0  | 

I found this helpful Thank You! Your vote will be tallied soon!

At some point, it seems as though every child attending middle school or high school will read "The Diary of Anne Frank." 

Written by a young Jewish girl in Amsterdam in World War II, it is the story of her time with her family in hiding, trying to avoid discovery and deportation by the Nazis.  We read in Anne's own words how the noose tightened around the Jewish community with restrictions and required yellow stars, then how the Franks went into hiding in a "Secret Annexe" in the building where father Otto Frank had a business (Mr. Frank's four employees help to provide food and help to the hidden families; eight people total.)   Unfortunately, the story does not end well, as someone tells the Nazis about the hiding place, they are betrayed, and everyone is sent to concentration camps.  No one survives except for Otto Frank, but Anne lives on through her diary.

I just wrote a post over on Family Travel about travel with kids to Amsterdam, and I recommend a visit to the Anne Frankhuis (House) if you think that your children are ready for it.  It is certainly difficult to attempt to explain something like the Holocaust, even amongst adults, but these things can happen and do happen in the world.  Forewarned is forearmed when it comes to the "evil that men do," in my opinion.   Sometimes it's easier to say, "Surely that can't happen...." or "Surely people wouldn't do that...." but any student of history knows that we have to be vigilant because terrible things DO happen.

The Anne Frank House is partly a museum about the worldwide impact of the diary, and partly just the rooms themselves where the families were cooped up for two years.  Can you imagine?  Indoors, tip-toeing about, on top of one another, for two full years -- my daughter was amazed when she saw it..  Particularly poignant are some pictures and movie star memorabilia that Anne put up on the wall -- she liked film star Deanna Durbin, who was also a favorite of my own mother, along with the Princesses Elizabeth (today's Queen Elizabeth) and royal sister Margaret.  You can also see the swinging bookcase that hid the Annexe entrance.

There are also document collections, special exhibitions, and Anne's original diary (remember, it's written in Dutch) available for visitors.

Enter the museum at 267 Prinsengracht, on the Prinsengracht canal; it's easy to find.  Hours are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. March-Sept and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sept-March (see the Web site for specific updates and info.)  Lines are huge to get in, but if you wait until the evening hours it may be easier, especially when they're open until 9 p.m..  They stop letting visitors in 30 minutes prior to closing.

Technorati tags: travel, family travel, Anne Frank House, Amsterdam