First off, be sure to hit the Anne Frank House first thing in the morning. It's one of those must-see Amsterdam attractions, and by noon, when we left the museum, the line outside was down the block and around the corner. The museum is the building where Otto Frank worked and where the Frank family and their friends hid out during the Nazi occupation in the Netherlands. If you've read Anne Frank's diary, it's amazing to be able to see what it really looked like. There are also some videos of people who helped the Frank family or who knew Anne, which is amazing to see. I found the museum to be pretty well set up: You move from room to room and there are videos, explanations, and some artifacts from the family and quotes from Anne's diary on the walls. I did feel like there could have been some more information, though, as I've read the book but not recently enough to remember a lot - it was just that there were some things missing. So, I recommend reading or re-reading her diary right before visiting. Then you'll be really well-prepared to take it all in.

In a city as beautiful as Amsterdam, it's almost impossible for me to imagine German tanks rolling through the streets, looking for Jews. The Anne Frank house gives you a look into what life was like over 60 years ago. Looking into the Franks' living situation is a very sad experience. Eight people sharing a few small rooms with almost no privacy for 2 years is amazing.

Imagine having to keep absolutely silent during the day and cooking meals only in the evening, after the warehouse workers below leave to go to their homes at the end of a workday. Because the waste pipes for the toilet run right through the warehouse, the toilet is flushed as little as possible.

Imagine never being able to go outside or even open a window for fear of being discovered.

With the aid of family friends, Bep Voskuijl was one of the people who would bring food, supplies, and news to the families hidden away. At the end of the tour, you get to find out what happened to each person who was in hiding.

If you don't feel any emotion during this tour, you are not human. This is a self-guided tour, so you can take your time. The museum has a lot of very skinny staircases and no facilities for the handicapped. It's a life-changing place.

There's a bookstore and small café at the end of the tour.

HOURS:
Jan 2-March 24, 2005
Daily from 9am-7pm
March 25-Aug. 31, 2005
Daily from 9am-9pm
Sept. 1-Dec. 30, 2005
Daily from 9am-7pm

Read The Diary of Anne Frank. Then explore and study this house. Re-read the book again after visiting the house. It is amazing; I can't describe it in words. I was in tears when I read the book again when I arrived home. I was thinking about my own upbringing after the race riot in Malaysia in May 13, 1969. I am very fortunate to have lived through the race persecution.

The name Anne Frank is synonymous with Amsterdam, and we were determined to spend time to understand what this family and fellow Jews would have experienced at this point in history. The house, therefore, was high on our agenda to visit. Entry to the house was a little disappointing, as the development of a modern reception annex has been constructed to deal with the hundreds of thousands of tourists that visit annually.

Anne spent two years hidden in this house before their whereabouts were revealed to the Nazis in the summer of 1944. The sad irony is that Anne and her sister died of typhus in the notorious Belsen concentration camp only a week before the German surrender. Thankfully, her diaries survived, and her father had them published in 1947. They continue to express the thoughts and the determination of a young teenager to survive despite the odds. She failed, but her words didn’t!

The first part of the exhibition graphically shows life in Amsterdam in the 1940s. There are stills and "moving photos" showing the Nazi occupation, the dress enforcement of the yellow star, the formation of ghettos, and the imposing of unrealistic curfews. All this led Otto Frank to decide that if he and his family were to survive, they must hide away from the German oppressors. With help from his Dutch friends, Otto moved into the unused part of his company’s warehouse and the now-famous bookshelf was constructed. We wondered as we walked through the doorway with the permanently open bookcase door how the Frank family had not been detected earlier, but we guessed that in the 1940s, the layout of the buildings would have made it difficult to detect, despite the fact that the rear garden is no more than a courtyard that would have been shared by more than one household.

Certainly life in the restricted space of the annex must have been difficult to manage for the family, and it is evident as you follow the tourist trail that they became an insular and self-sufficient family. There is evidence of normality as you walk through the rooms—pencil marks on the walls showing the growth progress of the two Frank girls and posters on the bedroom wall (typical of a teenager). It is said that, other than maintaining the property and the obvious work downstairs, little has been done to the rooms. If this is the case, the family lived very frugally, and it would have been a stark contrast to the opulence they’d been used to in the main house.

There is so much to see here, and we all felt the emotional presence of the Frank family. I truly would defy anyone to leave here without experiencing feelings of bewilderment and astonishment for what happened with and to this family.

The museum is more than the Franks’ home; it’s a full portrayal of how minorities must struggle to survive. Enjoy—if that’s the right word.

This Museum with a Story is where Anne Frank and seven others lived in hiding during the time of the persecution of Jews during WWII. Anne Frank kept her famous diary during this hiding period. Her original diary is on display here.

I was surprised to see how large the hiding place actually was, covering two floors plus an attic. Four people helped to hide and provide for the eight people during the two years before they were betrayed.

Once betrayed, all eight were sent to concentration camps. Only Anne's father, Otto Frank, survived.

Anne's famous diary has been published into more than 60 languages.