The Staggering Experience of Anne Frank

“The Annex is an ideal place to hide in. It may be damp and lopsided, but there’s probably not a more comfortable hiding place in all of Amsterdam. No, in all of Holland.” — Anne Frank

I never read the Diary of Anne Frank in school. I’m not sure why. My class wasn’t assigned it, but others were. Nonetheless, I did know the famous image of her that adorns its cover. I did know the general story and tragedy of her family hiding behind a secret door concealed by a bookshelf as the Gestapo swirled through Amsterdam searching for Jews.

I’m not sure what I was expecting when we visited the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam. I know I wasn’t expecting the modern exterior through which you enter and which serves as the entry point, gift shop and cafe.

I was also not expecting to sit in silence for over an hour following the visit as we decompressed at the nearby Pulitzer Hotel bar.

I didn’t expect the “annex” where Anne and her family and 4 other people hid for 761 days to be multi-story with multiple rooms.

I didn’t know the whole story of the family. I didn’t realize her father was liberated by the Allies from Auschwitz only to subsequently learn that he lost his whole family in camps across Germany just weeks and months after D-day. I didn’t know that Anne’s sister, Margot, was also keeping a diary. One which has never been recovered.

But I did assume that I would be moved. And I was. I did assume that I would be mad. And I was. I did assume that I’d draw parallels to current times. And I did. Somewhere, there may be an Anne in Ukraine or Palestine or Xinjiang or Sudan chronicling the horrors under which they are living which may be read fifty or a hundred or a hundred and fifty years from now to which good people around the globe will say “how could they let this happen?!” only to find an atrocity appear in their own time.

But “where there’s hope, there’s life. It fills us with fresh courage and makes us strong again.” And while the human race may continue to disappoint, it will also give us courage and strength to overcome the evils of our days. We can hope.

(Quotes provided by Anne Frank).