The Anne Frank House-Amsterdam

Want to go somewhere that will move you? Go to the  Anne Frank house in Amsterdam, Holland. Anne had to hide with her family upstairs, in the back of a house in 1942. They hid there for 2 1/2 years. They were Jewish, and the Nazis had taken over The Netherlands.

Anne wanted to be a writer, so she began to keep a journal. When she heard over the radio, that the Americans were bombing Germany in 1944, she believed she would publish her journal after the war ended. Unfortunately, someone (we still don't know) turned them in to the Nazis, and all in her family,except her father,  died or were killed in the concentration camps. Anne was about 15 when she died.

Anne died from starvation and disease about 6 weeks before the camp was liberated.  Her father, who survived, had her Diary published.

The house has been returned to its original condition, minus the furniture at her father's request. Going through the house with it's movies, documents, experiencing the space she lived in before they were "taken" sends shivers down one's spine. Hearing the "rumors" of the death camps and living in fear of discovery was not fun to experience, but it filled me with emotions of dread and fear that she must have felt, magnified one hundred times. Seeing the movies again of the"selection" at the camps, and watching movies of the prisoners waving goodbye to friends as they pulled away in the open boxcars recalls once again in me a deep feeling and realization of what people can do to one another. We know their fate now, they didn't.

That entire episode of human history is a scar on all of us. It is scar on the German people (I am part German). It is all well documented in the Anne Frank house, and stands as a testament to our potential for cruelty to one another.

I haven't read the Diary of Anne Frank, but I downloaded a copy of it for my Kindle, and will give it a go. I probably should have read it 60 years ago when I was young,  but let's hope it's never too late. Her book is her legacy. Even at such a young age, she has much to teach all of us.

Nice Vacation to Europe

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Flew to Amsterdam over night. Wasn't too bad a flight. 7 and1/2 hours, and I got about 4 hours sleep. God bless Sonata. Don't take them very often, but on a trans Atlantic flight, it makes sleeping so much easier.

Because of "connections" it took us three different reservations to get  to Amsterdam. Boston was our first try, and the flight from Raleigh was delayed and we couldn't make the connection. Delta did some good work, and then decided to send us to Minneapolis, but that flight from Raleigh was also delayed, and we finally got a flight to Atlanta, which worked. Left Hotlanta by plane about 10:30pm, but it turned out to be a good time to eat something and try to get some shuteye on the flight.

The Viking  people (our tour group)had someone meet us at the airport ("Schiphol"), and drive us to the hotel- the Raddison Blu Hotel. We were both pretty tired, but went out on the town anyway, grabbed  some dinner, and then got a good night sleep.

Next morning we had a two hour guided tour of Amsterdam with a "native" guide. Saw many of the interesting and picturesque sites, and I will place some of them in the accompanying photos.

Amsterdam is pretty with all the canals. It was a major port in the 15 thru the 1700s. WWII caused much chaos, but the city seems to have survived. 

Marijuana is legal here, so if you go into a coffee shop many of the "younger" people (which includes just about everyone at this time in my life) are using it, and if one is not very careful (what did I say?) you can get a secondary high (LOL,LOL,LOL).

Keep y'all informed as we head down up Rhine, as we hope to see some pretty sights. I'll include pictures. (No pictures allowed in the Red Light district, sorry.)

So far the weather seems similar to North Carolina. It is 73 degrees here today and sunny.