How old is old enough for Anne Frank's house?

[Devora]

My dd, rising 10, is visiting Amsterdam with my brother and SIL this summer. They have asked if they can take her to Anne Frank's House.

What do you think? She does know who Anne Frank is and she does know about the Holocaust - we are of German Jewish heritage so she's grown up knowing more than most children her age. However, she is very thin-skinned and I have spared her the lurid detail.

It's about 25 years since I went to AFH and I can't remember much about the exhibition here - which will have changed, in any case. Has anybody been recently? Is it very hard-hitting, or ok for a child her age?

Many thanks.

We went to Anne Frank's house 7 years ago, having been in the 1970s, and it has changed a lot. I would say it's OK for a 9 yo. There was nothing grisly on display. I was probably a similar age when I first visited.

DD aged 9 went last month. She declared it "disappointing" I am ashamed to say. Both my children are aware of the holocaust because they are Jewish but I don't think they get the enormity and the full horror of it all.

I have been twice and it breaks my heart when I see her bedroom and read about what happened, and the photos of the piles and piles of people's belongings. But I think your daughter will see it differently because she is young. She will be sad and have a lot of questions maybe but there is nothing in the museum that she should t see or that would frighten her. The museum is there to teach us all about our history x

I went when I was 6 and found it interesting. I understood Anne's story which I though was sad but didn't compute the horrors of the holocaust at all. I wouldn't have thought she would be too young.

That's very reassuring, thank you all. I'm certainly not trying to shield her from knowledge, just wanting to build up her understanding rather than shocking her into trauma. My grandparents - for whom this was lived experience - are still alive and so this is very connected to real people for her.

MaeMobley, sorry but I did laugh at your dd's reaction. That's probably what mine will do!

I took DD at 6 she loved it and has read her abbreviated version of Anne's diary on off for the last 5 years, we did look at the children's section of the website before we went.
If you haven't already discovered it book timed entry on line so you don't have to queue - less time for preteens to become bored.

I went at 7, I understood and it had a very profound effect on me

Thank you. Lonecat, that's a really good idea to look at the website together first - I'll do that.

I think I read The DIary of Anne Frank aged about 9 or 10 and remember going to an exhibition about her in my local museum at a similar age so I think it's fine.

God, why has it been changed, Indantherene?? Reminds me of the recent move to "update" the museum at Bletchly Park, to make it more relevant to younger people. Don't these people understand what museum actually means?