How do you even begin to find the words to describe the Anne Frank House? I don’t think you can — words can’t capture the still present, raw, visceral emotions that emanate throughout Annex. The Anne Frank House isn’t something that can be described, it has to be felt. Be experienced. But, I will try my best.
It’s shocking, walking through, to realize how small the space really was. A tiny space that housed eight for a little over two years. One searches their mind to try and understand how these eight managed it. Living on top of each other, silent during the day, cut off (mostly) from the outside world. It’s overwhelming to think what the Franks, Van Pels, and Mr. Pfeffer went through.
Walking through Anne’s room, pictures of her beloved movie stars still adorn the walls — you can almost see her putting them up. It doesn’t feel as though the intervening years have happened — it very much feels, on some level, like they were just escorted away. But, that is the point after all, isn’t it? Without that visceral feeling, like they just left, it’s easy to remove the emotion and think ‘logically’ about the past. But keeping the emotion, the human connection, alive is how we remember, the past and ensure it doesn’t happen again.