It took me 42 years, but I finally went behind the bookcase…..

I cannot tell you how many times I have visited Amsterdam over the past few years, each time with every intention of visiting Anne Frank’s House, but I finally made it last month. I am so glad I did too. It was like the final chapter of the book for me, to see where Anne and her family were in hiding during the war, it really brought it all to life and I had a sense of how very difficult it must have been for those eight people living in such a confined space and just how terrifying it must have been for most of the time.

I am assuming that everyone knows the story of Anne Frank, the young Jewish girl who along with her family and another family went into hiding when the Nazis occupied the Netherlands during World War II. For tose of you not familiar with the story just take a look here for more details
I think I was about seven years old when I read Anne’s diary, something she had started not long before they went into hiding and which finished abruptly on 1st August 1944 just days before their hiding place was discovered and they were all taken away to concentration camps where they all perished, her father being the only survivor.

Since those times, Anne’s diary has been published, just as she wanted it to be, and the building that housed her father’s business and indeed their hiding place in the annexe behind that building has been opened as a museum. If you know the story then you will know that the door to the annexe was hidden behind a bookcase – no photos are allowed inside the house but I did sneak one of the bookcase for posterity.
I cannot tell you it was wonderful to visit, nor can I use any of the adjectives that one normally would when they have finally done something that they have waited so long to do something and then finally achieved it because those words would not be appropriate in this case. I was almost overwhelmed while I was inside the annexe. What had almost been a story from a book for so many years became very, very real – there were even the record cards from the death camp showing their dates of death, and record books too showing lists of Jews who needed rounding up, and photos of their bodies slung into mass graves.
I felt very emotional and almost in awe of this young girl who found the inner strength to endure her ordeal and who finally succumbed to illness and died in the camp just a month before the end of that terrible war.
If you visit Amsterdam you must visit what must surely be a monument to this amazing, courageous young girl. We don’t know just how lucky we are these days
For information on cruises calling into amsterdam, give me a call n 0800 408 6084. I would love to help you.