The Life of Anne Frank EssayOn the Deportations”Our many Jewish friends and acquaintances are being taken away in droves. TheGestapo is treatiang them very roughly and transporting them in cattle cars toWesterbork, the big camp in Drenthe to which they’re sending all the Jews. . . .
Ifit’s that bad in Holland, what must it be like in those faraway anduncivilized places where the Germans are sending them? We assume that mostof them are being murdered. The English radio says they’re being gassed. “–October 9, 1942On Her Old Country, Germany”Fine specimens of humanity, those Germanns, and to think I’m actually one ofthem! No, that’s not true, Hitler took away our nationality long ago. Andbesides, there are no greater enemies on earth than the Germans and Jews. “–October 9, 1942On Nazi Punishment of Resisters”Have you ever heard the term ‘hostages’? That’s the latest punishment forsaboteurs. It’s the most horrible thing you can imagine.
Leading citizens–innocent peopleare taken prisoner to await their execution. If the Gestapocan’t find the saboteur, they simply grab five hostages and line them up againstthe wall. You read the announcements of their death in the paper, where they’rereferred to as ‘fatal accidents. ‘”–October 9, 1942″All college students are being asked to sign an official statement to theeffect that they ‘sympathize with the Germans and approve of the New Order.
“Eighty percent have decided to obay the dictates of their conscience, but thepenalty will be severe. Any student refusing to sign will be sent to a Germanlabor camp. “–May 18, 1943Here is were the story begins . .
. On June 12, 1942, Anne Frank’s parents gave her a small red-and-white plaiddiary for her thirteenth birthday. Anne recorded her innermost feelings in herdiary, which she named “Kitty. “Less than a month after receiving her diary, on July 6, 1942, Anne and herfamily were forced to go into hiding. Though they could bring very few thingswith them to the hiding place, Anne brought her diary.
During the months Annelived in hiding, her diary became her best friend and confidant. In hiding, Anne continued to write in her diary nearly every day. She wroteabout her life with the seven other people in hiding–her parents, her sister,the van Pels family (called the van Daan family by Anne), and Fritz Pfeffer(called Alfred Dussel by Anne), as well as the war going on around her, and herhopes for the future. When she filled up her original diary, Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl, two of thefamily’s helpers,brought her ledgers and loose sheets of paper to continuewriting. She kept these in a briefcase that belonged to her father. In 1944, the Dutch government, which had been in exile in London for most of theoccupation,broadcast a request over the radio for people to save their wartimediaries.
Anne Frank then began to rewrite her diary with the intention of havingit published after the war. On August 4,1944, the Nazis raided the Secret Annex and arrested the residents. They emptied Otto Frank’s briefcase onto the floor, including Anne’s diary, inorder to carry the family’s valuables. After the residents were taken away, Miep and Bep went to the Annex, andattempted to salvage all that they could. They found Anne’s papers, as well asother personal belongings of the residents, which they took away for safe-keeping.
Miep put Anne’s diary in her desk drawer, to await Anne’s return. Anne Frank did not survive the Holocaust. Her father, Otto Frank, returned toAmsterdam after the war ended, the sole survivor among those who had hid in theSecret Annex. When he found out that Anne had died in Bergen-Belsen, Miep Giesgave him Anne’s diary, which she had hidden for almost a year..
