Anne Frank Museum

Intro

On Monday, May 20, 2024, we went to the Anne Frank House. The Anne Frank House was an eye-opening, informative, and moving experience. Throughout the tour it gave information and anecdotes about World War II. The tour was mostly about Anne Frank before and during the war, and what happened after the war, but the tour also included broader stories and stories of other people in concentration camps or in hiding. Halfway through the tour we went into the actual annex where Anne Frank and her family hid. We walked through the attic, saw, and read about the attic the family stayed in. Through readings, videos, and audio the tour gave information and facts about the war as well as personal stories. In the museum you cannot take video or pictures, so I am writing an essay about my experience there and the history I learned while visiting the Anne Frank House.

What is it?

The Anne Frank House is a museum to inform visitors about Anne Frank, her family, and talk about World War II in general. The first part of the tour discusses the beginning of World War II and how society changed due to the war. The second part of the tour was in the actual attic where Anne Frank and her family lived during the war. We walked up the steep stairs into the attic and walked through each room. Each room had pictures and real papers with writings on it from the people who lived there. For example, there was a grocery list that had been written by one of the women. We walked through their kitchen, Anne Frank's room, and the living room. The last part of the tour was about the ending of the war and the outcome of the people that lived in the attic. The tour shared information about Otto Frank, Anne Frank’s dad, and what he went through after the war. The tour took us through the making of the book Anne Frank’s Diary. The tour showed us how  he found the diary, reading the diary, and ultimately publishing the diary. The last section was a room for learning extra information about what happened after the war like integrating back into society, there was a miniature version of the attic Anne Frank stayed in, and many other extra facts about what happened during and after World War II. 

History of Anne Frank

In 1939 World War II began. Although The Netherlands is a tolerant country, it is a small country so fighting Germany was not something they would be able to win, so Germany took hold of The Netherlands pretty quickly. The Netherlands was taken over by Germany in 1940. Rules were put in schools and social gatherings separating Jewish people from society. Then, in 1942, the Frank Family, Anne, her parents, Otto and Edith, and her sister Margot went into hiding above Otto’s place of work with the help of friends and workers. They weren’t the only family, the van Pels, Herman and Augusta with their son Peter stayed with the Franks. Lastly, Fritz Pfeffer also stayed with them. All of them were jewish and they all had help from the outside from multiple people. The attic was behind a hidden door disguised as a bookshelf. While in the attic they had to follow a lot of rules. Since the attic was above Otto’s place of work, people would work during the day, so during the day they all had to be quiet (they weren’t even allowed to use the bathroom). At night, when nobody was in the shop, they could be as loud as they wanted. This is the time Anne would write in her diary. She wrote stories, fictional and non-fictional about her experience in the attic. Anne Frank had only been thirteen years old when they first went into the attic in 1942, and the next time she was out was 1944 when everyone in the attic was caught and arrested. The war ended in 1945, soon after the families in the attic were arrested. When the war was over Otto Frank was released from the camp he was put in and decided to go find his family. He later learned that his wife and two daughters died in early 1945 in concentration camps. He also learned that the other people they hid with also died in concentration camps.

About the Diary

When Otto Frank went back to the attic after the war, he found everything that they had left behind. Among those things was Anne Frank's diary. When they went into hiding, Anne Frank brought an empty journal to the attic when they decided to hide. Throughout their time in the attic Anne would write about things they did, her feelings, short stories, and ideas she had in this journal. When Otto Frank found this diary he read it and was moved. In a video of Otto he discussed that Anne was a closed off girl who wouldn’t talk much about her feelings, so reading this journal surprised him on how much she felt. After reading the journal he decided to tell her story by publishing the book. On June 25th, 1947 Anne Frank’s Diary was published in The Netherlands and later in 1952 its publication made its way to the United States. 

The Importance of the Museum

This museum is very important for history. This was only one story of one family that lived in fear and had to hide and were torn apart. This is one one family of millions that were affected by this war. We learn history because we don’t want to repeat history. The story of Anne Frank humanizes what happened. The people who died weren’t just numbers, they had hopes and dreams and families. Anne Frank’s story and her family’s story is important because we can relate to being thirteen and being a young teenager, that is what is significant about this story. We were all thirteen once, we can empathize AND sympathize with Anne Frank and her experiences and feelings. This story is the story of a young girl and her family with hopes and dreams and wants like any other person. This story was incredibly moving and sad. The silence is loud as you walk through the annex and look at the pictures of young Margot, Peter, and Anne. All you can hear while walking through is the footsteps of the people around you reading the sad stories of when Edith died, or what happened to the people that helped them. Everyone in the room knew the heaviness of this event and understood the weight of the situation. Nobody wants to talk about a young girl who died, and that is exactly why we should talk about this, because it shows how evil  humanity can be.

Conclusion

Everyone enjoyed going to the museum, I would 100 percent go back. There were things I already knew that I had learned from school, but I also learned a lot of things I never knew about. This museum tour really immersed you into what all happened to Anne Frank and her family. This helps draw discussion towards what happened to other families? Were other people’s experiences similar to this? What experiences were different? This tour was a beautiful memorial to the family and families that were killed in World War II.