WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE FALL 2013

Annexe: Diary Letters from June 14,
1942-Aug. 1, 1944” with a run of some
3,000. To date it has sold more than
35 million copies in 70 languages.
The Anne Frank House opened as
a museum on May 3, 1960. I first
toured it in 1970; this would be my
third visit. More than 1
million visit annually--and
on most days there is still
a long line of young people
from around the world
waiting patiently to get in.
The museum includes
high-tech videos, with
moving documentaries by
classmates, neighbors, and family
friends. On one, Otto notes that he
was amazed to see what his beloved
daughter had written, that it was
“a miracle” that the diary had been
saved.
“It took me a very long time to read
it," he said, "and I must say I was very
much surprised about deep thoughts
Anne had, her seriousness—and especially
her self-criticism. It was quite a
different Anne that I had known as my
daughter; she never really showed this
kind of inner feeling. . . .Most parents
“In spite of everything I
still believe that people
are really good at heart.”
~ Anne Frank
don’t know, really, their children.” Noting
that he was not bitter, he added, “To
build up a future, you have to know the
past.”
In an upstairs alcove is a corner bookcase—its
shelves lined with empty account
books. Behind it is a hidden door-
way, with a framed map of the Grand
Duchy of Luxembourg hiding the upper
edge of the door frame. When the bookcase
is swung open, it reveals steep, narrow
stairs--the entrance to the "Secret
Annexe," as Anne dubbed it.
I slowly walked through the five tiny,
empty, stuffy rooms--with windows
closed and covered just as
they had been back then. This
visit was just as powerful as
my first. I felt an overwhelming
sadness and was moved to
see some visitors wiping tears;
others whispered as they pointed
out things. During the day,
when there had been office and
warehouse workers downstairs, the hidden
group had to be quiet as mice. “No
running water, no flushing lavatory, no
walking around, no noise whatsoever,”
Anne wrote in August 1943. Difficult for
a young teen to do--and so she turned to
her diary.
I was most touched seeing Anne's tiny,
narrow room, which she had shared with
a middle-aged dentist, and where she
wrote her diary. The orangy wallpaper
is still decorated with several postcards
Top: The swinging bookcase hid the entrance to
the secret living quarters.
Left: Visitors browse the Frank family timeline.
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