While wondering through the busy, Dutch- and tourist-filled Amsterdam area, we came upon the Anne Frank Huis. The house the Frank family hid in for 25 months to escape Nazi capture. They tiptoed around the back annex of Anne's father's factory (which was handed over to a non-Jewish executive friend because Jews couldn't own businesses), making sure they didn't run water, flush the toilet, or talk too loudly because the warehouse workers in the very same building had no idea there was anyone living there. They studied there, exercised there, held celebratory dinners there; with 4 of the father's employees serving as "helpers." These helpers worked in the factory as office personnel, but ran errands for the hidden individuals, buying them food, ordering their Latin lesson books, and bringing them news of the outside world in the evenings. Almost two years, and they never left the annex. Then an anonymous phone call to the police station blew their cover and the police went in and took them away. They still don't know who made that implicating call to the police.To visit the site was shocking and difficult to fathom, a feeling that makes it uncomfortable to swallow. It was simpler, however, to see how Anne got so involved in writing as an outlet. Her father said when he read the diary, the writings were very different from the girl he knew. There was so much more to her personality that he didn't know about. What is it about the power of writing that allows us to explain ourselves best?
photo from www.holocaustresearchproject.org/
3 comments:
i can't even imagine being in hiding for that long. you can see why journals are important... and blogs are a lot like journals wouldn't you say?
it is interesting that we can be such very different people when we write. I think is it neat that you got to see the hiding place (wait, that's another book entirely). I bet that makes her life story all that more interesting.
Wow, I bet that was pretty amazing. Thanks for sharing.
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