Ann Frank House

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September 18, 2018

Amsterdam

We purchased tickets to see the Ann Frank House exactly 90 days in advance. Only 2000 tickets are available per day, sold for entrance every 15 minutes. You pick your time, pay 20 Euros and show up. Tickets are only sold on-line.

Brief history of Anne Frank

Anne Frank was a Jewish girl who went into hiding during World War II to escape from the Nazis. Together with seven others, she hid in the secret annex at Prinsengracht 263 in Amsterdam. (Our Houseboat was 816 Prinsengracht) After more than two years in hiding, they were discovered and deported to concentration camps. Anne’s father, Otto Frank, was the only one of the eight people to survive. After her death, Anne became world famous because of the diary she wrote while in hiding.

Anne Frank was born on 12 June 1929 in the German city of Frankfurt, where her father’s family had lived for generations. She had a sister, Margot, who was three and a half years older. The economic crisis, Hitler’s rise to power and growing antisemitism put an end to the family’s carefree life. Like many other Jews, Otto Frank and his wife, Edith, decide to leave Germany.

Otto set up a business in Amsterdam and the family found a home on the Merwedeplein. The children went to school, Otto worked hard at his business and Edith looked after the home. When the threat of war in Europe increased, Otto and his family tried to emigrate to England or the USA, but these attempts failed. On 1 September 1939 Germany invaded Poland. It was the beginning of the Second World War.

For a while, there was hope that The Netherlands would not become involved in the war, but on 10 May 1940 German troops invaded the country. Five days later The Netherlands surrendered and was occupied. Anti-Jewish regulations soon followed. Jews were allowed into fewer and fewer places. Anne and Margot were required to attend a Jewish school and Otto lost his business.

When a renewed attempt to emigrate to the U.S.A. failed, Otto and Edith decided to go into hiding. Otto set up a hiding place in the rear annex of his firm at Prinsengracht 263. He did this together with his Jewish business partner Hermann van Pels and with help from his associates Johannes Kleiman and Victor Kugler.

On 5 July 1942 Margot Frank received a call-up to report for a German work camp. The next day the Frank family went into hiding. The Van Pels family followed a week later and in November 1942 they were joined by an eighth person: the dentist Fritz Pfeffer. They remained in the secret annex for more than two years.

In hiding, they had to keep very quiet, were often frightened and passed the time together as well as they could. They were helped by the office workers, Johannes Kleiman, Victor Kugler, Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl; by Miep’s husband, Jan Gies; and by the warehouse manager, Johannes Voskuijl, Bep’s father. These helpers not only arranged food, clothes and books, they were the group’s contact with the outside world.

Shortly before going into hiding Anne received a diary for her birthday. She started writing straightaway and during her time in hiding she wrote about events in the secret annex and about herself. Her diary was a great support to her. Anne also wrote short stories and collected quotations from other writers in her ‘book of beautiful sentences’.

When the Dutch minister of education in exile in London appealed on British radio for people to keep war diaries, Anne decided to edit her diary and create a novel called 'The Secret Annex'. She started to rewrite, but she and the others are discovered and arrested before she has finished.

On 4 August 1944 the people in hiding were arrested, along with their helpers Johannes Kleiman and Victor Kugler. They passed from the security service headquarters and prison to the transit camp Westerbork, from where they were deported to Auschwitz. The two helpers were sent to the Amersfoort camp. Johannes Kleiman was released shortly after his arrest and six months later Victor Kugler escaped. Immediately after the arrests Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl rescued Anne's diary and papers that were left behind in the secret annex. Despite intensive investigations, it has never been clear how the hiding place was discovered.

Otto Frank was the only one of the eight people in hiding to survive the war. During his long journey back to The Netherlands he learned that his wife, Edith, had died. He knew nothing about his daughters and still hoped to see them again. He arrived back in Amsterdam at the beginning of July. He went straight to Miep and Jan Gies and remained with them for another seven years.

Otto Frank tried to find his daughters, but in July he received the news that they both died of disease (Typhoid Fever) and deprivation in Bergen-Belsen (Probably in February 1945). Miep Gies then gave him Anne’s diary papers. Otto read the diary and discovered a completely different Anne. He is very moved by her writing.

Anne wrote in her diary that she wanted to become a writer or a journalist in the future and that she wanted to publish her diary as a novel. Friends convinced Otto Frank that the diary had great expressive power and on 25 June 1947 ‘The Secret Annex’ was published in an edition of 3,000. Many more editions followed with translations, a play and a film.

People from all over the world learned of Anne Frank's story. Over the years Otto Frank answered thousands of letters from people who had read his daughter's diary. In 1960 the Anne Frank House became a museum. Otto Frank remained involved with the Anne Frank House until his death in 1980 and campaigned for human rights and respect.

In 1957, the Anne Frank Stichting (foundation) took over the house, to carry out “the ideals set down in the ‘Diary of Anne Frank.’ The 13-year-old Anne began her now famous diary in July 1942. It gives a unique account of growing up under persecution.

Going through the house and reading all the information was powerful. The annex was bigger than we thought. Anne had decorated her bedroom by pasting new paper and magazines pictures of movie stars and others on the wall as a typical teenage girl would do. In many respects the two-story secret annex appeared as an apartment of that time.

Anne’s writings were so hopeful and powerful we wondered what she could have accomplished if she had lived. She died of typhus a few months before her camp was liberated. If Otto Frank had not championed her writing, Anne’s name would appear in the Holocaust Book of deaths and her story would not have told. Here are some quotes from her diary:

“I keep my ideals because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”

“Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy."

As in the Van Gogh museum photo’s we not allowed. This rule was in place to keep the crowd moving.

We walked to the main town area. The town square is called “The Dam”. It was overrun with shops and shoppers. The facades of the historic buildings have ruined the historic feel. We decided to walk along the Amstel River and escape the shopping madness. We found the “flower market” with perhaps a hundred outside flower merchants selling bulbs and tulips. We headed for home for a brief rest, then found a great neighborhood restaurant. We head for Cairo tomorrow.

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Comments

[Maria]

Thanks for the wonderful travelogue!
I am so enjoying a vicarious travel experience - really enjoyed the Anne Frank information. Thanks for keeping all of us up to date in your travels.