{"id":29588,"date":"2023-06-26T11:00:22","date_gmt":"2023-06-26T18:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/community.nrs.com\/?p=29588"},"modified":"2023-06-28T11:52:24","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T18:52:24","slug":"the-confluence-of-passions-on-the-canals-of-amsterdam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/2023\/06\/26\/the-confluence-of-passions-on-the-canals-of-amsterdam\/","title":{"rendered":"The Confluence of Passions on the Canals of Amsterdam"},"content":{"rendered":"

My journey to paddle in front of the Anne Frank house started in 2011 when I first read The Diary of Anne Frank<\/em>. I had just begun teaching middle school English Language Arts. Before then, I had shied away from studying World War II and the Holocaust because I found it too upsetting. But when I read Anne\u2019s diary, I felt an instant connection with her. I chose to teach the Holocaust to my students through the lens of the Upstanders, the helpers. This focus drew us to Anne and her helpers. Throughout my own studies, I had a feeling that one day I would paddle up to her window.<\/p>\n

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In June of 2022, my chance came when my husband and I traveled to Europe to visit many of the places I had learned about while studying the Holocaust and World War II. In Amsterdam, we began at Anne\u2019s family\u2019s apartment and the memorial statue in Merwedeplein Square. We traced the route she and her family walked when they went into hiding. We walked past the bookstore where her father bought her diary and the former ice cream shop she loved to visit as we made our way toward the Secret Annex.<\/p>\n

Having stood in the Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial in Boise, Idaho\u2014featuring a life-size statue of Anne Frank\u2014reading her diary, and studying about the helpers, I thought I had mentally prepared for this moment. I had not. Tears stained my cheeks as I walked from room to room, touching the walls that hid Anne and her family, and peering out the windows. I felt the weight of physically being in the same space as her.<\/p>\n

The display of her marbles took me back to sixth grade and the endless, joyful hours I spent playing marbles with friends. Anne had to give hers away when she went into hiding. (They were later donated back to the Annex.) Looking out of the windows of that tiny space, I felt the pull to not only look outside but to be outside. My love of paddling and the freedom it represented in this place overwhelmed me.<\/p>\n