Quotes
from Anne’s diary took us from room to room. The words held an understated
power. No-body spoke. Or if they did, it was a whisper. The pictures that she
had pasted onto the walls looked as if they had been put up last week, so
firmly were they stuck. Little bits of normality in the midst of terror
outside. The windows were blacked out. On and on we went through the empty
rooms.
The
area was more spacious than I had imagined. I had somehow thought that in order
to stay hidden, it must be small. But eight people had lived in it, unable to
leave, go outside or even look out of the windows. Anne, her sister, Margot,
and their parents, Otto and Edith Frank had entered the annexe on 9th
July 1942, followed by another couple they knew, Hermann and Auguste van Pels
and their son, Peter. As the horror outside increased over the next few months,
they made room for an eighth person.
They
lived in fear of any sound they made reaching next door or downstairs. The
warehouse workers had no idea of the secret they were hiding above. The only
people who did, were the four people in the office: Victor Kugler and Johannes
Kleiman, who were responsible for the business, and Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl
in the office. It was imperative it stayed that way. Their survival depended on
it.
The
eight hidden people relied on Miep and the others to bring them food, as well
as books, magazines and bleak news from outside. They were the only visitors.
During the daytime they had to be silent. They could only flush the toilet,
turn on the tap, or bathe when the factory, and those either side, was closed.
Daytime occupations were limited. There’s not much you can do in silence. Anne
wrote and wrote.
For
two years they lived a secret life. Then in August 1944 they were betrayed.
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