BASTION, BELGIUM (BATTLE OF THE BULGE)
RESTAURANT WE ATE AT
ANN FRANK HOUSE
On to our next destination, Amsterdam. We were so close we had to see this city. It was a busy place, but oh so worth it. While walking around we heard a young man playing Irish tunes on his violin. Had to give him a Euro. Loved it. We ate a great fish dinner with garlic veggies and lots of bread, Gene's favorite. We were able to see the flat that the Frank family occupied from 1933 to 1942. It is in a beautiful location along one of the canals. One of the busiest places in Amsterdam. Ann Frank and her family lived in Frankfurt, Germany before 1933 and they were a rich affluent family. After Hitler took over in 1933, Mr. Frank felt it would be safer for his family if they were to move to Holland. In 1940 Hitler brought his repression of the Jews to Holland and so the Frank family went into hiding in the attic above their residence and business. They had help from their employees, who were non Jewish, by bringing them food and essentials for two years until someone disclosed their hiding place and they were taken to the Auschwich Extermination Camp.
The line was extremely long to get in but it moved pretty fast. It went up three flights of narrow stairs so it was cramped. When the family was discovered, all of the furniture was confiscated except for Ann Frank's red plaid diary in which she wrote her most intimate feelings. Today, the rooms are just as they were when they left, EMPTY. There are family pictures on the walls and notes from Ann's diary. We went into Ann's room where she had pasted some pictures of movie stars and postcards she received, and she said that it made life bearable. It was a little bit of normality in a world of chaos. It was a very somber experience. No one talked out loud, it was as if a spirit of calm rested over the home. Many people upon leaving, were very moved and just stood there looking up at the windows that had been painted to protect the hiding place from others.
They lived here for two years with 8 people in all. Ann's mother died in '45 from exhaustion and Ann and her sister Margot died of Typhus the same year. I would like to conclude with a few quotes from Ann herself.
"I saw two Jews through the curtains yesterday, it was a horrible feeling. Just as if I had betrayed them and was now watching them in their misery."
"One day this terrible war will be over, The time will come when we'll be people again and not just Jews. We can never be just Dutch, or just English, or whatever, we will always be just Jews as well, but then, we'll want to be."
A closing statement we saw, written by Primo Levi, an Auschwich survivor. " One single Anne Frank moves us more than the countless others who suffered just as she did, whose faces have remained in the shadows. Perhaps it is better that way. If we were capable of taking in all the suffering of all those people, we would not be able to live." And to think, Christ actually felt all of their pain.
I would like to say, our church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, believes that "all men should have the privilege of worshiping who, where or what they may", and to all those who do not believe these events actually took place, SHAME ON YOU.
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