Personal Reflection of Anne Frank’s House Essay

Personal Reflection on Anne Frank’s House I chose to write a personal reflection on the Anne Frank’s House tourist attraction in Amsterdam because I have two daughters. As a parent, I want the best for them and most importantly, their safety. I would do the exact thing what Anne’s father had done for them. Otto Frank had to move to the Netherlands when the anti-semitism in Germany was growing. Though it took seven years for their family to be reunited in the Netherlands, he successfully got them out of Germany. My late father did the same for our family. When I was 13 years old, I followed my parents to migrate to Ecuador. We were not escaping anti-semitism but my father knew that we were not safe in our country due to the worsening of the economy and the rise of unrest in Cambodia. Like Anne Frank, being in a new country I started missing the place where I grew up and the friends I had left behind. I recall writing many journals when I got homesick. This was the only way I can re-live the life I had once before. Now that I have a family of my own, and if I find myself with the same predicament like of Otto Frank. I will find a better place for my family. I want to visit Anne Frank’s house because during my youth I read her book. I was completely absorbed in the world of this creative and articulate girl who put her experiences in writing while in hiding. Since I have read the diary it will be very interesting to see it in real life. I have passed down Anne Frank’s story and her book to my daughters and when I get the chance, I will take my family to visit the Netherlands and tour the Anne Frank historical house. Anyone with some knowledge of World War II knows the story of Anne Frank and her famous diary. A visit to Amsterdam will give me an opportunity to see the location where young Anne and her family were holed up in virtual silence for two years, along with other families hoping to escape the hatred of the Nazi regime. The great takeaway about visiting the house will be a constant reminder on how fortunate I am as an American whose freedom is not in peril. Nowadays, it is hard to imagine a family living in the rooms like what Anne’s family had to experience, with the constant threat of being given away and sent to concentration camps. Unfortunately, this did eventually happen and only Anne’s father Otto survived the war. During the first part of Anne Frank’s House presentation, I was only interested in visiting the place because one of my classmates mentioned, â€Å"the former hiding place of the Frank family is one of the most popular attractions in Amsterdam and many tourists declare it to be one of the most touching places they’ve ever visited.† But as soon as they got into details about the house, I was no longer interested in visiting the house as a tourist but as a person with a purpose. I wanted to experience and see first hand with my daughters how Anne tried to overcome their harsh living conditions while writing her journals that eventually sparked a lot of interest all over the world. As mentioned from the presentations, the living quarters comprised of three upper floors of a rear annex to Mr. Frank’s larger office building that is reached via steep, narrow flights of stairs. The room is small, dark and unfurnished, the Nazi captors having emptied them of furniture and most possessions as was customary during that time. The museum set up a place where the visitors can see some of Anne’s diary and read them. I can imagine myself picking up the diary, reading it and being absorbed with her eloquent stories that inspired and touched many people. What makes Anne’s diary so special is the way she wrote it. In her diary, in spite of the cruel hardship she and her family were enduring, Anne maintained a sense of optimism. Even with the evil that surrounded her, she wrote in her diary â€Å"despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart†. Because of her incredible words, Anne is remembered as a girl of tremendous courage and hope, an inspiration to all. I firmly believe that the Dutch people were somehow ashamed of their involvement on the holocaust atrocities. And one of the defining moments to reinvigorate the Dutch and Jewish people together after the war was to pay tribute to the people who were stripped of their dignity and eventually led to their death. The perfect person for such a tribute was this young girl named Anne Frank. Even though a lot of bad things have happened in Netherlands during the dark times in 1945, today that history has never been forgotten. Preserving the Anne Frank’s house and making it a museum is a constant reminder on how a young girl touched many lives with her diary. And today it is evident from the millions of tourists that visit Amsterdam that Anne Frank’s house is a must-visit.