Amsterdam, The Anne Frank House at the Prinsengracht. Again, we were deeply shocked by the story of Anne Frank. We took the stairs behind the book shelfs upstairs to the famous annexe. Anne Frank lived here with her parents, her sister and four other refugees to hide for the Nazis. We are confused by the history, the lack of resistance of the Dutch people in general. Looking at the pictures with the long rows of Jewish people walking through the streets, heading the road to the end of their lives. The modesty of the different rooms is breath taken. Anne decorated her walls so nicely with images from magazines. You feel so small while reading the notes in the museum and watching the video images. Anne Frank's amazing way of clear understanding and the cry for freedom. Wandering if she would be one day not only a Jew but just a human. We looked up to the blue sky, which appears through the window in the roof. Fragments from Anne's diary spin in your head. Solange explains and tells us from her readings about Anne Frank. Points out where the furniture stood and who lived where in the annexe. The windows are covered with black fabrics, rayons of daylight hardly enter. While Anne Frank asks for understanding, respect and freedom for every religion, race and human being , the Swiss decide today in a national public voting whether to stop the construction of minarets. Political parties focused on national identity will be more than amused by this outcome. It will certainly encourage the discussion on the place of the Islam in Europe. Tolerance can't be taken for granted and political leaders have to fight for it.
Walking through the streets towards the Dam and the Royal Palace, we enjoy a hot cocoa in the magnificent Bijenkorf mall. The girls are tasting the warm dark liquid, served in a thick glass and taking a bite of their gingerbread and spicy cookies. Free to drink what you like, to walk where you feel like, to spend time with those you choose, to believe in Saint Nicolas, all so precious and so unbelievable, Solange is just the same age as that Jewish girl at the Prinsengracht who could only describe her feelings and her longing for being free again.
