ANNE+FRANK

THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK Anne Frank received a diary for her 13th birthday, shortly before she and her family had to go into hiding in Nazi-occupied Holland. As the first excerpt shows (pp. 18 – 21 [1] ), persecutions were increasing against the Jews in Amsterdam, and Anne’s family had been planning to hide themselves above Mr Frank’s business. His employees, like many of the Dutch, helped them by bringing supplies and keeping it a secret. Anne’s family consisted of herself (the youngest), her sister Margot, and her parents. Altogether eight people hid in the small confines of the ‘Secret Annexe’, and these included the three members of the van Pels family from Germany (called the van Daans in Anne’s diary); and Fritz Pfeffer, from Germany, and called Alfred Dussel in the diary. In the excerpt pp. 210-211 you can read about Anne’s growing fondness for the van Daan son, Peter. Anne began her diary on June 12 1942, and kept writing in it even on the day her family left their home on July 8 1942, right up until August 1 1944, three days before the people living in the Secret Annexe were arrested. The two secretaries working in the building found Anne’s diaries strewn all over the floor. One of them tucked them away in a desk drawer for safekeeping, and gave the diaries, unread, to Anne’s father (Otto) after the war. By this time Anne and her mother and sister were dead.when the family was discovered. Otto fulfilled his daughter’s wish by publishing her diary, selecting material from two versions written by Anne: the first unedited version, and the later version which she edited when she was 15. This is how Anne began her diary entries: June 12, 1942 I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support. Comment added by Anne on September 21, 1942: //So far you truly have been a great source of comfort to me, and so has Kitty, whom I now write to regularly. This way of keeping a diary is much nicer, and now I can hardly wait for those moments when I’m able to write to you.// // Oh, I’m so glad I brought you along! // On Sunday 14 June 1942 she wrote: I’ll begin from the moment I got you, the moment I saw you lying on the table among my other birthday presents. (I went along when you were bought, but that doesn’t count.) … A little after seven I went to Daddy and Mama and then to the living room to open my presents, and //you// were the first thing I saw, maybe one of my nicest presents. Frank, Otto H. & Pressler, Mirjam (Eds.), 1991. // Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl //. NY New York: Doubleday.

[1] Frank, Otto H. & Pressler, Mirjam (Eds.), 1991. //Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl//. NY New York: Doubleday.