Scenic Christmas Market Cruise

Tomorrow, we start our Christmas Market cruise right here in Amsterdam. We can embark on the boat any time after 1100am and enjoy lunch before checking into our rooms and unpacking. But for today, roaming Amsterdam!

Walt & Rachel arrived yesterday late in the afternoon so we didn’t do much. We did take in the Anne Frank House & Museum before grabbing dinner at one of Amsterdam’s traditional restaurants. Sorry, no photos were allowed.

The story of Anne Frank is fairly well known but we still wanted to see the actual hiding place where 8 people survived for more than 2 years hiding from the Nazis. The “annex” where they hid is a small building addition Otto Frank added on to the back of his business residence. From the street, the addition was not visible so as far as anyone knew, it didn’t exist. But how did Otto and his family end up in Amsterdam?

Otto Frank was born in Germany along with his with Edith and their two daughters Margot and Anne. In the early 1930’s, trouble was brewing in Germany and so Otto, being of Jewish descent, decided to move the family to Amsterdam where he opened a business making pectin for jams. The business did well and the family was comfortable in Amsterdam. That is until the late 1930’s when the Nazis invaded the Netherlands.

Conditions in Amsterdam steadily worsened for Jews and soon Otto and his family, along with the Van Pels (Herman, Auguste, and their son Peter), and Fritz Pfeffer, a friend, all sought refuge from the Nazis in the annex. The annex had close to everything you’d need to survive, running water, toilets, and a kitchen. During the night when the factory workers were gone, the group could come out of hiding and spend their time in the factory area that also had a kitchen and sitting areas. But during the day, from 8:30am to 5:30pm not a sound could be made for fear of someone hearing them. No running water or flushing a toilet as the pipes ran through the factory area and could be heard. Everyone had an assigned time for using the sink and other facilities.

The entrance to the annex was concealed behind a bookcase that locked in place. The only people that knew the franks and others were hiding here was a small group of friends and employees who helped bring food and essential items to them.

Late in 1944, someone told the Nazis of their hiding place and the group was arrested. They were all separated with Anne and her sister Margot being sent to Auschwitz. Two months before the liberation of the camp, both Anne and her sister died from spotted typhus. The only survivor of those hidden in Amsterdam was Otto Frank. The other seven people perished.

After touring the house, it was time for us to all get something to eat. We chose a small, traditional restaurant serving dishes like hutspot  (potato, carrot, onion mash and sausage), and snert (pea soup). Time to call it a day…