Latest news with #AnneFrankHouse
Business Insider
23-05-2025
- Business Insider
I've lived in the Netherlands for 10 years. Here are the 6 biggest mistakes I see tourists make.
After living in the Netherlands for the past decade, I've seen tourists repeatedly make this mistake — and many others. Whether you're spending a weekend in Amsterdam or venturing farther north to Groningen, knowing what not to do can make all the difference. Here are the six biggest mistakes I see tourists make when they visit the Netherlands. Only visiting Amsterdam If your entire Dutch travel itinerary is based in Amsterdam, I think you're making a mistake. Sure, the iconic city is featured in travel guides for a reason — romantic canals, the Van Gogh Museum, and an army of bikers with zero fear, come to mind — but there's so much more to the Netherlands. Instead, I recommend visiting cities like Utrecht, Haarlem, and Groningen. Like Amsterdam, they have adorable Dutch houses and lots of charm, but are generally quieter and see fewer groups of tourists. Traveling to popular tourist destinations without planning ahead If your plan is to wing it in the Netherlands, you'll likely be disappointed. I recommend booking tickets for popular tourist excursions like Keukenhof (one of the world's most famous gardens, best known for its tulips) or the Anne Frank House ahead of your trip. Otherwise, you risk spending the majority of your trip in line with the other hopefuls. Expecting small talk In my experience, many people in the Netherlands don't engage in small talk — although, the weather is exempt from this, as complaining about the rain, or the lack thereof, is basically a national sport. However, this tends to surprise many first-time visitors. I've noticed people here don't typically ask how your day's going while bagging your groceries, unless it looks like your day has been a dumpster fire. Even then, I wouldn't expect a lot of sympathy. The Dutch are known for their efficiency and getting to the point, and once you get used to it, the directness is kind of refreshing. Walking in the bike lane Those red paths at the side of the road aren't decorative — they're high-speed lanes for cyclists with zero patience. Most importantly, they're not safe for pedestrians. Pro tip: If you hear a bell, move, and make it quick. Anticipating American-style customer service If you're used to American-style customer service where the waiter checks on you every five minutes, the Dutch approach might feel way more hands-off. In my experience, servers won't typically try to upsell you the truffle fries or ask if you're "still working on that." Instead, it's common for patrons to just flag waiters if they need something. I also wouldn't stress about tipping. Rounding up or leaving a few euros is appreciated, but not expected. Booking accommodations in the city center Booking a place to stay in the middle of the city might seem like a good idea. However, there will likely be lots of noise. Cities like Amsterdam have quieter neighborhoods, like De Pijp or Jordaan, with all the charm but fewer crowds (and significantly less yelling at 3 a.m.). In my experience, you'll also find more locals, better coffee, and aesthetic shops.
Press and Journal
20-05-2025
- Press and Journal
5 extreme day trips you can jet to from Aberdeen Airport
When you think of day trips from Aberdeen, you may envision Stonehaven, Ballater or even Dundee as a destination, but what about a little further afield? Well, if you have the stamina for it and a knack for extreme day tripping, then there are several destinations you could visit beyond the north-east of Scotland. Aberdeen Airport has several routes that cater to those seeking a great day out, such as to Norway, Ireland, Poland and the Netherlands. Here are five international destinations for extreme day trippers from Aberdeen Airport. The Dutch capital and the Granite City are very well connected, with several KLM flights daily transporting passengers across the North Sea. You can indulge in the canal-lined streets, curious architecture and delicious cuisine including a freshly made stroopwafel. The frequency of flights means you can enjoy a good amount of time in Amsterdam – up to 14 hours. Attractions include the Anne Frank House, Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum. 6am–8.30am, 9.10am–11.45am 9.45pm–10.15pm, 10.40pm–11.10pm Known as the city of seven mountains, Bergen has long been a gateway to the famous fjords of Norway. Attractions in this coastal city include Bryggen, a row of buildings along the harbourfront which are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There is also a funicular which trundles up to the top of Mount Fløyen, offering panoramic views over the city and surrounding landscape. There are cruises which take you out into the majestic fjords. A late morning flight out and an evening flight back, means you have around seven hours in Bergen. 