Page 47 - English Expedition Class 6

German army started invading other European countries, many Jews living in them either emigrated
or went into hiding to escape the brutal treatment. Anne’s diary serves as a remarkable record of
the development of her personality, and the hopes and dreams she continued to have, amidst all the
disruption in her life. Given here are a few excerpts from it.

SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 1942

‘Paper has more patience than people.’ I thought of this saying on one of those days when
I was feeling a little depressed and was sitting at home with my chin in my hands, bored and listless,
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wondering whether to stay in or go out. I fi nally stayed where I was, brooding . Yes, paper does
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have more patience, and since I’m not planning to let anyone else read this stiff -backed notebook
grandly referred to as a ‘diary’, unless I should ever fi nd a real friend, it probably won’t make a bit
of diff erence.
Now I’m back to the point that prompted me to keep a diary
in the fi rst place: I don’t have a friend.
Let me put it more clearly, since no one will believe that a
thirteen-year-old girl is completely alone in the world. And
I’m not. I have loving parents and a sixteen-year-old sister, and
there are about thirty people I can call friends. I have a family,
loving aunts and a good home. No, on the surface I seem to have
everything, except my one true friend.
To enhance the image of this long-awaited friend in my
imagination, I don’t want to jot down the facts in this diary the
way most people would do, but I want the diary to be my friend, • Why did Anne feel that
she had no friend?
and I’m going to call this friend Kitty.
Since no one would understand a word of my stories to Kitty • What did she plan to
if I were to plunge right in, I’d better provide a brief sketch of my ‘jot down’ in her diary?
life, much as I dislike doing so. • What was Margot’s
I lived in Frankfurt until I was four. Because we’re Jewish, birthday present?
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my father immigrated to Holland in 1933. My mother, Edith
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Holländer Frank, went with him to Holland in September, while Margot and I were sent to Aachen 6
to stay with our grandmother. Margot went to Holland in December, and I followed in February,
when I was plunked down on the table as a birthday present for Margot.
Our lives were not without anxiety, since our relatives in Germany were suff ering under Hitler’s
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anti-Jewish laws. Aft er the pogroms in 1938 my two uncles (my mother’s brothers) fl ed Germany,
fi nding safe refuge in North America. My elderly grandmother came to live with us. She was
seventy-three years old at the time.
Aft er May 1940 the good times were few and far between: fi rst there was the war, then the
capitulation and then the arrival of the Germans, which is when the trouble started for the Jews.
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2 brooding (v): thinking deeply about something sad or 6 Aachen: a German city near Belgium and the Netherlands
serious 7 pogrom: an organized massacre of a large group of
3 stiff -backed: (here) hardbound people, because of their race or religion
4 Frankfurt: a major German city 8 capitulation: surrender (Here it refers to the surrender of
5 Holland: another name for the Netherlands the Dutch army following Hitler’s invasion of Holland
in 1940.)
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