Tour Guide, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| 2 mins read
Anti-Semitism is on the rise. Every year 1 million people visit the Anne Frank House, a very impressive place and extremely important to try to understand life in the Secret Annex. However, for Anne and the others, there was a real-life out there, real memories of their homes, schools and work, friends and family. And real dreams of places to visit, things to do, people to meet after they would get out. By showing the area they lived in before going into hiding and showing the stories of all the things that happened there, we hope to bring these things to life.
Unfortunately, they never tasted freedom, and that story of the last months in the camps also needs to be told. The shock of suddenly being among so many people in the trains and camps must have been overwhelming, and we will reflect on that by going to these camps close to the German border and tell what happened there.
Ultimately all the people will we talk about, and the events and stories behind them are about making choices. In the war, everyday people were forced to make extremely hard choices all the time. Do I follow orders, or not? Do I go into hiding? Do I fight back, or protect my family? Do I obey and hope for the best? Am I going to help others or look away? The answer to any of those questions could be the difference between life and death.
By going on this tour we will bring back the time and circumstances in which normal people made those choices. We hope this helps with reflecting on the choices we have to make today, each one of us, in making sure current and future generations will never face those type of choices again. So we can all do our little bit to stop this Anti-Semitism and racism in the world, once and for all.