Today we went to the Our Lord in the Attic Museum which was made by a wealthy Catholic German, Jan Hartman, for other Catholics to practice their faith during a time of religion prosecution. In the sixteen hundreds, the Dutch fell under protestant rule where they where protestantism became the primary religion, and those who chose to practice other religions were treated as second class citizen. This meant that they did not have as many rights as protestants and could not openly practice their religion.

Thus, Catholics and such religions were forced to practice their faith in private/hidden locations. This led to the creation of this church we visited to and dozens others like it, that are often located in the attics of their buildings. However, due to the hundreds of people going to one mass each week, it was almost impossible to hide the locations of such sanctions. I thought that it was fascinating that although it was illegal to practice catholicism, the Dutch were extremely tolerant of these “secret” churches, and allowed them to continue. I know that if this were to have happened in other countries, such an action could have led to severe consequences or even execution.

When we went up to the actual part of the building where mass was held, the architecture was astonishing. They had cut out openings in two stories of flooring to create balconies for extra seating. From an engineering perspective, I was curious how such a thing could have been possible without the destruction of the flooring on the sides that were left. Our tour guide quickly explained to us that the creators had placed metal rods across the floors that supported the weight of the sides, and allowed for even more weight of people sitting on them. I was shocked at the thought of those small beams supporting all of that force but also that people on the 1600’s already had such advanced engineering practices to be able to determine this.

We then had free-time where we decided to visit the Rijksmuseum, an art museum that features famous artists such as Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Van Gogh. This was by far the grandest museum I have ever visited with three stories and over 6000 paintings. We only had enough time to go through half of the museum, but it was fascinating seeing the different styles and pieces from the 1600’s to the 1900’s. We were able to see how paints and interpretations advanced and changed over time, and take in lots of artwork we had never been exposed to. My favorite part was seeing Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait in a Grey Felt Hat because I had always heard of his famous self-portraits growing up throughout several art classes, but it was neat to see one in person.

Lastly, we went to the Anne Frank Museum where we were able to walk around with an automatic audio recording that would play in each room we entered. It toured us around the house in which Anne Frank and her family, along with another Jewish family, sought refuge from the Nazi’s in. It was an incredibly emotional experience to walk through the annex that these families were living in silence through because of their religion. I had learned about Anne Frank and her story in school growing up, but nothing prepared me for the realness of standing in the house personally. I could feel the emotions that the Frank family was feeling: anger, disgust, betrayal, and immense sadness. However, I could not imagine feeling these things with an added layer of constant fear and pressure to survive for two straight years. They had to sneak around the house during the days and communicate through only whispers to keep themselves from being killed.

Out of the eight people that hid away in the annex for two years, all but one died in concentration camps. To think that such a treacherous story is only one experience of eight Jews out of the millions that were being hunted and executed by the Nazis is completely sickening. I am so glad I was able to visit the Annex and learn so much more about this horrible event in history. See you tomorrow Amsterdam, or should I say Rotterdam!