Today was our final day in Amsterdam, and luckily, it was an interesting one. We had the opportunity to visit two museums. Both were about hiding from religious persecution, but they unfortunately had different endings and realities. In the middle of the day, we had the opportunity to further explore the city and say goodbye to those wonderful narrow streets and cobblestone roads.

To start our morning, we took a quick metro ride to Central station. We had to switch metros halfway and do a bit of a jog, but we all made it nonetheless. We toured Our Lord in The Attic Museum, which is a church hidden inside three houses. During the 16th and 17th centuries, as the Protestant Reformation began and Europeans rejected the Catholic Church, most Catholic nations prevailed against the Protestants, but the Netherlands did not. Catholic churches were destroyed, overtaken, and stripped of all non-Protestant features. These features, we learned, were depictions of God, Jesus on the cross, saints, and flashier or expensive pieces. Due to the Netherlands’ tolerant environment, the Catholic people were allowed to practice their faith in secret as long as it was not visible. There were a good number of hidden churches then, and they are extraordinary. The church we visited belonged to a very wealthy German immigrant who made money through selling silk stockings to men. When the Reformation occurred, this wealthy man chose to combine three buildings and build a hidden church. This church had 150 members and was three stories tall. Fully functioning, it included a rectory for the priest with a bed, a tabernacle, and even confessionary rooms. A unique thing our tour guide told us was that every single member of the church was required to confess once a week. On top of this, if someone committed a cardinal sin such as murder, they were required to pay the church to absolve them from that sin. This church continued to practice even after the death of the German immigrant, even when ironically, it was bought by a rich Protestant man. This church still holds mass every now and again, and it is also available for weddings. An interesting structural problem was that due to the lack of walls across the three buildings, it is beginning to cave in upon itself. The church has metal beams that hold it up; however, these are old and are frequently tested. It was interesting to understand how the Catholics in the Netherlands practiced their faith when it was illegal.

To end the day and our final Amsterdam experience, we had the opportunity to tour a museum of great importance and great sadness. The Anne Frank House is something that I learned about throughout school and the struggle of the teenage girl within the house. While it has been a while since I’ve read her diary, I still remembered the story. I found the tour most interesting because it gave information about Anne Frank’s family and the other people who lived with her. Eight people in total were placed in the annex of her father’s office building, and only Anne Frank’s father survived. This struggle during the Holocaust also included three main people who assisted Anne Frank, her family, and the other families. Hearing about how these people were imprisoned, what they did for these Jews, and how they were willing to help right away was eye-opening. The horrific tragedy of the Holocaust and the struggle to hide from the Gestapo as documented by a 13-16-year-old is truly interesting and terrible, especially when you witness just how small the rooms they stayed in were. A hidden door behind a bookshelf offered access to three bedrooms, including one in the attic, and a living room/kitchen. Anne Frank spoke about not going outside and barely seeing sunlight. I learned today as well that Anne Frank had aspirations of becoming a journalist or novelist. She wrote short stories and poems while in hiding and also read a terrific number of books at the urging of her father. In 1944, they were placed on one of the last trains to Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen. Anne Frank died of typhoid at Bergen-Belsen, the labor camp. This for me was connected to my World War II in Europe class, which I took this past semester. We discussed the Holocaust and its effects, as well as the brutality of labor and death camps.

Unfortunately, we are leaving Amsterdam but headed onto more adventures in Rotterdam tomorrow. What I experienced today was unfathomable, considering the struggles of Anne Frank and all in that house.