“In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart. If I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.” -From The Diary of Anne Frank
Those words were written in Amsterdam by a 14-year-old girl who had just spent two years hiding in the secret annex of a building at 263 Prinsengracht. With her were her parents, an older sister, two family friends-the Van Daans-and their teen-age son, Peter and a dentist named Dussel. On August 4, 1944, the Gestapo broke into their secret hiding place, and sent the entire group, along with other Dutch Jews, to extermination camps at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen.
Only Otto Frank, Anne’s father, survived. When he returned to Amsterdam after the war, he found a diary that Anne had maintained throughout the two years of the family’s concealment. It is one of the classic volumes of literature produced in this century, and it has made a shrine out of the building at 263 Prinsengracht (around the corner from the West Church-the “Westerkerk”), to which thousands of tourists now pay visits of tribute each year. None of us should ever pass through Amsterdam without making a similar pilgrimage-both to recall the terrible events of World War II, and also to gain inspiration from Anne’s immortal and unflagging spirit.
The building is open weekdays from 9 to 4. Inside, you walk behind a bookcase that conceals a stairway to the clandestine upstairs apartment, then into the now-bare rooms where the family lived, and along the wall, protected by glass, you’ll see the yellowing clippings which teen-age Anne pasted there-a photo of Deanna Durbin, a news item about the little princesses-Elizabeth and Margaret-of England.
The effect is searing, heartbreaking, infuriating beyond belief. Downstairs, fortunately, your mood may be slightly improved by the inspiring work of the Anne Frank Foundation, which has made the house a meeting center for youth from all nations. And just feet away is the new Anne Frank Student House, which serves as a summer hotel for young people visiting Amsterdam. You’ll want to support the Foundation’s work by signing on as a member; but in any event, you’ll want to visit the Anne Frank House on your stay in Amsterdam.
