70 years ago today: Anne Frank was captured by the Nazis.

[Seedersandleechers]

On this day in 1944, German policed discovered the hiding place of Anne Frank and her family in the secret annex of the building where Otto Frank (Anne's father) worked. Following the arrest of the Franks and two other families that were in hiding, Miep Gies collected papers and photo albums left scattered around the living quarters, including Anne's diary. Gies saved them, hoping to return them to Anne after the war.

http://www.motherjones.com/mixed-media/2014/08/anne-frank-captured-nazis-aug-4-1944

[TBF]

1. Kick for visibility. nt

[Coventina]

2. I was fortunate enough to tour the "Anne Frank House" while I was in Amsterdam.

I put it in quotes because it was actually her father Otto's spice business, with the secret annex in the back where the family hid for two years.

It's an experience I wish everyone could have.
Heartbreaking doesn't even begin to describe it.

[joeybee12]

4. I saw it twice, once in 1983, then in 2005...

They re-did it between that time to create what it was during the war, not really a home, but a business in the bottom front. Vey moving...hard to go through it but everyone should.

[Coventina]

5. My tour was in 2010.

I had an involuntary full-body shudder as I went through the secret bookcase doorway.
I'll remember that feeling as long as I live.

[joeybee12]

6. For me, the hard part was the movie magazine photos she had on the wall...

Really hits home that she was just a child and had so many hopes and dreams ahead of her that were taken.

[Coventina]

9. Oh my gosh, yes, the room screams of her youth and enthusiasm.

I did the exact same thing at her age (as millions of us have and continue to do).

Another tough part was seeing Otto's ads after the war, when he was posting for news of his girls.
I can't even begin to imagine what it was like for him, as the only survivor.

[joeybee12]

10. Otto live a long time after, if I recall...

I can't imagine going on after all that.

[Coventina]

12. Yes, he lived until 1980.

He married another holocaust survivor, and IIRC, they gathered around them a "family" of other survivors as well.

A very brave man, to survive and love again, and to gift the world with his daughter's diary.

[joeybee12]

14. He was 91...I just looked it up...

And Miep Gies recently died...an unsung hero.

[Coventina]

16. I learned so many amazing things on that trip. Came away so impressed with Dutch history and

culture.

The Netherlands saw the first public resistance against the Nazis by non-Jews on behalf of Jews when the Nazis started to implement their anti-Jew agenda.

A general strike went through Amsterdam, and was brutally put down.
But the resistance didn't stop, it just went underground.

So many amazing stories....

[joeybee12]

19. I need to go through my photos...in one home there is a Catholic Church in

the attic, because I think during the 1800's at some point Catholicism was outlawed, so people held mass in such places. Weird thing is, the government knew about these places, and just let them do it...sort of even when the Dutch were being intolerant they were still sort of tolerant...strange time.

[Coventina]

22. During and after the war of Independence from Spain, Catholicism was "banned" for a period of time.

There was a certain amount of bitterness since Philip II had sicced the Spanish Inquisition on the Protestant Netherlands.
But, like you said, the "banning" was largely symbolic. Everyone knew that Catholics were there, and practicing, but turned a blind eye to it as a growing distaste for intolerance took root in the culture.
(At the same time, the Dutch were welcoming large numbers of Spanish Jews fleeing the Spanish Inquisition).

[Manifestor_of_Light]

32. And Baruch Spinoza managed to piss off the Catholics and Jews both.

[Coventina]

42. Yeah, fortunately for him, he was Dutch!

In a lot of other countries at that time, he could have been burnt at the stake, or suffered other forms of unpleasantness.

[ripcord]

34. I was there in 1978

as a high school student ambassador, also made it to Dachau that trip. We had a lot of fun but the Frank house and the concentration camp made an impression on me, I remember every bit of them to this day while much of the rest of the trip requires pictures to bring back the memories.

[joeybee12]

43. I went to Dachau when I went to Munich...

That was 1992...very moving...it was late November and deserted (not the tourist season) which made it even eerier.

[elehhhhna]

8. '98. Alone. Missing my baby daughters. Rainy day. PMS.

No Kleenex.


Horrible.

So moving. The best and worst of all humankind represented by one small building.

[joeybee12]

11. Its simplicity was what got to me...

It was what it was and they didn't have to do anything but just how the place as it was.

[elehhhhna]

18. same here

the pencil marks on the wall showing the kid's growth is what killed me though

[joeybee12]

20. It's stuff my parents would do to us kids...

So much to relate to.

