Our Visit To Anne Frank's House

If you are contemplating a visit to Anne Frank's house during a trip to Amsterdam, I would highly recommend it. In the summer of 2009, my family had the opportunity to take a European cruise. We finished in Amsterdam and spent about a day and a half touring there. We managed to pack in a lot in that short time (much more than we planned or thought possible) and one of my absolute favorite visits was to Anne Frank's House.

Just in case you don't know, the Anne Frank House is now a museum which shares the story of Anne Frank, a Jewish girl who, during the Second World War, lived in hiding with her family and friends in Amsterdam at the Prinsengracht.

Because we did not know how much we were going to be able to do in one day, we did not make reservations to visit Anne Frank's House. RESERVATIONS ARE RECOMMENDED in the guidebooks and the books also say that having made reservations can save you a long wait in line.

We did manage to follow another recommendation that appeared in the guidebooks and that was to ARRIVE LATE IN THE DAY. While we did have to wait in line, the line up was not huge and the wait was not lengthy.

Once inside the building (which actually was a warehouse rather than a home), you proceed in a single line through the tight corridors and you do get to see much of the building including the rooms at the top where the Frank family and their friends lived. It was a moving visit, which was especially important to me, the only female member of our family and the only one who has read the Anne Frank books and seen some of myriad of Anne Frank movies.

Despite the fact that my teenagers (then 15 and 17) did not know a lot about Anne, they did know a bit about the history and there was plenty to keep their interest almost long enough for their mother to read almost everything in sight.

What I had not counted on was the amazing museum facility that has been added to the original building. It allowed much for information to be presented and it is in that space that we were privileged to see Anne's diary.

As Rick Steves' said in Europe Through The Back Door, "Even bah-humbug types, who are dragged in because it's raining and their wives read the diary, find themselves caught up in Anne's story."

Find a selection of postcards from Anne Frank's house here on eBay.

A beautiful hardcover book by Hans Westra.

Inside Anne Frank's House: An Illustrated Journey Through Anne's World was published on the 75th anniversary of Anne Frank's birth and it was the first book that was issued in color which celebrated both Anne Frank and her famous house. The pictures are in black and white and share Anne's family and friends, the people who looked after them while they were secreted away and the house and the remaining items from Anne's time.

READER REVIEW:

"This book transports you to Amsterdam to the Anne Frank House which has been a museum since 1960. You take a route through photographs and documents in the same order that viewers who are lucky enough to be able to visit the museum in person. You meet Anne Frank and her family from heart rending pictures beginning with a happy family to a family in hiding to their capture and the post-war lives of those lucky enough to survive. When I bought this book I expected to see photographs of the House but was unprepared to face their overall and cumulative impact. This book is shattering and essential..." - R. Rockwell