April 26, 2008

• In Amsterdam

  I was thinking about the doors pictures I took on my latest trip and then I thought there are doors and there are doors.  What a particular door can evoke in a person, sadness and introspection or happiness and a sense of well being are two polar opposites emotions you can feel.  If you don't think a door can do that to you then you haven't seen a door and thought to yourself I wonder what's on the other side.  Or seen a picture of a door and gotten a "feeling" from it.  There are plenty of doors that are nothing more than portals to another room or place, then there are some that when you stand in front of them you know that this door has history, not necessarily good history.  There it is, just a door, an inanimate object that is a witness to other lives and times.

  In case you can't read this or don't want to take the time to click it and look at it full size, this is the door to 263 Prinsengracht. This is the door that led to the warehouse and offices of Otto Frank's company and the place that he and his family and friends lived for 25 months in hiding from the Nazis. They hid in the back part of the building in a "Secret Annex".  The most famous resident of that secret annex is Anne Frank. 

  The Diary of Anne Frank is almost universally known but standing in front of that door and then touring what is now a museum was something else entirely.

  I haven't read Anne's diary for years but even after all this time there are parts that I still remember. Her longing to be free to walk in the sun. Her curiosity about growing into a woman and the "crush" she had for Peter Van Pels, her fellow "prisoner" in the annex.  Climbing into the attic and watching the Chestnut tree and the clouds going by.  What always struck me was the maturity her diary showed, she had a way of expressing herself that even today is unique and timely. 

  There were some parts of the secret annex that were very hard to see and brought tears to my eyes.  There was a place on the wall in her parents room that they used to measure Anne and Margots' growth.  It was so hard seeing that, how many of us parents have that same spot in our house where we measure how much our children have grown in the last year?  How heartbreaking to see that and know that of them all, their father would be the only one to survive the war. Worst of all knowing that all that growth was done in horrifying circumstances far from the normal lives our children lead.  Then there was Anne's room, covered in movie stars and celebrities of the day torn from magazines and pasted onto the walls in an effort to brighten the room.   And the chestnut tree, still there, so old and now diseased. They are discussing whether it needs to be cut down and that in itself makes me so sad, though I know for a Chestnut tree it is at the end of a natural life.  It's almost as if, if it still stands something of her does too, something living that she cherished.  Seeing her diary, the real thing out there on display, such a tiny book and yet it changed lives all over the world.

  Some of the best part was reading and seeing how faithful their helpers were, the 4 employees of Otto Frank. They took enormous risk and never flinched from what they were doing, even knowing it could cost the lives of them and their families if they were caught.  Two of them did get sent to prison.  It was Bep Voskuijl and Miep Gies who ultimately saved Annes' diary and Miep who gave it back to her father after the war.

  This door led to a different world.  This door offered a safe haven for family and friends.  At least it was safe for awhile, it was safe until betrayal cost the lives of 7 innocent people who's only crime was being Jewish.  This door has been silent witness to some of the best and worst humanity has to offer and it still stands.  I hope it stand for many years to come so that people today can learn what happened in that not so distant past.

   

  • 3:53 pm
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