8.50am–11.10am 6.10pm–6.35pm (Mon–Sat), 4.10pm–4.35pm (Sun) If you are looking for the perfect nature photo opportunity, then Stavanger is hard to beat. Norway's fourth-largest city has some incredible viewpoints including Preikestolen, also known as Preacher's Pulpit. Stavanger is also considered the twin city of Aberdeen due to its deep connections with oil and energy, with the city home to the Norwegian Petroleum Museum. Early flights to and from Stavanger are operated by Wideroe and evening flights by SAS, offering around five hours in the city during the week. 8.30am–10.50am (Mon–Fri) 4.35pm–4.40pm (Mon–Fri) The home of Guinness, Dublin is known for its lively pub scene and friendly atmosphere. Attractions include the Guinness Storehouse, Temple Bar and the National Museum of Ireland. The museum features one of the finest collections of prehistoric gold artefacts in Europe. Dublin is a UNESCO City of Literature, and has been home to many literary giants, including James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, and W.B. Yeats. 9.50am–11.30am (Mon–Thu), 7.40am–9am (Sat) 6.30pm–8.10pm (Mon), 6.35am–8.15pm (Tue), 6.25pm–8.05pm (Wed), 7.50pm–9.30pm (Sun) A port city on the Baltic Sea, Gdansk is steeped in history, with the main town reconstructed after the Second World War. Dating back to the 14th century, the Zuraw is the oldest surviving port crane in Europe and forms part of the National Maritime Museum. It is a popular destination for budget-friendly travellers as it is very affordable. Wizz Air operates the flights, with Wednesday the preferred day for travel. 9.10am–12.20pm (Mon, Wed, Fri) 7.45pm–9.10pm (Wed), 6pm–7.25pm (Mon, Fri) In addition to international destinations, Aberdeen Airport also has flights out to the Northern Isles of Scotland. The capital of Orkney, Kirkwall is a great destination from Aberdeen, being only a 55-minute flight. Orkney's history dates back millennia, with one of the highlights being the Neolithic stone village of Skara Brae – a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Other attractions include the Italian Chapel, Highland Park Distillery and Scapa Flow. Orkney is also home to one of the best aviation bucket-list trips – the shortest scheduled flight in the world from Westray to Papa Westray, taking about one minute. 8.50am–9.45am (Mon–Fri) 5.15pm–6.05pm (Mon–Fri) Shetland is a group of rugged and scenic islands and is the northernmost part of the UK. The islands are deeply connected to their Viking heritage, celebrated every January during Up Helly Aa. It is also a great place to view wildlife, including orcas, seabirds, and of course the iconic Shetland pony. Sumburgh Airport is located on the southern tip of Shetland and travellers will need to hire a car or catch a bus to get to the main town of Lerwick. 6.35am–7.40am (Mon–Fri) 7.45pm–8.45pm (Mon–Fri)
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Rock Falls' East Coloma-Nelson school to host traveling Holocaust exhibit
Apr. 16—ROCK FALLS — East Coloma-Nelson Elementary School in Rock Falls has been selected to host the "Anne Frank: A History for Today" traveling exhibit in May. The interactive 32-panel exhibit tells the story of Anne Frank, a German-born Jewish girl who kept a diary chronicling her life in hiding from Nazi persecution during the German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II. It also provides in-depth information about Frank's family, the Holocaust and World War II. East Coloma-Nelson teacher Christine Murphy said this is the school's first time hosting the exhibit. She typically ends the school year with her eighth-grade students learning about the Holocaust and thought the exhibit would be the perfect tie-in. "We've always read Anne Frank, however, with this group, I decided not to read the full diary, because it takes a long time, and the eighth grade is busy at the end of the year," Murphy said. "So, we read excerpts from Anne Frank that worked with our curriculum. While I was researching things for my curriculum, I fell upon this traveling exhibit, and I asked for more information. They asked me some questions about the dynamic of my eighth graders, and said that we'd be a great fit for it." Murphy said 24 of her eighth-grade students will work in pairs serving as docents, leading fellow students and school staff on tours of the exhibit after two days of peer-guided training. "Two trainers will come to us and teach the students about the panels and how to set them up," Murphy said. "Then, the students will practice with the sixth- and seventh-graders. We are also going to try to invite some other schools for field trip days." A community night will be from 5-8 p.m. Thursday, May 8, for the general public. The opportunity to host the exhibit was made possible through a partnership with the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam and the United States Anne Frank Center. For more information, contact Murphy at cmurphy@
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
A full-scale recreation of Anne Frank's Secret Annex shows how her family lived in seclusion. Take a look.
