An unforgettable visit: Anne Frank House

In July I achieved a life's wish and visited Anne Frank House and the Secret Annexe in Amsterdam. I first read Anne's diary in 1971 when it was a set English text, and I've been fascinated by her story ever since. When I read her diary, I was the same age as Anne when she began writing. Anne's life seemed so far removed from the comfortable middle class life my classmates and I lived in Brisbane. And of course, the diary ended suddenly, when Anne and her family were discovered and sent to the concentration camps.

In Amsterdam I discovered that Anne and her family boarded the train to Auschwitz at the same station we had arrived at. Amsterdam today is a frantic place, full of insane bicycle riders, 'coffee shops' that don't actually sell coffee, and a red light district where women offer themselves from behind windows that look out onto the street. It was hard to reconcile all of this with the Nazi occupation.


We had bought our entry tickets online, and arrived at the appointed time. The museum at the beginning of the self guided tour is very well laid out, but I felt uncomfortable as we moved through it. I knew that soon we would be in Anne's hiding place.

We climbed the stairs and there it was: the bookcase which disguised the stairs to the Secret Annexe.*

I felt the hairs rise on my forearms: it felt as if we were entering sacred ground. For the most part, the others who were touring were silent and sombre. It was Otto Frank's wish that the rooms are unfurnished, but there were still many signs of life which I remembered from the diary. Most heartbreaking was such an everyday thing: pencil marks on a wall showing the heights of Anne and her sister Margot as they grew up in this tiny hiding place. The pictures that Anne had cut out of magazines brought to her by a trusted friend were still there.

Finally, we moved through the rooms and, looking up, saw the high window which provided Anne with her only glimpse of the outside world.

There isn't actually a 'gift shop' at Anne Frank House, but there are many different editions of her diary, and associated books. I found a book containing accounts by seven women who knew Anne at various stages in the concentration camps, and took it to the counter. As the man behind the counter handed my parcel to me, he said

"Thank you for coming." I had held it together up to this point. "Thank you for letting us come," I replied, and left in tears.

*Photography is not allowed in Anne Frank House. I obtained these images online.