so to appear as if they left in a hurry, put on several layers of clothing and walked to the house which would become their hiding place.
Business went on as usual. During the hours of operations, the Franks would have to be still and quiet. In the evening they could talk and move around but even then it had to be with caution for fear of someone outside hearing. After a couple of weeks 4 more people join them in their hiding place. The totaled space of the rooms is 500 sq ft. They slept on beds the size of cots. One tiny kitchen would feed them all, if the two people on the outside could smuggle in food for them. They had very little but hoped they wouldn’t be in hiding very long.
It was a short time after Anne’s 13th birthday when they entered the annex. Her father had gotten her a red and white checkered autograph book which she decided to use as a diary. In this diary she would pour her hopes, fears, dreams and frustrations. Little did any of them know they would be in hiding for 2 yrs and 1 month.
The lower levels of the museum show offices and the workings of the spice company. In the office spaces there is a door disguised as bookcase. As you enter through the bookcase door the excitement of touring the building quickly evaporates as the realization of the tiny rooms hit you. A set of stairs which resemble a ladder going straight up takes you to the hiding rooms. The rooms are empty. If they weren’t there would be no room to allow visitors to walk around in them. But you imagine how cramped even the tiniest bit of furniture would make the room. In Anne’s room under plexi-glass is the photos of movie stars she cut out and pasted to the wall. In Otto’s room are the markings where they measured Anne and Margot to track their growth. Curtains can never be opened. It’s dark. It’s damp. It’s dreary. Wooden floors creak and our steps thump as we walk along. I wonder how they managed to keep so quiet. Another flight of ladder type stairs take us to the attic. It is the only window they can see out of and all they can see is the sky and a tree.
Everyone is quiet and you only hear murmurs’ as we walk through the tiny little rooms and try to imagine how 8 people lived here for over 2 years. On August 4, 1944 someone reported them and all 8 were arrested and sent to Auschwitz concentration camps. Anne and Margot was transferred to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and died in 1945, just months before the camp was liberated. Otto was the only one to survive of the 8 who had been hiding.
As you leave the hiding rooms, you enter the museum where Anne’s diary is displayed with other artifacts from the family and the others in hiding. This part made it hit home even more. To see items they had taken into hiding with them, items they cherished and touched. I realized these were real people just like me.
As I leave the museum I step once again back into the sunshine and feel its warmth on my face. I breathe in the fresh air. I notice it. That day I didn’t take it for granted. I’ve never lived in fear nor have I ever been persecuted for my belief or nationality. But for a moment….I got a glimpse of Anne Frank’s teenage years while in hiding. So why go visit such a sad place, you may ask? So we never forget. So we never let it happen again.
The Anne Frank House Museum has an awesome website (The Secret Annex online) where you can take a virtual tour of the hiding rooms. I highly recommend it.