Amsterdam, Netherlands
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
—Anne Frank (1929–1945), German Jewish diarist
When Anne Frank and her family hid to escape Nazi persecution in 1942 in a house at Prinsengracht 267, Anne detailed the isolation and fears of discovery in her diary until her family was betrayed. Anne and her sister, Margot, were sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, but her father survived and drew spiritual strength from his daughter’s diary (now published in seventy languages).
If you feel a spiritual calling to improve the world, visit the Anne Frank House. It is open year-round, except on January 1 when it is open for half the day and on Yom Kippur when it is closed. Take trams 13, 14, or 17 and get off at the Westermarkt stop, or take the bus 170, 172, or 174 to the Westermarkt stop. Also, the Museumboat stops on the canal directly in front of the house. No photography is allowed.
Take your time walking through this house, see the original diary, and use what you learn as a lens for gaining a larger perspective about how one person might make a difference to those who have no voice.
The house that hid the Frank family dates to 1635, built by Dirk van Delft with the canal-facing facade renovated in 1739.