TANZANIA TRIP DAY 2 (AMSTERDAM)

For a city with less than 900,000 residents, Amsterdam is rich in museums. Some are better than others. I reserved a ticket in advance to tour the Anne Frank house this morning and arrived in time for the  30-minute lecture, which was very helpful for putting everything in context.

I hadn’t realized that the Germans had established concentration camps as early as 1933. They eventually created thousands of them – not dozens, but thousands! Over 100,000 Dutch Jews were arrested and deported to concentration camps. Less than 5,500 survived and returned to Holland to no fanfare, welcome, or acknowledgement of what they had suffered.

All told, the Germans exterminated over 1.5 million Jewish children. Anne wrote her famous diary during a two-year period while living in a secret apartment that her father created above the factory where he had run the family business. No one knows for sure how the Nazis learned of the Frank family’s whereabouts, but they were arrested on August 4, 1944, less than two months after the Allied Normandy Invasion and were sent to concentration camps. Only Otto, Anne’s father, survived. He later turned their home into a world famous museum and a living reminder of the horror of Nazism.

No photos are permitted in the Anne Frank House, but I took photos of the back of the house and of a small radio similar to what the Franks used to keep in touch with the outside world as well as Nazis map that showed where all of the Jews lived. Every dot represented 10 Jews. This helped the Nazis later to arrest Amsterdam’s Jews.

After lunch, I toured the Amsterdam Museum. It’s under renovation, but I wouldn’t recommend visiting it. The museum tells a haphazard history of Amsterdam and Holland that comes across as an open apology for all things Dutch and anything that doesn’t correspond to the very liberal  contemporary Dutch outlook.

A more informative and interesting museum was the Museum of the Resistance, which chronicles the resistance movement in Holland that arose after the Nazis invaded and Holland surrendered within five days. Rotterdam was obliterated by German bombers, leading the Dutch government to surrender. The King and Queen fled to England to help support the Dutch resistance movement. The museum is well worth a visit and reminds all visitors of the dangers of nationalist movements, which bring out the most toxic element of their populace.

While Holland was occupied by the Germans, the Japanese invaded the Dutch colonies in Indonesia. After Holland was liberated in World War II, the Dutch fought the indigenous population of Indonesia for four years, not wanting to lose their colonies. The Dutch were ultimately unsuccessful and the United Nations was established to uphold the sovereign boundaries of nations.

I ended the day at Smelt – a wonderful little Dutch hole in the wall restaurant recommended to me by Charlie McNiff. While the Dutch aren’t known for cuisine, Smelt serves a fine fondue.

Off to Tanzania tomorrow. Can’t wait to experience it.
With Epiphany blessings,

Marek