Children play football in the sharp spring sunshine, bright voices bouncing round the walls of close-packed tenement housing. We have reached the right place.
An ordinary neighbourhood for people living ordinary family lives: going to school, catching trams to work, buying bread in the corner shop. You have to look carefully to find evidence of deadly disruption, the brutal destruction of ordinary human decency. We found it on our last day in Amsterdam.
Here it is. The Frank family home. Not the famous hiding place attracting thousands of visitors in the city centre. This is where Otto, Edith and their two daughters Margot and Anne lived. Peacefully among their neighbours until Hitler found a final solution to neighbourliness. Fear the ‘other’.
We might well have walked past it but for the modest memorial set into the pavement at our feet. Stumbled upon. Four cobbles burnished with brass plaques. Otto Frank and Edith Frank, Margot and Anne Frank:
I kneel down, fumbling in my pocket, to take a picture on my phone. Still kneeling, as if in homage perhaps, I look up to see a grey-haired man looking down from the window of this otherwise anonymous home. A look exchanged between strangers. He nods in recognition. And we walk on.
Eyes open
Stumbling stones, Stolpersteine, a quietly inspired idea by German artist Gunter Denmig. Since 1992, these discreet monuments to the 11 million victims of National Socialism across Europe have played a part in turning nameless numbers into real people, names and dates of birth and death recorded outside the doors of ‘their last address of choice’.
We had been introduced to the stones a few days earlier by Jonathan (Joe) Rouah, a guide on the Anne Frank Tour. Once you get your eye in, you see stolpersteine in many streets and squares. Our Amsterdam week (booked before the Brexit breather) is in many ways an eye-opener, an odd mix of interwoven choice and chance, hope and fear.
By choice we had opted for an apartment in the residential south side, knowing nothing of local history but noting with curiosity the Anne Frank Montessori school as we trundled our wheely bags through the streets, next day finding an Anne Frank statue in a small park near the local bakery.
“Yes, of course, that’s where the Frank family lived,” says Joe when we mention it to him on the guided tour. Rivierenbuurt was an area where many Jewish families settled when they arrived in Amsterdam, fleeing Nazi persecution in the 1930s.
By choice we had opted for the walking tour rather than the Anne Frank House, on the advice of a friend. “The house is really a museum, very busy, you probably get a better sense of Jewish life in Amsterdam on the tour”.
Tolerance is a nuanced word
It’s a good choice. Joe is the best kind of guide – himself a newcomer, in love with the city but not blinded by it, a whimsical observer of social and political history. As a young graphic artist from Marseilles, he chose to move here and acknowledges the reputation for friendly welcome and tolerance. “But tolerance is a word with nuanced meaning,” he says by way of introduction, our small group surrounded by synagogues which once served a Jewish population of around 80,000. By 1945 eighty per cent of them had been killed.
Nuance rings a bell. By chance, I’m travelling with The Cut Out Girl by Bart Van Es, the story of a young Jewish girl in Holland, hidden and raised by foster parents during the Nazi occupation. “This is a country of tolerance,” he writes, “letting others get on with things…this makes the Netherlands progressive. But could it also explain why the Germans were so often allowed to act as they did?”
The Anne Frank walk ends by the museum on Prinsengracht. “It’s become a bit of a shrine, and that’s a good thing, I think,” says Joe, “I am afraid we need it, we need to keep remembering”.
By chance, a day earlier exploring the reinvention of Amsterdam Noord shipyard, we met Anne Frank smiling from a monumental mural ‘Let me be myself’ by Brazilian graffiti artist Eduardo Kobra. Her diary, it seems, is the most-read book among young people in Brazil.
Echoes of another time
What are we stumbling into? How can we have been so careless? By choice or chance? For the rest of the week we walk, sometimes a little dazed, with Brexit breaking news. It seems to carry echoes of another time when populist opportunists arose from recession to destroy human decency.
The far right has made inroads in the Netherlands too, with no pretence of tolerance. It’s difficult to fit that electoral reality with the friendly, welcoming and prosperous city we see around us. Cyclists easy-riding through clean streets, public transport running on time, families at leisure in green spaces, not a beggar to be seen. And indeed the Green party made midterm advances here: ‘Amsterdam is truly a leftist bubble’ tweeted Dutch Review (a magazine for expats).
On a sunny Sunday morning we take a last walk round the neighbourhood, reluctant to be returning to our unhappy homeland (Scotland voted comfortably to Remain in Europe but that only adds to the frustration we feel in our divided, divisive politics).