[msanthrope]

17. You could still smell that it was a spice house. It was deep, into the wood. I remember leaving it

and thinking that I only hoped that I would have the simple courage of the occupants ever in my life.

[LeftishBrit]

3. kick

[Seedersandleechers]

7. Looking at that beautiful sweet face and smile

just makes me want to cry.

[2banon]

13. Her published diary was my introduction to this history.

I was 10 years old,

[Marrah_G]

15. Mine also

and it became my daughters favorite book

[malaise]

24. I was eleven

My best friend was obsessed with that book/diary. We read it several times. She still quotes pages and pages.

[2banon]

28. Hiroshima and Nagasaki was given to me to read after I finished The Diary of Anne Frank,

Fresh from reading the horrors of the Nazi's evil maddness, I learned how we defeated Japan with the Atomic bomb and the horrific results of that event.

Then I was given a book on the Holocaust. This all at the age of 10 and 11. I think that's why I became an "atheist", (self identified at age 12) and confirmed atheist when my best friend was killed in a swimming accident that same summer.

I feel like I'm just watching the same horror film being replayed over and over and over...just different actors but the same plot, story line.

[malaise]

30. Humans never learn a damned thing

The 1% don't care - war is profitable for them

[Aristus]

21. I was too young to remember my visit to the Anne Frank House as a child.

I was about 1 1/2.

But when I was 11 or so, I read her diary right about the time my mother acted in a local production of the play, as Mrs. Frank. I had a crush on the girl playing Anne. After the play closed, and I finished the diary, I was plunged into a depression that lasted a couple of years. I'm sure the onset of puberty worsened the shock of leaning about such horror.

[2banon]

27. it was traumatic for me too.

shocking at any age.

My daughter in law is from Holland and so my granddaughters go there every summer.. they're quite young right now.. but at some point in a blink of an eye, my oldest will be learning about it and probably visiting the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam as a matter of course.. I dread the time when she will learn this history too.

However, she's going to be in first grade and she's already learning about what we did to the Native Americans, not in a heavy graphic way, but she's being introduced to the essential history, and since she's attending a largely latino community school, she's also learning about that history and learning spanish as she goes.. (We live in California) I'm glad the girls have dual citizenship, are multilingual and exposed to other, more enlightened cultures than ours.

[Aristus]

31. Thank you for sharing that.

The more people who know about these things, the harder it will be for the deniers to bury the past.

[tea and oranges]

23. Anne Frank Haunted my Childhood

I read Anne's diary when I was a child, age 8. I had a bad character. (Still do.) Anne was always striving to improve her understanding of the world. She was dedicated to improving herself, she was kind, selfless, and doomed.

Reading her diary I understood that far better people than I had died hate & horror fueled deaths for being as Jewish as I was.

To this day, every time someone tells me I deserve something, I see the beautiful face of Anne Frank & understand I deserve nothing. It's all luck.

[Garthem]

25. A very sad K&R

[SummerSnow]

26. I made my children read her diary and they watched the movie. This was not taught in their school

[JI7]

36. i thought all kids at least read the book

did they teach anything about this ?

[SummerSnow]

44. Not at all in my childrens school

[Boomerproud]

29. A victim of the Banality of Evil.

Personified.

[Rhiannon12866]

33. Wow. It's just possible she could still be with us.

Such a promising life cut short, so many lives...

[Behind the Aegis]

37. What could have been....

[Rhiannon12866]

38. OMG! I wouldn't have been at all surprised

Such a bright soul, she could have done anything.

[Behind the Aegis]

40. It was from an ADL campaign...they also had these...

[Rhiannon12866]

41. Wow! Thank you!

These are heartbreaking, but especially the one for Anne Frank. She had such remarkable promise.

[sabrina 1]

35. I read the Diary of Anne Frank as a child, it had an enormous impact

on me and also A Tale of Two Cities. Both of those historical events contributed hugely to my awareness of the need to always speak up as soon as things begin, rather than waiting until it's to late. They instilled a sense of justice in me. I thought we were lucky not to have lived through such injustices. I thought the world had learned. I was wrong.

RIP Anne Frank!

[Major Hogwash]

39. This is an important date in history.

No matter what the Holocaust deniers say about it.

[brooklynite]

45. Same age as my Father in Law...

...relocated to the country from Arnhem after the failure of Operation Market Garden.