They were up early today....as ALL the advance tickets for Anne Franks House are sold out until....well....a couple of weeks yet! So...it would be the 'muggles' queue for us! BUT...against the script....it was raining! They had hoped the rain would do the right thing and fall during the night and stay off during the day! Well....no one told the rain-maker that!!
They went for breakfast and although not long after 8am it was quite busy! Plain but enough choice the breakfast was 'fine' as A apparently always says! So....the time was here to make the decision....to go or not to go! Well, there was only one choice- we had to get out of the cell!
So....waterproof jacket on.....NO waterproof trousers for A as L had decided he would NOT need them! Well, so much for her ESP powers! It was early and the streets were quiet! Even for a Monday morning...but the shops don't seem to open until 10am so perhaps that meant it was quieter! The trams trundled along regardless and looked a good bet! They walked up the Main Street till they came to the turn off to take them across the three canals they had to cross to get to Annes's! Well...perhaps the weather had deterred people and it was going to be quiet! By now the rain was persistently heavy...but we kept on going in hope it would be quiet!
Well...they crossed a street and saw a queue! Perhaps this was the tram queue....a queue of the Prostitutes Museum...well...what else do you do in teaming rain if not at Anne a Franks?? But, no...it was the queue for the most famous house in Amsterdam. We got there and joined what we thought was the end....before two guys from the museum guided the line that was now doubling back on itself to come round the corner beside us and keep in a straight line. So...we skipped a little of the queue inadvertently so...we hoped it would be ok. But it was one of those lines when you could not see the end of it
But, worse than that by now the heavens had opened...every possible drain from heaven had opened and it was bouncing almost as high off the ground as it had come down from! We stood.....water proof jackets.....well....shower proof really.....with Linda's little brollies.....thinking it was quite funny. Well, what else could you do! But it tipped.....and tipped and TIPPED....even Amazonian animals would have been running for shelter....and they stood (thank goodness for camera bags!!!) hoping that some of the queuers ahead might 'bail out' of the line! But no! Everyone huddled.....under brollies or many in long plastic ponchos (some guy was making a killing!) laughing and realising there was nothing they could do. But....even the little shelter the brolly offered and jacket....could not alleviate the oncoming threat of the water soaking slowly up your trouser legs! Shoes were squelching, socks were soaking and Linda's jacket was a little shorter so she felt the run off in places she didn't want!
So....they queued....and queued...and queued....the line edging forward in small bursts...and eventually after about 45 minutes they got to a sign saying.....approximately 45 minutes from here....as long as it's not tipping and teaming it down with rain!!
So....occasionally the rain eased and everyone thought.....yes...is it going to stop....but then it upped the level again and chucked it down! As long as you didn't move it was ok....but as soon as you had to move...even a few steps....you felt the soaking we trousers stick to your legs as you went....and the squelch from the feet.....was like squeezing a sponge!
But....eventually they made it! Now...to be fair to the museum...they sent out one or two poor workers with armfuls of brollies to dish out and Linda managed to get one which did help. Good for them for customer service!
Once in they paid and peeled off jackets and were given a couple of bags to put the wet things in! Then they were off....but as ever...it was a NO camera venue! And you had to have bags on your front and not your back!
The house extends over five floors.....the first two being Mr Franks business premises which he had to 'sign over' to his non-Jewish associates so the Nazis would not think it was owned by Jews. He had made the decision that the only way to try and avoid capture and transfer to a concentration camp was to hide away in secret. The two two floors under the loft were made in to a small self contained flat with a few rooms. He asked his most trusted friends and colleagues if they would help them by keeping their secret and providing them with food, clothes and the other items they would need to survive in total isolation! Four of them promised to do so and so two families moved in to be locked away in secret isolation - for how long they did not know. The entrance was hidden behind a book case that was built in front of it that would swing open to reveal the door to the steps up to the hidden flat!
