Monday 14 November 2016

In the footsteps of Anne Frank

Early evening, cycling through the Maasstraat. This used to be a Jewish area.
Not recently, before the war.
I decided to buy some chips at Oase, a snack bar in a side street.
Before the war Oase was an ice cream parlour run by German-Jewish refugees. Anne Frank used to love the ice cream that was sold there. It is mentioned in her diary.
Yes, this is the neighbourhood where she lived before she went into hiding.
Last time I was there, Oase was a part of the Anne Frank Walking Tour of Amsterdam. 
For just $54.70 you can, “enrich your knowledge of Anne Frank’s early life on a private 1.5-hour walking tour of Amsterdam-Zuid.” 
The dead Jews of Amsterdam are revered. They are a good tourist attraction. It is the pesky live Jews who are the problem.
Nowadays, the Netherlands is a better place than in Anne Frank's time. Not all Jews are hated. Only the 90% plus of them who are not willing to bleat in unison with the prevailing hatred of Israeli Jews and Zionists.
Getting back to Oase. It was not there anymore. At this rate there will be nothing left over for the walking tour.
A bit further in the Maasstraat there was another snack bar. A football match between Egypt and Ghana was being streamed in Arabic onto a large flat-screen television. The commentator seemed to get hysterical every time an Egyptian had the ball.
The man working in the snack bar was watching the match intensely.
I bought my chips there and took them home.
They tasted like salted chewing gum. I am glad I did not try the ice cream.
Afterwards I worked out that he had overcharged me 50 cents.

The neighbourhood is not what it used to be.

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