VIJF FOTOS-Amsterdam Day 6

For a good part of the day, we enjoyed a leisurely day near our flat as we took care of a few necessities: laundry and haircuts. It was sunny and cool, the best weather day since we arrived.

I think I enjoy people watching nearly as much as planned excursions, and today was no exception. We sat by the canal outside of our flat with a few beers and a light lunch and we took in the sights around us.

This evening, we went to the Anne Frank House. The museum reminds me of the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis that incorporates the Lorraine Motel, the site where Martin Luther King was assassinated, as part of the museum's structure. Similarly, a modern structure is integrated with the Frank house.

We were not allowed to take photos inside the house. I suspect that most people are somewhat familiar with Anne Frank and her diary that captured time when her family and acquaintances hid for two years from the Nazis. They were discovered and deported to concentration camps where all perished with the exception of Otto Frank.

Before entering the house, I wondered what would be the most impactful aspects of the visit. Would it be seeing the bookcase that hid the entrance to the back of the house? Would it be moving through the secret living quarters with seven other people for two years without being able to leave, make sounds during the day, or go near a window? Would it be imagining the Nazis discovering the hiding space and being taken away from the home to an uncertain future?

For me, two things really hit hard: The first was seeing pencil lines on the wall measuring Anne's changing height. It reminded me of a house that we bought where those same children's height archives remained from the previous owner. Ordinary people were doing ordinary things.

The second were the diaries themselves. The opportunity to see Anne's writing as an early teen, capturing her observations about every day life in hiding, but also navigating bigger a world that allowed the horrific events to take place.

I have a few takeaways from our time at the house.

As a father, I can only imagine how difficult it would be to think that you had taken steps to protect your family, only to lose them all and to be the left to retell the painful story.

As a former teacher who assigned students to keep journals, I'm reminded that the insights of youth can be quite powerful. They express their thoughts about daily life and their hopes and fears. I learned much from my students. They didn't know it at the time, but they were my teachers.

Like many, experiencing nearly two years of various degrees of isolation during the pandemic, I'm reminded of my privilege, and what we endured was minimal by comparison.

I wonder about the mindset that rationalized the need for a nationalistic Nazi Socialist party and accepted a deranged leader to commit the most evil act in our world's history. While it seems like hyperbole to compare current times to this period, I do think that we have become numb to similar rationalizations jeopardizing democracy in our own backyard.

I celebrate the allies who risked their lives to try and protect their friends despite serious personal risk.

I'm reminded that the story of Anne Frank is one story. The stories of millions are lost and have not been told individually. The promise of so many people was eradicated.

We must do everything we can to make sure that this never happens again and to heed the advice of a wise 14-year old:

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." Anne FrankRead more