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Posts tagged anne frank

Aerial view of Amsterdam from Westertoren (end of Anne Frank week)

western church tower scene

Aerial view of Amsterdam and Anne Frank Museum

The waterway through the center of this picture is Prinsengracht (Prince’s Canal), which runs in front of the Anne Frank Museum. The line of people at the bottom-center of the photograph is for the Anne Frank Museum. I don’t know if the queue is this long all year long or just the summer, but it didn’t get significantly shorter as the day went on. I initially came to this spot in the morning, but the line was so long that I decided to come back in the afternoon, hoping that the queue would fizzle out (sort of like the line does at St. Peter’s and the Vatican) in the afternoon. The line was a bit shorter later in the day but not much.

Anne Frank House Secret Annex from Westertoren

anne Frank house secret annex from Westertoren

Anne Frank House Secret Annex from Westertoren

“Monday, July 26, 1943


Dearest Kitty,


Yesterday was a very tumultuous day, and we’re still all wound up. Actually, you may wonder if there’s ever a day that passes without some kind of excitement.


The first warning siren went off in the morning while we were at breakfast, but we paid no attention, because it only meant that the planes were crossing the coast. I had a terrible headache, so I lay down for an hour after breakfast and then went to the office at about two. At two-thirty Margot had finished her office work and was just gathering her things together when the sirens began wailing again. So she and I trooped back upstairs. None too soon, it seems, for less than five minutes later the guns were booming so loudly that we went and stood in the passage. The house shook and the bombs kept falling. I was clutching my “escape bag,” more because I wanted to have something to hold on to than because I wanted to run away. I know we can’t leave here, but if we had to, being seen on the streets would be just as dangerous as getting caught in an air raid. After half an hour the drone of engines faded and the house began to hum with activity again. Peter emerged from his lookout post in the front attic, Dussel remained in the front office, Mrs. van D. felt safest in the private office, Mr. van Daan had been watching from the loft, and those of us on the landing spread out to watch the columns of smoke rising from the harbour. Before long the smell of fire was everywhere, and outside it looked as if the city were enveloped in a thick fog.”

I’m guessing that the little window in the center of today’s photo is one of the windows those hiding in the Secret Annex were looking through during the above quoted air raid. Perhaps it is the loft window?

Tomorrow I’ll wrap up Anne Frank week with a wider angle view of this same location showing the canal and the long line of tourists waiting to get into the Anne Frank Museum.

Westertoren bells

bell tower in amsterdam west church

Westertoren bells - Amsterdam

“Thursday, March 25, 1943

Incidents like these are always accompanied by other disasters, and this was no exception. Number one: the Westertoren bells stopped chiming, and I’d always found them so comforting.”

These church bells in Westerkerk were made by François Hemony in 1648. They chime daily now, just as they did when Anne Frank wrote about them and just as they did 300+ years ago.

Mari Andriessen’s Anne Frank statue

Anne Frank statue amsterdam

Anne Frank statue by Mari Andriessen

Most people visiting the Anne Frank Museum probably miss this statue of her. The statue can be found on the opposite side of Westerkerk as the Anne Frank House.

Secret Annex bookcase

bookcase concealing secret annex

Actual bookcase that concealed those in hiding at Anne Frank House

“Friday, August 21, 1942

Now our Secret Annex has truly become secret. Because so many houses are being searched for hidden bicycles, Mr. Kugler thought it would be better to have a bookcase built in front of the entrance to our hiding place. It swings out on its hinges and opens like a door. Mr. Voskuijl did the carpentry work. (Mr. Voskuijl has been told that the seven of us are in hiding, and he’s been most helpful.)”

I had not done any research on what to expect when visiting the Anne Frank Museum. Normally at museums there are displays, photos, and such, but to actually encounter, and enter through, the bookcase that hid the Franks and the others in hiding at 263 Prinsengracht was a bit of a rush.

Anne Frank House

anne frank museum

Anne Frank House - 263 Prinsengracht

“Friday, July 10, 1942

After we arrived at 263 Prinsengracht, Miep quickly led us through the long hallway and up the wooden staircase to the next floor and into the Annex.”

anne frank house sign

Sign on the Anne Frank House - Anne Frank Huis

The Anne Frank House is now a museum. In it you will find not only the rooms she describes in such detail (pretty much as they were when Anne lived there in the early 1940s), but also pages from her original diary and the clippings she herself decorated the walls with (now covered in protective glass).