Part 19 (1/2)
Yours, Anne M Frank
FRIDAY, JUNE 2, 1944 J
Dear Kitty, ”If you're going to the attic, take an ue one!” This is to protect you froh and dry, safe and sound,” but it obviously doesn't apply to wartiotten into the habit of relieving herself on some newspapers or between the cracks in the floor boards, so we have good reason to fear the splatters and, even worse, the stench The new Moortje in the warehouse has the same probleine the smells, other than pepper and thyme, that permeate this house
I also have a brand-new prescription for gunfire jitters: When the shooting gets loud, proceed to the nearest wooden staircase Run up and down a few ti sure to stumble at least once What with the scratches and the noise of running and falling, you won't even be able to hear the shooting, ic forreat success!
Yours, Anne M Frank
MONDAY, JUNE 5, 1944
Dearest Kitty, New problems in the Annex A quarrel between Dussel and the Franks over the division of butter Capitulation on the part of Dussel Close friendshi+p between the latter and Mrs van Daan, flirtations, kisses and friendly little s for female companionshi+p
The van Daans don't see e should bake a spice cake for Mr Kugler's birthday e can't have one ourselves All very petty Mood upstairs: bad Mrs van D has a cold Dussel caught with brewer's yeast tablets, while we've got none
The Fifth Army has taken Roanda for Hitler
Very few potatoes and vegetables One loaf of bread was moldy
Scharminkeltje (name of nearehouse cat) can't stand pepper She sleeps in the cat box and does her business in the wood shavings I of Pas de Calais and the west coast of France No one buying dollars Gold even less interesting
The botto to live on next month?
Yours, Anne M Frank
TUESDAY, JUNE 6, 1944
My dearest Kitty, ”This is D Day,” the BBC announced at twelve
”This is the day” The invasion has begun!
Thisof Calais, Boulogne, Le Havre and Cherbourg, as well as Pas de Calais (as usual) Further, as a precautionarywithin a zone of twenty miles from the coast arned to prepare for bombardments Where possible, the British will drop pa to the German news, British paratroopers have landed on the coast of France ”British landing craft are engaged in co to the BBC
Conclusion reached by the Annex while breakfasting at nine: this is a trial landing, like the one two years ago in Dieppe
BBC broadcast in Geres at ten: The invasion has begun! So this is the ”real” invasion BBC broadcast in Gerht Eisenhower
BBC broadcast in English: ”This is 0 Day” General Eisenhower said to the French people: ”Stiff fighting will come now, but after this the victory The year 1944 is the year of colish at one: 11,000 planes are shuttling back and forth or standing by to land troops and bo craft and s in the area between Cher- bourg and Le Havre English and Aed in heavy coiuland and, last but not least, Churchill A huge co-awaited liberation? The liberation we've all talked so ood, too much of a fairy tale ever to co us victory? We don't know yet But where there's hope, there's life It fills us with fresh courage and ain We'll need to be brave to endure theyet to coritting our teeth and keeping a stiff upper lip! France, Russia, Italy, and even Gerht!
Oh, Kitty, the best part about the invasion is that I have the feeling that friends are on the way Those terrible Ger that the thought of friends and salvationto us! Now it's not just the Jews, but Holland and all of occupied Europe Maybe, Margot says, I can even go back to school in October or September Yours, Anne M Frank PS I'll keep you inforht, dummies made of straw and rubber were dropped from the air behind Gerround Many paratroopers, their faces blackened so they couldn't be seen in the dark, landed as well The French coast was boht, and then, at six in thecraft came ashore Today there were 20,000 airplanes in action The Ger; a s well, despite the bad weather The army and the people are ”one will and one hope”
FRIDAY, JUNE 9, 1944
Dearest Kitty, Great news of the invasion! The Allies have taken Bayeux, a village on the coast of France, and are now fighting for Caen They're clearly intending to cut off the peninsula where Cherbourg is located Every evening the war correspondents report on the difficulties, the courage and the fighting spirit of the ar feats A few of the wounded who are already back in England also spoke on the radio Despite the ently back and forth We heard over the BBC that Churchill wanted to land along with the troops on D Day, but Eisenhower and the other generals e for such an old man he must be at least seventy! The excite that the ill finally be over by the end of the year It's about ti is unbearable; now that she can no longer drive us crazy with the invasion, she roans all day about the bad weather If only we could plunk her down in the loft in a bucket of cold water! Everyone in the Annex