By: Dara Sborea

For this week’s blog, I took a virtual field trip to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

When I was in elementary and middle school, and even in high school, I was always fascinated by real-life stories of people who had been forced into hiding during the second World War. This fascination and empathy for the people who endured these awful conditions began when my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Klump, handed me a copy of The Diary of Anne Frank.

What amazed me the most about Anne Frank, as I read her diary, was that she still found ways to make her life normal, and that she went through the same things that we all go through, albeit for Anne, these things were encapsulated into a small space with limited interactions among those around her.

The virtual field trip allowed me to go through all the rooms of Prinsengracht 263, where the Secret Annex, as well as Otto Frank’s warehouse and business offices, were located. I have seen pictures of a few of these rooms before, but this field trip gave me an up close view of the rooms and items left there by the occupants of the Annex. It also gave summaries of which rooms were used for what purposes.

Something I didn’t remember from the diary was that Anne’s only access to nature was through an attic window, where she was able to see birds fly and enjoy the seasons by way of a chestnut tree visible through that window. That tree fell down on August 23, 2010. Before the tree fell, chestnuts were gathered from the ground, were germinated, and saplings were donated to schools named in honor of Anne Frank. In 2009, 150 descendants of the original tree and its saplings were donated to Amsterdamse Bos woodland park. In 2013, the last descendants of the tree were planted in the United States.

Before I took this virtual field trip, I had imagined the building that Anne Frank’s family and friends hid in was small. I knew there living quarters were tight, but I also imagined the rest of the building to be small as well. This field trip showed me that it was actually a much larger building, with many more rooms, than I had imagined. I had pictured the small living quarters, plus a small warehouse, an office, and a sparse kitchen. There were actually two warehouses, several offices, a fully equipped kitchen, as well as a stockroom and even an experimenting room in the building.

I also learned during the virtual field trip that there were many more people who helped the Frank family and their friends while they stayed hidden in the Secret Annex. Between my reading the diary and everything I’ve read since then, I only remembered reading about Miep Gies helping the family.

There were other employees of Otto Frank’s business, as well as at least one family member of an employee who helped the people hiding in the Secret Annex. These helpers included Victor Kugler, Johannes Kleiman, Johan Voskuijl (Bep’s father), Bep Voskuijl, and Jan Gies (Miep’s husband).

This virtual field trip gave me a glimpse into the Anne Frank House that I have not been able to experience before. I also learned so much more about Anne Frank’s and her family’s existence in that space that I hadn’t known before, even though I feel like I did have so much information before I took this field trip. For anyone unable to travel, this is a great way to see someplace that you may not otherwise be able to visit.