Answer:
The speaker believes that the tourists only felt obligated to visit these historic places. They were not ready to truly appreciate and reflect on the true meaning of these sites.
Evidence:
Lines 7-11 of the poem
tourists who would rather be
somewhere else
but who wait here on stairs
so steep they must rise
to some occasion
Step-by-step explanation:
Anne Frank was a Jewish girl who hid in a house with her family during the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazi's were millions of Jews were killed. Van Gogh was a famous artist known for his painting but who would later take his life at the young age of 37.
The tourists visited these two historic sites without having any deep emotional attachment to the plight of these people. As soon as they were done with Anne Frank's house, they were hurrying off to the Van Gogh museum where they would still not have deep attachments to.