Anne Frank

I had four hours in Amsterdam today. I walked around the city center, visited the house of Anne Frank, the flower market and the red window district.

Amsterdam is much more beautiful in tourist guide pictures and tales than in real life. It is unique for all its tunnels and its packed buildings, however so much of this washed away with the dirty water and commercialized atmosphere.

One thing that made the trip to Amsterdam worthwhile was my visit to Anne Frank House museum. People that grow up in Israel are exposed to the Holocaust from a very young age. You learn about it at school since first grade, you get to know people that survived it -- if not a member of the family, then a neighbor or a friend’s grandparent. You could sit in a bus and see a number tattooed on ones arm. When I read Anne Frank’s diary I was about the age Anne was when she wrote it. I felt empathy for what she had to go through as a Jewish under a Nazi regime, but also identified with her as a teenage girl. Although I read the diary about 20 years ago, the tour in Anne Frank House brought back parts of the story to live. It was touching. Citations from the diary were printed on the house's walls. As an adult I was amazed to see how mature Anne Frank was. I guess that as a teenage I could not see it. Here is one: "The time will come when we will be people again and not just Jews! We can never be just Dutch, or just English, or whatever, we will always be Jews as well. But then, we'll want to be.” (April 11, 1944).

Anne Frank has also written about her ambition to become a journalist and a writer. She even edited her diary short before she was arrested, with the though of publishing it. It is encouraging to know that her wish came true, it is very sad to know she didn’t live to see it happen. Anne died only a month before the liberation of her camp. I wish she lived through.

Here is the site of Anne Frank House museum: http://www.annefrank.org/splashpage.asp

Amsterdam, The Netherlands