except Mr van Daan and Peter has read the Hunaarian Rhapsody trilogy, a biography of the coy Franz Liszt It's very interesting, though in my opinion there's a bit too reatest and est woe of seventy He had an affair with Countess Marie d' Agoult, Princess Carolyne Sayn- Wittgenstein, the dancer Lola Montez, the pianist Agnes Kingworth, the pianist Sophie Menter, the Circassian princess Olga Janina, Baroness Olga Meyen- dorff, actress Lilla what's-her-name, etc, etc, and there's no end to it Those parts of the book dealing withSome of the people mentioned are Schumann, Clara Wieck, Hector Berlioz, Johannes Brahner, Hans von Bulow, Anton Rubinstein, Frederic Chopin, Victor Hugo, Honore de Balzac, Hiller, Huanini, Mendels- sohn, etc, etc
Liszt appears to have been a decent h exceptionally vain He helped others, put art above all else, was extreht of tears, was a gentleman, couldn't refuse anyone a favor, wasn't interested in ious freedom and the world
Yours, Anne M Frank
314 ANNE FRANK
TUESDAY, JUNE 13, 1944
Dearest Kit, Another birthday has gone by, so I'er's five-volume art history book, a set of underwear, two belts, a handkerchief, two jars of yogurt, a jar of jam, two honey cookies (sold bracelet froot, a sticker album from the van Daans, Biomalt and sweet peas from Dussel, candy froh point: the book Maria Theresa and three slices of full-creaave me a lovely bouquet of peonies; the poor boy had put a lot of effort into finding a present, but nothing quite worked out
The invasion is still going splendidly, in spite of the h seas
Yesterday Churchill, ses that the British have captured and liberated Churchill was on a torpedo boat that shelled the coast Uke many men, he doesn't seem to knohat fear is-an enviable trait!
Froe the lad the idle (!) British have finally rolled up their sleeves and gotten down to work Those who keep clai they don't want to be occupied by the British don't realize how unfair they're being Their line of reasoning boils down to this: England le and sacri- fice its sons to liberate Holland and the other occupied countries After that the British shouldn't reies to all the occupied countries, restore the Dutch East Indies to its rightful owner and then return, weakened and iland What a bunch of idiots And yet, as I've already said,their ranks What would have beconed a peace treaty with Germany, as it's had ample opportunity to do? Holland would have become German, and that would have been the end of that!
All those Dutch people who still look down on the British, scoff at England and its governlish cowards, yet hate the Ger, the way you'd pluhten out their juhts, accusations and reproaches are swirling around in my head I'm not really as conceited as s better than anyone else, but there's one difference: I also know that I want to change, will change and already have changed greatly! Why is it, I often ask myself, that everyone still thinks I'ant? Aant, or are they? It sounds crazy, I know, but I' to cross out that last sentence, because it's not as crazy as it seems Mrs van Daan and Dussel, ent and, not to put too fine a point on it, just plain ”stupid”! Stupid people usually can't bear it when others do so better than they do; the best examples of this are those two dummies, Mrs van Daan and Dussel Mrs van D thinks I'm stupid because I don't suffer so much from this ailment as she does, she thinks I'm pushy because she's even pushi+er, she thinks my dresses are too short because hers are even shorter, and she thinks I'm such a know-it-all because she talks twice as oes for Dussel But one of s is ”Where there's smoke there's fire,” and I readily admit I'm a know-it-all
What's so difficult about my personality is that I scold and curse myself much more than anyone else does; if Mother adds her advice, the pile of serh the everyone until the old faain: ”No one understands me!”
This phrase is part of me, and as unlikely as it may seem, there's a kernel of truth in it So for a word of coain If only I had sos seriously Alas, I haven't yet found that person, so the searchabout Peter, aren't you, Kit? It's true, Peter loves rows day by day, but so us back, and I don't knohat it is Soerated But that's not true, because if I' for hiood, and yet I can't deny that he's disappointed me in ion, his table conversations and various things of that nature Still, I'ree, tolerant and extres to hi a determined effort to remove the blots from his copybook and keep his affairs in order Yet why does he hide his innermost self and never allow me access? Of course, he's much h I' all there is to know in theory, but not in practice) that in ti as much, or even more, for someone to confide in
Peter and I have both spent our contemplative years in the Annex We often discuss the future, the past and the present, but as I've already told you, I , and yet I know it exists!