Today is our final day in Amsterdam before we head off to Rotterdam tomorrow afternoon, and we definitely got to see an important piece of history to make it memorable. The main event was visiting the Anne Frank house, which is especially meaningful to me because I am Jewish so have grown up learning about Anne Franks story and know the impact her diaries have had on the world. While we were not allowed to take photos inside the museum, I will remember those rooms that the Frank family, as well as a few others, had to hide in for two years before getting caught.

Inside the museum, we learned about the Frank family and their time in hiding while walking through the rooms in the Secret Annex. There were some original pieces of the annex remaining in the museum, like the kitchen counter and the wall where they tracked people’s heights. This part really struck me because I remember when I was growing up my family also had one of those walls to track me and my sister’s growth, and it just reminds me that this was just a normal family, not one in the spotlight that they ended up receiving. Throughout the museum, there were many points that talked about Anne’s desire to become a journalist and how she wanted to publish a book after the war, so she wrote stories inspired by the Secret Annex, as well as fictional ones. Something that I never knew was how passionate she was about writing, as it was such an escape for her from all of the dark things happening around her.

One of the things that is ingrained in my head is the video of Otto Frank at the end of the museum. This was after the camps were liberated, and he was trying to reunite with his daughters. Unfortunately, as we know, Anne (Anna as he calls her) and her sister Margot passed away in a concentration camp, which he learned from someone who knew them there. Otto previously promised his daughter he would never open her diaries, but after her passing he was encouraged to read them and discovered a different person. The part that particularly struck me was when he said it was not the Anna that he knew, as she never expressed these dark thoughts present in the diaries of her inner thoughts. This really made me reflect on how someone could be thinking completely different things as what is shown on the outside. Also, I truly realized how Anne must have been trying hard to put up a strong face in front of her family so as to make it seem like she was doing okay to her worrying parents.

After an emotional morning, as had the afternoon free until the alumni dinner at a local restaurant called Pacifico in Vondelpark. This was an amazing opportunity to network and meet some alumni of Pitt. It was so interesting to learn about their jobs and how they ended up in The Netherlands, and it made me think about if I wanted to work abroad in my future. It was also a fun experience to be able to try a bunch of different Dutch snacks, like bitterballen and croquettes.