Anne Frank famously kept a diary while hiding from the Nazis during World War II. A new exhibit in New York City features a replica of the family's Secret Annex. The full-scale recreation is furnished as it was when Anne and her family went into hiding. Anne Frank's "The Diary of a Young Girl" remains one of the most famous and powerful works of the 20th century — and one of the most poignant accounts of a young person's life during the Holocaust. Now, a new exhibit in New York City allows visitors to step inside a recreated version of the home where Anne Frank and her family once lived in complete secrecy. "Anne Frank The Exhibition," an immersive experience at the Center for Jewish History near Union Square, features a full-scale replica of the Secret Annex where Anne and her family lived in hiding in Amsterdam for two years. The annex is furnished just as it was during the Franks' years in seclusion, allowing visitors to experience the space as they did and gain a deeper understanding of the day-to-day lives of Anne, her family, and the others who lived there. "This exhibition arrives at a time when teaching the lessons of history is urgent," Ronald Leopold, the executive director of the Anne Frank House, which has partnered with the Center for Jewish History to create the exhibit, told Business Insider. "Across the United States and around the world, we are witnessing a troubling rise in antisemitism and other forms of group hatred. The Anne Frank House has always felt a deep responsibility to counter these forces through education, and this exhibition is a powerful response to that mission." Photos show inside the new exhibition in New York City. Anne Frank The Exhibit is located in Union Square in New York City. The exhibit opened to the public on January 27, 2025, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which marked the 80th anniversary of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp's liberation. Frank was one of 1.5 million Jewish children killed by Nazi officials and their collaborators, the exhibit creators said. The Holocaust claimed the lives of 6 million Jewish people. Inside the exhibit, visitors can walk through a recreation of the famous bookcase entrance that concealed the Secret Annex. The exhibit is similar to the installation inside the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. However, the actual Anne Frank House is unfurnished, making this exhibit the only way to see how the annex, which occupied two full floors, an attic space, and a loft inside the home, would have looked between 1942 and 1944. The rooms are fully recreated and furnished to scale according to how they looked when the Franks lived there. Anne was 13 when she moved to the Annex with her mother, Edith; her father, Otto; and her older sister, Margot, 16. Four others also lived with them: Hermann and Auguste van Pels, their 15-year-old son Peter, and Fritz Pfeffer, a dentist. The New York City exhibition spans over 7,500 square feet of gallery space between the recreated rooms and a separate space with photographs and other artifacts. "The recreated Annex is not just a historical space; it is a gateway to understanding the past and, crucially, learning from it," Leopold told BI. "As we move further into the 21st century, it is imperative to find ways to engage new generations with Anne's story. While rooted in a specific historical moment, her experiences resonate far beyond her time, speaking to our shared humanity and the moral choices we all face," he continued. "This exhibition does more than remember Anne; it challenges each visitor to reflect on how history can inform our responses to hatred and injustice in our own communities today." The Franks went into hiding in the summer of 1942 and were joined a week later by the Van Pels family. The Franks, who had left Germany for Amsterdam in the 1930s, moved into the Secret Annex, as it came to be known, after Margot received a summons to report to a labor camp in Germany. The entrance was located behind a bookcase in the back of Otto Frank's office building. The ground floor of the office building was used as a workshop for the Pectacon company, which sold herbs and spices, and the first and second floors were used as storage and office space. A staircase was later constructed to lead from the main house's first floor to the second floor. It opened out onto a landing where, when the Franks entered into hiding, a revolving bookcase was placed in front of a door that entered into the annex. The annex's inhabitants lived there for two years in complete secrecy, aside from a small number of helpers who provided them with food and other supplies. The families lived primarily on the second and third floors of the building, above the warehouse on the ground floor and office building on the first floor. A few members of the office staff, known as the "helpers," knew about the people hiding in the annex and helped to conceal them from the warehouse workers and outsiders. The annex had a kitchen, a bathroom, and rooms that could be converted into bedrooms at night. The bathroom had a sink and toilet, which the eight inhabitants shared, requiring them to take turns using them in the morning and at night. At night, the kitchen and dining room was converted into Hermann and Auguste van Pels' bedroom. During the day, the bedroom of Otto, Edith, and Margot Frank acted as the Frank family's living room. Space was limited inside the annex, so it was vital for the inhabitants to rely on each other for support and to share the space peacefully. In the morning, the families had to wear socks and be as quiet as possible so as not to tip off the warehouse or office workers about their movements. The family enjoyed a quick reprieve during the weekday lunch break, when the helpers would come up to the annex for lunch and discuss the latest news from the war. In the afternoon, the family would nap or do quiet activities like reading or writing. After the workday ended around 6 p.m., the annex inhabitants were able to move freely about the entire office building. A standard evening inside the annex involved Otto Frank writing business letters on the typewriter and Margot and Anne doing various chores around the house. The two older women would also cook dinner for everyone in hiding using the supplies brought to them by the helpers, according to the Anne Frank House. However, as the war raged on and access to high-quality food dwindled, food became less and less appetizing to the family, and especially to Anne. "Blech, the mere thought that I have to eat that swill makes me nauseated," she wrote in her diary, according