A House with a Story - A face to the Tragedy

During my stop-over in Amsterdam I visited 'Het Achter Huis' -The Anne Frank.

I read Anne Frank's diary years ago, and in truth, I don't think I even
finished it . . .In truth, I had always wondered why the booked seemed
to posses such a wide appeal . . . after all, with books like Night from
Eli Wiesel, the trials of the Secret Annex pail in comparison . . .

"One single Anne Frank moves us more than the countless others who
suffered just as she did, but whose faces have remained in the shadows.
Perhaps it is better that way: If we were capable of taking in the
suffering of all those people, we would not be able to live."

-Primo Levi, author and Holocaust survivor

In truth however, I now see the point of Primo Levi's words . . . Anne
Frank provides a face with whom we can relate. She opens her world to
us, provides a humanity to the cold number of six million (plus) . . .
We live with her, grow with her . . . and then see her cut off in her
prime . . .

Walking through the various rooms of the house left me feeling very low, sad . . . the tragedy palpable.
In Majdanek, Panar and Nine Fort
all that is perceived is through the a chilling numbness -the mind can not grasp the
enormity of the tragedy. With Ann Frank we see it in the miniature.