"In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart."

August 16th: Never can one building turn six million victims into one person like the Anne Frank Haus, and that is where I went first thing this morning. I have studied the Holocaust, been to museums and a concentration camp, yet, I have never been so moved as I
was when I saw the building where Anne and her family hid from 1942-1944. I wish I had pictures from the inside to show, but no photos were allowed. Within five minutes of getting there, I started crying, as it once again put a human face on the terror that existed here from 1932-1945.

In the house itself, you wind through several rooms that have quotes from Anne's diary and artifacts from her life and the lives of others who hid there. As I made my way to the attic, I just had this sickening feeling about what took place. The final rooms in the attic describe Anne's fate and the fates of the others.

Where I became angry and frustrated once again was learning that Anne's family tried to emigrate to the US, Britain, and Chile; yet they were denied entry and settled for Amsterdam. When they went into hiding, people on the streets stared at them and felt sorry but did nothing. As the war was coming to an end, someone (and to this day nobody knows who) betrayed the Franks and they were captured and deported! This took place AFTER D-Day, right as Holland was getting liberated! In the house, there is even an authentic map that Otto Frank had charting the invasion!

I can go on and on; I just still do not get how this ever happened, and the Anne Frank House will stick with me forever!