Of course we all know that Anne wrote her diary during her stay there and wrote it every day in a revealing way that belied her age. Her father knew of the diary....but promised never to read it...and he did not until after returning to Amsterdam on his release after liberation....the only one of the two families to survive their eventual betrayal and transfer to Auschwietz and the gas chambers? He ensured her ambition was realised by getting the diaries published for all to read in 1947.
The museum is a very strange one...there is very little to see....but it is very atmospheric and it shows information....mainly in written form as you make your way round slowly in a queue shuffling bit by bit. You rise to the first floor and the second floor and it builds the imagery up as you go. Then ou reach the bookcase. It sits ajar and you stoop down and take a large step up on to the narrow, steep steps that lead to the hidden annexe. The rooms are small, sparse and have no furniture in them. Only the occasional glass case with some photos or text and images on the wall allow you to sense what it was like. You imagine it would be furnished....but all you ca. See is a photo in each room of how it was furnished in a reconstruction for the photos you see. The rooms would be too small to allow the number of visitors through with furniture there also. Each room has a security camera viewing you at all times to ensure no phots are taken. From one room to the next you shuffle and climb more narrow, steep steps. The windows are blacked out and the signs tell you that they could never be opened in day light in case it gave away the fact that people were there. So....there they were....in cramped, confined spaces with no day light....no fresh air and little room for two families to co-habit for a few days...let alone years. But they did.....and their friends helped them and supported them and they alsmost made it to liberation! Anne wrote of her dreams, her worries and all the things she wished she could do....even just seeing outside and feeling frah air all around her. The final steps to the loft are sealed but you can see the space via mirrors and you can see why they would want to escape up their from time to time to get some space and privacy.
As you begin to make your way down you read more extracts of the diary and as the line is so slow you read everyone as you pass. There are video displays that recount the memories of Ott Frank and some of his helpers, who although all arrested on their discovery by the Gestapo also survived to the end of the war.
This is a moving and understated museum and the pangs of slight disappointment at how simple it is truly give you a very slight idea of what it must have been like!
This is a museum to make you think, reflect and consider the freedom people four for. As one
ex-American soldier from the war said about his visit years later, 'I realise now what I was fighting for.'
But, the bigger picture is not really how they hid and almost made it....it is the fact that people had to do this as a means of trying to survive. You think that it could not happen again....but today the news is ful of conflict and fighting between different races, creeds and religions and we have not learned the lessons history teaches us. For all our advances in the world man has not progressed beyond the concept of hating and distrusting those who are different or who believe differently from them.
Although a museum for all this is not a museum for children. They are too young to appreciate the history and reasons why it is important and the 'simplicity' in it's presentation, never mind the time queuing to get in, would not appeal to a generation brought up on interactive multimedia presentations. That is not to say they should not visit as it is a behavioural and cultural lesson in appreciating the past.
But, like most museums you exit via the cafe and the shop! However, after having dried out a little, not the feet, socks or shoes or trouser bottoms, they felt the need for some warm tea and coffee to warm them up. The upper levels of the museum are cold and finally making it back to warmer levels is appreciated!
The shop is a contrast to most museum shops. It is understated, like the museum, and the majority of the shop is given over to Anne Franks diary in a wide range of languages. There are postcards and posters but none of the typical key rings, mugs, pens and other typical 'tat' you are used to.
So....it was back out into the rain.....not quite as heavy.....but still heavy and the queue still snaked its way down and round two corners....and they were tempted to say to people.....if you are here....keep going.....only about 90 minutes till you get there.
But somehow, waiting and queueing in the rain somehow added to the experience in a strange way.
They waddled their way back to the hotel via a shop to pick up some lunch and the chance to get a shower and heat up!
Linda's friend, Shona Marshall, is shooting today at the Commonwealth Games and there is not much hope the coverage will be on the TV here. They have access to BBC 1 - but not the range of live feeds from all sports!
But GO SHONA!!
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