Anne Frank

The Anne Frank Museum is located in the building where the Frank family hid from the Nazis from 1942 until their capture in 1944.

Otto Frank's business was in this building.  Four of his employees agreed to hide the family there, along with the Van Pels and Fritz Pfeffer.  There was a secret annex on the top floor, in the back of the building.  The eight of them hid in these four rooms for more than 2 years.  In the summer of 1944 an unknown person alerted the Nazis to there whereabouts.  All of them were sent to concentration camps.  Only Otto survived the war.

This is one of the most moving museums I have been to.  The four rooms are dim and rather dank.  They had to use blackout curtains, so they did not feel the sun for two years.  During the day everyone had to be quiet, because the workmen in the building were not aware of their hiding place.

We waiting outside, in the fierce wind, for nearly an hour to get into the house.  The crowd was so long, that it was a very slow trip through the various exhibit rooms, up the four very steep, narrow staircases to the top, back rooms. 

The last exhibit room had a video interview of Otto Frank, late in life (he died in 1980) talking about Anne's diary, and how surprised he was by many of her thoughts.  It too, was quite moving.

This was our only museum visit in Amsterdam.  Both the Van Gogh museum and the Rijksmuseum are closed for renovations.  We spent the rest of our time touring the city, by foot, bus and boat.