About This Trip

I abandoned my standard naming scheme, partly because it is hard to come up them sometimes and partly because this indicated more of an informative tone than one about my adventure. So for the about me part and the explanation of what a Magellan Project is in the first place, I would like to refer you to two previous posts under my Malta Magellan Project label. Even though I like to think I did a good job in explaining what a Magellan Project is in the past, that tells you little about why I undertook this specific one to Amsterdam. In the simplest terms, my Magellan Project was to visit areas of Jewish Heritage in Amsterdam, understand the difficulties the Jews and the average Dutchman faced under Nazi occupation, and to see firsthand both the contributions the Jews had made to the city of Amsterdam and see the Dutch "freedom of conscious" which allowed all faiths to practice freely long before any other European nation albeit quietly.

If that was not long enough of a history lesson or reason to satisfy you, here is also an excerpt from my original proposal to visit Amsterdam referring to World War II and the Holocaust :

Unsurprisingly, Jews with the means to leave Germany left as swiftly as they could to any country that would take them. The Netherlands, again, showed its sympathy and willingness to help the persecuted Jews from Germany and Austria and took in between 25,000 to 34,000 Jewish refugees. At this time, the Jewish population of the Netherlands represented two percent of The Netherland’s total population, even before they took in the refugees. Unfortunately, Hitler’s hatred of the Jews compared only with Hitler’s thirst for conquest and by 1941, the Netherlands had fallen under Nazi occupation.

            Even under occupation, the Dutch showed remarkable compassion towards its fellow Jewish citizens. Despite the difficulty to hide Jews in the most densely populated country in Europe, many heroic Dutch took it upon themselves to attempt to hide their Jewish neighbors wherever they could. The most famous case of which is the diarist Anne Frank hiding in the attic of a Dutch family alongside her sister Margot. The Dutch were also the first in all of Nazi-occupied Europe to directly rebel against the inhuman treatment of their Jews in the February Strike. This showed that even the Dutch non-Jews understood the plight that the Jews of the Netherlands were facing.

During this time, most Jews were living in Amsterdam which is why this is the destination that my project will focus on. My project is to chronicle, visit, and reflect on the religious tolerance the Dutch have willingly granted to the persecuted Jews of Europe as well as Dutch resistance to the Nazi’s savage attempts to slaughter the Jews within the Netherlands. My travels will include the Anne Frank House, as well as different Jewish museums and those that relay the history of the Dutch resistance to Nazi rule. I also plan to attend a service in one of the Netherland’s many synagogues. The beauty of the Netherlands lies in its explicit desire to be accepting to all religious creeds. In the 1900s Netherlands was referred to as the “Jerusalem of the West” by its Jews, and to this day, the Netherlands remains a destination that is welcoming and accepting of its Jewish population."

If you have any questions please let me know, but in this goal I feel that I have succeeded in seeing all I wished to see. To see the everyday plight under occupation, I went to the Verzetsmuseum, to see Jewish heritage in Amsterdam, I went to the Portuguese Synagogue, the Jewish Historical Center, and the Diamond Museum, and finally to see the most popularized example of a neighbor attempting to save a Jewish neighbor, I went to the Anne Frank House. All in all, my goals were set and they were accomplished.

Exploring the Annex and Exploring the Seas

In yet another strange mashup of events in our daily outings, we chose to see one of the most popular tourist traps in all of Amsterdam, the Anne Frank House, and the National Maritime Museum. We went to the maritime museum first, knowing how long and miserable the line to the Anne Frank House would be. In a strange building with a glass roofed courtyard, the Maritime Museum had different sections pertaining to the Dutch history of the slave trade and the Dutch West and East India Companies, a whole section just on whaling, a collection of historical navigational instruments, a collection of art with themes on the sea or Dutch sailing, and finally an outside area with a replica Dutch trading ship and an authentic Royal barge. It was all very interesting, but there is not a whole lot I can personally add to the experience.

Then we set off for our pilgrimage to Amsterdam's tourist nightmare of the Anne Frank House's line. For some reason, despite warm temperatures earlier in the day (and every day before and after that exact period of time) the weather was horrible. It was in the mid-50s, gusting winds in every direction that refused to cease, and with periodic cold, drizzling rain accenting the lovely experience of waiting in the cold for hours. I am not proud of myself, but I strongly considered giving up. Luckily the resolve of my friend and the foresight to know I would feel the pangs of regret if I did not visit the epitome of what I had gone to Amsterdam to research allowed me to steel my resolve and kept me standing in that line for the remaining three hours. Of course, no pictures were allowed which was understandable yet annoying. So in its stead I have pictures of the outside of the building and of the statue of Anne Frank that they have outside of their photophobic venue. Everyone pretty much knows the story of Anne Frank and her family's unsuccessful attempt to flee Germany, and then their unsuccessful attempt to hide in a hidden annex in the densely populated city of Amsterdam, so I will not delve into much more than that.

 However, I feel that more so than the artifacts they presented, the story of the young girl they tried to present as both a saint while reminding everyone how much she "was not a saint" and merely one of millions of victims, the most emotionally gripping thing was at the end of the museum. At the end, one of the last things they show you is a screen with a projector showing you they final thoughts and quotes written in the guestbook from famous actors, directors, and regular people. The final thoughts by Jewish actress Natalie Portman, and Jewish director Steven Spielberg were especially gripping knowing that they undoubtedly have a deeper knowledge and sense of loss when viewing the history of the Holocaust. Even strangers and tourists they simply interviewed and put in the video had such strong convictions in never allowing such a heinous act like the Nazi persecution happen, it really helped to personally give me faith that despite the evidence of growing antisemitism, good people will not be as silent and compliant as they had in years past. As a Jew and history student, hearing those words from average people means the world to me - and of all the things in the Anne Frank House, that is what stood out most to me.

First the pictures from the Maritime Museum, also called the Het Scheepvaartmuseum (quite a mouthful, right?)