We got off to visit the Anne Frank Huis. It was quite hard to imagine how it would have been during the war – both for the workers in the front of the house and for the eight in hiding. The actual hiding place was bigger than we expected it to be – but still, to have been there for two whole years, with no natural light, not knowing when you were going to be discovered, having to sit in silence day after day... must have been horrendous. I remember my reaction at reading Anne’s diary, especially once I reached the end and read the epilogue about how her parents were put on the very last train to Auschwitz, and how she herself died only one month before the liberation. I was repulsed at how unfair it was. Of course, they were only one family among millions, and it was unfair for all of them.
Today, there were two things that struck me: one was a video recording of Anne’s father, Otto, talking about her (he was the only one of the eight to survive). The second was a display of documents concerning the Franks’ and other families attempts to leave Europe in 1939. There was one letter from the US consulate, telling Otto Frank that his request had been received and that he was now on the waiting list, with an expected response time of ‘indefinite’. It was written in the same kind of US legalese that I’ve come across in my own life, the kind that makes you feel like a number in a database and an annoyance to their bureaucracy. Ultimately, of course, their request to emigrate was declined. There was also a photo of some Jews who had made it to England, who were deported back to Holland because their passports were ‘not in order’. Did those officials who made these decisions know that they were signing those people’s death warrants?
Anyway enough about that.
After lunch we went for a stroll through the Dam square, and then caught the bus for the rest of the route. Then we took another route on the canal boat.
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