to the Anne Frank House. After dinner, the families would relax by reading, conversing, or listening to the radio before transforming their living areas into bedrooms. When the sun set, the windows would also be blacked out in order to conceal the family moving about the annex, and they would all have to be silent again. Anne Frank shared a room with Fritz Pfeffer, who was the same age as her father. The pair fought over the use of the writing desk. Anne, a spirited teenager, felt that desk time should be split evenly between herself and Pfeffer, but he disagreed. Otto eventually intervened in the conflict over the writing desk, which Frank wrote about in her diary. "Pfeffer looked very sullen, didn't talk to me for two days and made a point of sitting at the table from 5 to 5.30 anyway... childish, of course," she wrote, according to the Anne Frank House. Peter, the van Pels' teenage son, was the only inhabitant to have their own room in the annex. Much is speculated about Peter and Anne's relationship. She wrote that she wasn't very fond of him when he and his family first moved into the annex. However, a romantic spark soon developed between the pair, who were both longing for someone to talk to about their circumstances. She had her first kiss with him on the bed of his small room below the annex's attic. In addition to the fully recreated annex, there are photos of the family and the war at the exhibition. The exhibition includes more than 100 original collection items, from Anne Frank's first photo album to handwritten verses written by Anne Frank in her friends' poetry albums. The exhibit is the first opportunity for the public to see what the annex would have looked like completely furnished. Otto Frank, the annex's sole survivor, famously refused to refurnish the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. "After the Anne Frank House had been restored, they asked me if I wanted to have the rooms refurnished. But I said, 'No. They took everything out during the war, and I want to keep it that way,'" he said in an interview in 1962, according to the Anne Frank House. The executive director of the Anne Frank House says this historic exhibition is crucial today amid rising antisemitism. "The exhibition provides perspectives, geared toward younger generations, that are certain to deepen our collective understanding of Anne Frank and hopefully provide a better understanding of ourselves," Leopold said in a statement. "By bringing this exhibition to New York — a place with many ties to Anne's story — the Anne Frank House is expanding the reach of our work to encourage more people to remember Anne Frank, reflect on her life story, and respond by standing against antisemitism and hatred in their own communities." Read the original article on Business Insider
Voice of America
27-01-2025
- General
- Voice of America
Full-scale replica of Anne Frank's hidden annex opens in New York City
A full-scale replica of the secret annex where Anne Frank penned her famous diary opened in New York City on Monday as the world marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The exhibit at the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan represents the first time the annex has been completely recreated outside of Amsterdam, where the space is a central part of the Anne Frank House museum. But while the original annex has been intentionally left empty, the New York reconstruction shows the five rooms as they would have looked while the Frank family and others lived in hiding. The spaces are filled with furniture and possessions, including a reconstruction of the writing desk where Frank wrote her diary. Ronald Leopold, director of the Anne Frank House, said furnishing the recreated space was important to tell Anne's story in a new and immersive way, especially for those who may not get to visit the Amsterdam museum, which also houses Frank's original diary. 'We very much hope that we will be able to touch people's hearts here, because education is the focus of this exhibition,' Leopold said at Monday's opening. 'And education starts with empathy — empathy with what happened here, what happened in Amsterdam during those years, what was done to Anne Frank.' The Frank family hid with other Jews for two years in the attic of patriarch Otto Frank's office in Amsterdam as the Nazi German army occupied the Netherlands during World War II. They were eventually discovered in 1944 and sent to concentration camps, including Auschwitz-Birkenau, which was liberated by Soviet troops 80 years ago Monday. Anne and her older sister Margot died of typhus at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945. Their father, Otto, was the only person from the annex to survive the Holocaust. After the war, he published his 15-year-old daughter's diary, which is considered one of the most important works of the 20th century. Frank died in 1980 at the age of 91. Hannah-Milena Elias, the granddaughter of Anne Frank's cousin, Buddy Elias, said she found it emotional walking through the exhibit rooms. 'It is quite overwhelming and quite touching to see what a tiny space the families had to stay in and live for more than two years,' said the 29-year-old, who lives in Switzerland. Her sister, Leyv-Anouk Elias, hoped the exhibit would encourage visitors to reflect on what it means to face discrimination or be a minority today. 'History, unfortunately, is repeating itself in different ways,' the 27-year-old Berlin resident said. 'We have to be very, very careful how to act and to do stuff against it, to not ever make this happen again.' The New York exhibit, which runs through April 30, spans more than 696 square meters (7,500 square feet) and includes more than 100 photos and other artifacts — many never before displayed publicly, according to officials. Among the items are Anne Frank's first photo album and her handwritten poetry, as well as a replica of her famous diary. There are also nearly 80 translated editions of her diary and even the Oscar won by Shelley Winters for the 1959 film The Diary of Anne Frank. The installation is presented chronologically, tracing the Frank family's life in Germany through the rise of the Nazi regime, the family's flight to Amsterdam and their life in hiding and eventual capture. Henry Byrne, a junior at Xavier, a Catholic high school in Manhattan, said learning about the family's saga helped him grasp the enormity of the Holocaust. 'It taught me a lot about how just because you see one story, walk into these rooms and all the beds and the tables, that's just one person's life," the 16-year-old said. "And there were millions that were lost.'
