Amsterdam, Anne Frank, and Peanut Butter Meat Logs

Day Two - We were heading to Amsterdam. Eventually. Jet lag kept us sleeping until 10:30 or so, and thus our early morning train to Amsterdam from Utrecht became a noon train. Because it was lunchtime, we stopped in the station before boarding the train to get a quick snack out of the great metal walls of food. Yes, the train station is full of these silver-frames outlining delicious fried treats. Vegetable samosas, bits of fried chicken, and the boys' favorite: Kroquette. Kroquette are Dutch meat balls, although the amount of meat in them is debatable. They are made by making a thick roux of butter, broth, and bits of meat, forming them into the shape of a log about the size of a Baby Ruth bar, and then rolling it in breadcrumbs and deep frying it. The result is crunchy on the outside, with a creamy savory filling oozing out of the inside. Kind of like the savory version of a chocolate truffle. To make it even more decadent, they also come in sate flavor, which means it's deep-fried-peanut-butter-meat sticks. Oh my.


                        


But our purpose of going to Amsterdam was not just eating from the train station's walls. We had spoken to Bori the day before about her experience in World War II and I thought it was time the boys see the Anne Frank House. Henry knows his Grandpa Bob had been in the war, but he never really understood what the war was about. When was it, where was it, etc. Having the chance to talk to Bori and hear her family's story was an excellent precursor to the visit to Amsterdam. We got to Anne's house and found a long and daunting-looking line, but in fact it was only about twenty minutes before we found ourselves inside.

I had been twenty or so years ago, and remembered being surprised by the house since I had spent most of my time in the less savory neighborhoods of Amsterdam before finding this residential, canal-lined one. The Anne Frank House at the time was the only non-residential house on the street and it looked just like that - just one more row house lining the waterway. This time, the museum stood out more - not just because of the long line, but because the museum has expanded out of necessity due to the huge number of visitors who make the pilgrimage to see the Annex each year. I was worried that it would be too crowded, which it was, full of people from all over speaking a number of different languages. Yet the crowds were not bothersome. Instead, I found it heartening that learning about this sad history has become important to people world-wide.

The boys did a little pre-entry activity, making notes about the neighborhood, noticing the leaning buildings, construction crews everywhere, and the cobblestone streets. Once inside, they had to answer my pre-written questions in their journals - when did the family move to the Netherlands, how many people were in the family, who else hid, and what happened to them. The boys were dutiful students, listening intently to the variety of videos describing the jam and spice business Otto Frank had set up, listening to the voices of some of the people who had helped hid the Franks, including Miep Gies, and looking at photos of the family and the Annex where they hid. Otto Frank, the sole survivor of the eight Jews who hid upstairs in the jam factory, asked that the space be left as empty as it was when the Nazis removed all of their furnishings. There is a model of what the space looked like in the building, but the top two floors of the factory, The Annex, are bare except for the magazine photos that Anne used to decorate her walls for the two years she hid. In terms of storytelling, the museum is sparse, using Anne's own words from her diary to tell bits and pieces of the story, and then using photos of the camps to show where the eight people in hiding were sent once they were discovered.

The boys were moved by the whole thing, but particularly by the fact that Anne died in a camp only two weeks before the camp was liberated. Two weeks. It really hit home that there were people who did not survive. They had many questions about why the Germans wanted to attack other countries, about why Hitler picked on people, particularly the Jews (something that hits home to Henry since his grandfather was a Jewish doctor living in Germany until 1934). We talked about the first World War, the Treaty of Versailles, and how poverty and hunger cause people to make decisions that they would perhaps not make otherwise. They have also learned to look at maps and realize that it is not advantageous to be in the middle of two countries who are not your allies (don't be the meat in a war sandwich - the bread is much more strategic - thanks, Steve Cohen for the lesson!)


The end of the exhibit had a wonderful interactive movie that showed different scenarios about tolerance and the law. There were short films about different people in different countries. One was about a man who wanted to wear a turban and be in the US army which was not allowed, but because he had valuable language skills, he was given an exception and allowed to wear a turban. The people in the room were allowed to vote about whether others should others allowed to have the right to freedom of expression of their religion as well or should exceptions be made only for those who have sought-after military or intelligence skills? Another problem posed was in France, where the police targeted a West African frequented night club to find people who were supposedly conducting illegal fraud activities on the internet (you know, the Nigerian banker email stories).  Only the black-skinned people were taken in for questioning, and although none were arrested for the fraud that the police were looking to arrest people for, many were deported for being undocumented. Did the people in the room think that the police should have the right to profile certain groups of people? The answers from everyone in the room were shown on the screen as a percentage, and then the percentage of everyone who took the test since the exhibit began was shown. All of the stories were quite thought-provoking and really made people wonder about issues of tolerance in today's world, bringing the lesson of the Franks up to date. Well done.

Following this, we strolled the streets including looking at the flower market (mostly bulbs this time of year), looked in tourist shops, and Henry bought a new rip-stick with light-up wheels (although why he needs this in the land of cobblestones is still a mystery to me).

For someone like me who likes taking photos of bikes, graffiti, signs, funny store fronts, and generally odd things, this Amsterdam was a joy. Traveling with me and not wanting to stop every 10 feet to wait for me to take said photos, perhaps not such a joy, but we all seemed happy by the day's end. We journeyed back to Utrecht to another meal of fried foods (deep-fried peanut butter logs and fries with curry dipping sauce) eaten at Lynda's apartment. Thank goodness for Bori's neighborliness and addition of a green salad.

Tomorrow we are off to Germany to see Wim, Lynda's boyfriend and a friend of mine from my days in Zanzibar 20+ years ago. This will be my first trip to Germany other than for a layover at the Frankfurt Airport so I'm quite excited!

More Amsterdam photos available here: View Album