The other "must-do" tourist item on my list was the Anne Frank House. The actual house in which she and her family hid during the war, now converted into a museum. It was a really well done museum, incredibly minimalist. Essentially, you get the background in the first couple of rooms, and then head upstairs to where the eight people hid. It was a very little space, made even more dreary by the fact that they couldn't open the shades for risk of being seen. Several, but not many, artifacts of Anne and the family's time were scattered around the rooms. In addition, quotes from her diary had been blown up and plastered on the walls.
And of the eight, only one, Otto Frank, her dad, survived. To this day they aren't sure how they got found out. But then, they did, and they were scattered to a number of the Nazi's concentration camps.
The place ends hopefully, with Otto Frank's plea for more understanding and tolerance. Interestingly, they had a poll set up on a hot topic. When I was there, the question of whether headscarves for Muslim girls should be banned in schools was raised. Everyone could watch a short video and then vote with handheld buttons. I'm not sure it really worked, but a nice attempt nonetheless.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment