All I wanted to do was go out and play, laugh, be a child, but I couldn’t.
On the 13th of March 1933, elections were held in Frankfurt for the municipal council, and Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party won.
Deciding to see what else Amsterdam could hold name to other than sex and drugs, Michelle and I jumped aboard a city hop-on hop-off bus tour, taking us to various local sights and historical monuments.
One of the stops along the way was to the Heineken Brewery museum, of which the ticket holder was promised two pints of beer at the end of the tour – much like the Coors Brewery tour we did in Golden, Colorado some years back. Anticipating that this was going to be another long winded tour of corrodors with posters and writing, illustrating step by step the beer brewing process, both Michelle and I were pleasantly surprised to see this wasn’t the case at all.
Heinekin’s tour, much like their beer was rather hi-tech; the tour was incredibly animated, with plenty of digital interaction, including a 4D movie taking visitors through the brewing process, brewing us, the audience. It was a very entertaining way to learn the process.
Other stations setup around the brewery taught and graded your abilities to pour the perfect Heineken pint (I scored 10/10 both times), creating a personal label for your bottle and learning the history of Heineken with an engaging video built into the backdrop of a bar.
After the tour we both hopped back onto the bus and continued on, a few stops away was one of history’s most read about houses; if walls could talk they would have a lot to say, but probably not as much as the little girl who lived within those walls for eight years (1934 – 1942) during Nazi occupation, writing her life experiences and perception of the world in her diary, Anne Frank.
When Nazi leader Adolf Hitler came to power back in 1933, many Jews, including Otto Frank, Anne’s father began to fear what would happen to them if they stayed in Germany. Almost immediately after the election campaign Antisemitic demonstrations began. Otto moved his family from Frankfurt to Amsterdam where he would head up a business. The Franks were amongst 300,000 Jews that fled Germany between 1933 and 1939.
In May 1940, Germany invaded the Netherlands and the occupation government began to persecute the Jews by the implementation of restrictive and discriminatory laws. By this time Otto had done well for himself, creating two businesses from the ground up. When the occupation came in, and to prevent his Jewish-Owned business from being confiscated, he transferred ownership of his businesses to Johanes Kleiman, liquidating all assets in his name and thus providing him with a minimal income, but sufficient to support his family.
For her 13th Birthday, 12th June 1942, Anne Frank received a book she had previously shown her father in a shop window. It was an Autograph book, bound with a red and white checkered cloth. She had decided to use it as her diary, and began writing in it almost immediately, documenting the German occupation and the restrictions that were enforced upon her and her family along with all other Jews.
In July 1942, the Franks received a call-up notice from the central office of Jewish emigration ordering to report for relocation to a work camp. It was at this time Otto led his family and other close friends into hiding. With the help of some of his most trusted employees they hid in the attic of one of his companies. A bookcase concealing the entrance to the secret annex and this is where the Franks stayed for the following nine years.
Anne’s diary follows this tragic tale on for the nine years hidden away. Not even able to look out the windows in fear that if they did, someone would see them. Having to be as quiet as mice, so no one down stairs nor the neighbours suspected a thing, the Franks lived in constant fear and worry of being discovered.
Reading Anne’s words, her reflection of the human condition, her insights, her interpretations of the events unfolding around her makes for an incredible read, and a touching, personal account for the German occupation of the Jews.
You couldn’t help but feel very humble to be walking in the same room where Anne and her family lived. Despite the number of visitors and tourists in the house today we were all very silent, almost as an eerie sign of respect to the silence the Franks had to endure during their stay.