Hope and fear
Rivierenbuurt ( ‘Rivers Neighbourhood’) feels a well-settled place. It was built in the 1920s for the middle classes, to a design by Hendrik Petrus Berlage – he stands, a Lenin-like statue, overlooking his work.
The neighbourhood appealed to many Jewish families escaping Nazi Germany. Including Otto Frank, who moved here with Edith, Margot and Anne, to establish a business selling spices and pectin for jam making in a traditional canal-side building in Prinsengracht. Behind the shop, which Otto had shrewdly made over to ‘Aryan staff’, was where they hid for two years until discovery in August 1944.
Otto Frank survived Auschwitz. He died in 1980 at the age of 91. When he returned to Amsterdam in 1945, he found all his family and friends had perished. But his colleague Miep Gies had saved Anne’s diary.
We turn a corner and find the bookshop where Otto bought the diary for his daughter. The shop is closed on Sunday but there are photographs and letters in the window. It is an extraordinary story, inspiring horror and hope.
In the green park around Anne’s statue young boys play football. Their laughter echoes around Merwedeplein square. And that feels right. Today I find another painful, poignant echo in the words of Anne Frank.
As long as this exists, this sunshine and this cloudless sky, and as long as I can enjoy it, how can I be sad? Anne Frank
First published on the author’s site
William Ross says
Fay
Along with others who write for Sceptical Scot you produce dreamy suggestive essays. This is Remain with a mood. I am not sure what you are trying to say? Is Brexit tied into the death of Anne Frank or not? I am just not clear.
There is now a very serious threat of antisemitism in Europe but at least in Western Europe this is largely coming from the left and from Islamism. Just look at Jeremy Corbyn and his party. That does not seem to worry you.
I was borne in 1960 and my father was a veteran of World War Two. He fought at D Day and in many other places. He always said that he was fighting against totalitarianism and for democracy. I cannot think what what he would have thought had he learned that our elites are proposing to ignore the greatest single democratic decision in British history. They know best ……..
Presumably then you want to continue the enlightened rule of Verhofstadt and Tusk, who represent no-one? Our Brexit referendum was “stuuuupid” according to Tusk. If you support the notion that asking the British people to vote on an in-out EU referendum was “stuuupid”, then I am seriously concerned. What would the suffragettes have said? The Chartists?
You say that Scotland voted to Remain. Actually Scottish people voted for the UK to Remain. You should stop the myth -making.
William
David Gow says
We published this comment William though it contains some serious inaccuracies: notably, on the source of anti-semitism in Europe (clearly the nativist/sovereigntist Far Right, including Orban, Salvini, PiS in Poland, Strache/FPÖ in Austria plus Le Pen, AfD) and the fact is that Scotland did indeed and officially vote Remain (by 62-38%)…
Alex. Sinclair says
William Ross’s comments seem very accurate to me. Your head must be seriously deep in the sand not to have noticed the antisemitism of Jeremy Corbyn and his far left cronies. As regards the EU referendum this was a UK vote to determine whether the UK electorate wished to remain in or leave the EU. Scotland had already voted as to whether it wished to remain in or leave the UK; the result was a decisive vote to remain within the UK; if you believe in democracy you have to accept these results.
Fay Young says
Alex, I think both you and William Ross have missed the point of my concern.
Austerity has given populist leaders the opportunity to manipulate, distort and redirect people’s anger and fear – towards Brussels and ‘the other’ rather than towards the home grown British economic policies that have caused so much harm, especially since the financial crash of 2008.
Brexit compounds that harm. New polling evidence shows that overt and abusive racism has increased since the 2016 referendum. There are echoes of the 1930s in such social discontent and political opportunism. There is no clear, honest and courageous leadership from British government or opposition. That’s what frightens and saddens me.
Opinion polls so far indicate a lack of enthusiasm for a second independence referendum in Scotland (that could change if the main British political parties continue to make a terrible mess of Brexit) but I expect the European election results on Monday will show that Scotland is quite definitely, and overwhelmingly anti-Brexit.
William Ross says
David
Thanks for your comment.
May I point out that my wording as to where antisemitism is coming from was directed at Western Europe. Eastern Europe is quite different. I do not like Le Pen either but in France the main anti- semitic fear is from Islamism. Wilders is not my cup of tea but anti-semitic?
You are quite right of course that the Brexit result in Scotland was Remain 62 % and Leave 38% But the question was about whether the UK ( not Scotland) should remain in the EU. That was precisely my point and it is in no way inaccurate. If our country was as “unhappy” as Fay suggests then surely suppport for Indy would be burgeoning but it yo-yos between 40 and 50%.
