For @zenyra (so sorry this is late): NOTE: Anne uses pseudonyms to disguise the names of some of her fellow hiding-mates. This means that the “van Daans” are actually the van Pels, and “Mr. Dussel” is actually Fritz Pfeffer. I think we should also have a part where there are pictures (either drawn or found on Google) of each of the important people (the people hiding, Miep Gies). I think that would be important to add. Things with an asterisk (*) are things that Anne did not actually say in her diary. *Hallo (note: this is “hello” in German), Kitty (note: the pet name for her diary). My name is Anne Frank. I’m a Jewish girl, and I live in Amsterdam. I have so much to tell you. “I’ll begin from the moment I got you, the moment I saw you lying on the table among my other birthday presents… You were the first thing I saw, maybe one of my nicest presents.” *Then, when I was 13 years old, my sister Margot got a call-up notice to report to a concentration camp. My family knew this was a death sentence. We decided to go into hiding. “Margot and I started packing our most important belongings into a schoolbag. The first thing I stuck in was this diary, and then curlers, handkerchiefs, schoolbooks, a comb and some old letters. Preoccupied by the thought of going into hiding, I stuck the craziest things in the bag, but I’m not sorry. Memories mean more to me than dresses. The four of us were wrapped in so many layers of clothes it looked as if we were going off to spend the night in a refrigerator, and all that just so we could take more clothes with us… I was suffocating even before we left the house, but no one bothered to ask me how I felt.” “The hiding place was located in Father’s office building… The door to the right of the landing leads to the ‘Secret Annex’ at the back of the house. No one would ever suspect there were so many rooms behind that plain gray door… All day long we unpacked boxes, filled cupboards, hammered nails and straightened up the mess, until we fell exhausted into our clean beds at night… Until Wednesday, I didn’t have a chance to think about the enormous change in my life.” *Then, we got some news. Another family would be coming in with us. Mr. and Mrs. van Daan, and their son, named Peter. “The van Daans arrived on July 13… Much to our amusement, Mrs. van Daan was carrying a hatbox with a large chamber pot inside. ‘I just don’t feel at home without my chamber pot,’ she exclaimed… From the first, we ate our meals together, and after three days it felt as if the seven of us had become one big family.” “Great news! We’re planning to take an eighth person into hiding with us!… Mr Dussel has arrived. Everything went smoothly… Miep (note: Mr. Frank’s coworker who bravely protected those in hiding) took Mr. Dussel upstairs, opened the bookcase and stepped inside, while Mr. Dussel looked on in amazement… Maybe he’s just confused by the sudden change and he’ll get over it.” *Our time in the Secret Annex was not all happy. “Our food is terrible. Breakfast consists of plain, unbuttered bread and ersatz coffee. For the last two weeks lunch has been either spinach or cooked lettuce with huge potatoes that have a rotten, sweetish taste. If you’re trying to diet, the Annex is the place to be!” “Early this morning Peter knocked at our door to tell us that the front door was wide open and that the projector and Mr. Kugler’s new briefcase had disappeared from the closet… The only explanation is that the burglar must have had a duplicate key… Who could have our key? Why didn’t the burglar go to the warehouse? Was it one of our own warehouse employees, and will he turn us in, now that he’s heard Mr. van Daan and maybe even seen him? It’s really scary, since we don’t know whether the burglar will take it into his head to try and get in again. Or was he so startled when he heard someone else in the building that he’ll stay away?” *I have a good reason to keep telling you my stories, Kitty. “Mr. Bolkestein, the Cabinet Minister, speaking on the Dutch broadcast from London, said that after the war a collection would be made of diaries and letters dealing with the war. Of course, everyone pounced on my diary. Just imagine how interesting it would be if I were to publish a novel about the Secret Annex. The title alone would make people think it was a detective story. Seriously, though, ten years after the war people would find it very amusing to read how we lived, what we ate and what we talked about as Jews in hiding.” (Continued in Notes and Credits because it was too long)
(Second part because it was too long) *It’s a momentous day! Kitty, you won’t believe it! “‘This is D-Day’, the BBC announced at twelve. ‘This is the day.’ The invasion has begun!… General Eisenhower said to the French people: ‘Stiff fighting will come now, but after this the victory. The year 1944 is the year of complete victory. Good luck!’… A huge commotion in the Annex! Is this really the beginning of the long-awaited liberation? The liberation we’ve all talked so much about, which still seems too good, too much of a fairy tale ever to come true? Will this year, 1944, bring us victory? We don’t know yet. (note: emphasis on this next part) But where there’s hope, there’s life. It fills us with fresh courage and makes us strong again. We’ll need to be brave to endure the many fears and hardships and the suffering yet to come. It’s now a matter of remaining calm and steadfast, of gritting our teeth and keeping a stiff upper lip! France, Russia, Italy, and even Germany, can cry out in agony, but we don’t yet have that right! Oh, Kitty, the best part about the invasion is that I have the feeling that friends are on the way. Those terrible Germans have oppressed and threatened us for so long that the thought of friends and salvation means everything to us!” *Living in the Annex is sometimes insufferable. “Anyone who claims that the older folks have a more difficult time in the Annex doesn’t realize that the problems have a far greater impact on us. We’re much too young to deal with these problems, but they keep thrusting themselves on us until, finally, we’re forced to think up a solution, though most of the time our solutions crumble when faced with the facts. It’s difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams, and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It’s a wonder I haven’t abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.” *(This should not be Anne. It should be a voice-over or something.) On August 4, 1944, on the 761st day in the Secret Annex, the Nazi police stormed into their hiding place. They captured the members of the Annex and arrested them. She was first imprisoned at the Auschwitz concentration camp, and then she was imprisoned at Bergen-Belsen. Anne and Margot succumbed to the disease typhus in February or March 1945, just weeks before the camp’s liberation. Out of all the members of the Secret Annex, only Anne’s father survived. He came home and was given Anne’s diary. He decided to get it published to show the world, just like how Anne wanted it.