William
William Ross says
Thanks to Fay for casting some light on her article.
She clarifies that she does indeed see a connection between austerity/populism/Brexit and what happened in the 1930s and 40s . The story is like this. In 2008 the World entered into a grippling recession and Western Goverments adopted austerity policies. ( She never considered that Europe`s worst austerity occured in places like Greece, Italy and Spain — that caused by the Euro and elite finance). People became unhappy with austerity and were led astray by the lies of “populists”. In Britain, this led to the Brexit vote in 2016. Brexit has made this sorry situation worse and anti-immigrant sentiment in the UK has “echoes of the 1930s”.
Fay fails to note that the Conservative Party, who are the party of the middle class and small to meduim business were the principal Leave constituency. Their Leave vote was not driven by austerity/ racism but by considerations of national sovereignty. Neither Vote Leave or the ( admittedly more radical) Leave EU were ever in favour of extraditing immigrants and I would not have touched Brexit with barge pole had the opposite been true. Recent polls show that the UK is currently the EU nation which most favours immigration. On a personal note my wife and son are immigrants. People continue to attempt to immigrate into the UK from every part of the World. Not very much like the Third Reich?
To imagine that the “take back control” phenomenon has any connection with an atrocious invasion of a peaceful country ( Holland) and the murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent citizens is just something that I cannot understand. Is this a responsible argument to make?
Fay: I am sure that tonight will be a good night for the SNP. They have after all sold themselves as a “pure” Remain option. Most Scots ( I regret to say) continue to wish the UK to remain in the EU. But the result across the UK will be far different. Brexit is now game on.
William
Fay Young says
William I think you still miss my point. But let’s not keep going round in circles. Thank you for your comments.
Me Bungo Pony says
William is determined to see the world in his own particular way and will happily manipulate reality to suit. That he is happy to ignore the rise of the far right and it’s correlation with a subsequent rise in bigotry and intolerance throughout Europe is only one disquieting aspect of this tendency. The statement that “Actually Scottish people voted for the UK to Remain. You should stop the myth -making” is just laughable and is all the evidence we need of his need to convince us that up is down, black is white and the Moon is just the Sun at night.
William Ross says
MBP
I am happy to hear from you again.
Regarding the far right threat in Scotland can you name me an address in Aberdeen where I can find them? I just wonder who you are thinking of?
Regarding the question which Scottish people answered in 2016, it was whether THE UK should remain in the EU or leave. I have no recollection of any other question being asked. Could you enlighten us as to what you are thinking about? Or are you myth-making too?
William
Me Bungo Pony says
Ahhh, the old “I see no ships” denial of what is in plain sight.
As to the second denial of what is in plain sight; you may wish to strip Scotland of its identity and deny the clear message its people gave of where they believe it’s best interests lie, but Scotland voted overwhelmingly to Remain in the EU in 2016 AND 2019. You need to remove your blinkers.
William Ross says
MBP
Can you identify which parties in the 2019 Euro-elections are “far right”? If ships are so obviously on the horizon we should at least know who they are? What “far -right” newspapers, websites and commentators are proliferating in Scotland, to get you so concerned? We need some answers.
It has been my constant position that most people in Scotland have been and are in favour of the UK remaining in the EU. On the other hand, there was a majority against Scottish independence in 2014 (I was a strong YES supporter) and there is no sign of this changing. A high proportion of Scottish people support independence but the proportion is not high enough. If Scotland wants to stay in the EU ( after an entry negotiation) the solution is independence. But Scots do not want independence. Maybe they have stripped themselves of their dignity?
The danger in an article such as that penned by Fay is that it kind of/ casually links 17.4 million UK leavers ( and 1 million Scots) with the killers of Anne Frank. I am glad that we live in a generous free country.
William
Me Bungo Pony says
Okay William, Scotland is happy to be taken out of the EU against its will and the likes of Tommy Robinson are a figment of our imagination. After all, willfull ignorance was an attitude rife in Europe during the 1930s and that turned out well …. didn’t it?
David Gow says
this conversation has run its course guys (Ed)
Fay Young says
Adding a postscript after attending tonight’s deeply moving talk by Bart van Es in the Edinburgh Book Festival.
His book is The Cut Out Girl (about the life of a young Jewish girl taken into hiding during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands).
The book is timely, he agreed with his host Jane Fowler. Our democratic system is vulnerable in times of rapid change and economic stress. “Democracy is not just about voting.” He sees chilling similarities in populist rhetoric and public attitudes between 2019 and 1940.