Part 20 (2/2)

This is the best proof we've had so far that enerals are fed up with the war and would like to see Hitler sink into a bottomless pit, so they can establish a mthtary dictatorshi+p, make peace with the Allies, rearm themselves and, after a few decades, start a near Perhaps Providence is deliberately biding its ti rid of Hider, since it's much easier, and cheaper, for the Allies to let the impeccable Germans kill each other off It's less work for the Russians and the British, and it allows the their own cities all that much sooner But we haven't reached that point yet, and I'd hate to anticipate the glorious event Still, you've probably noticed that I' but the truth For once, I'h ideals

Furthermore, Hitler has been so kind as to announce to his loyal, devoted people that as of today all mthtary personnel are under orders of the Gestapo, and that any soldier who knows that one of his superiors was involved in this cowardly atteht!

A fine kettle of fish that will be Little Johnny's feet are sore after a long rabs his rifle, shouts, ”You, you tried to kill the Fuhrer Take that!” One shot, and the snooty officer who dared to reprimand him passes into eternal life (or is it eternal death?) Eventually, every tiives an order, he'll be practically wetting his pants, because the soldiers have more say-so than he does

Were you able to follow that, or have I been skipping froain? I can't help it, the prospect of going back to school in October is et through telling you I didn't want to anticipate events? Forgive me, Kitty, they don't call ! Yours, Anne M Frank

TUESDAY, AUGUST 1, 1944

Dearest Kitty, ”A bundle of contradictions” was the end ofof this one Can you please tell me exactly what ”a bundle of contradictions” is? What does ”contradiction” mean? Like so many words, it can be interpreted in tays: a contradiction imposed from without and one i other people's opinions, always knowing best, having the last word; in short, all those unpleasant traits for which I'm known The latter, for which I'm not known, is my own secret

As I've told you many times, I'm split in two One side contains my exuberant cheerfulness, my flippancy, hter side of things By that Iwith flirtations, a kiss, an e in wait to ambush the other one, which is much purer, deeper and finer No one knows Anne's better side, and that's whyclown for an afternoon, but after that everyone's had enough of me to last a month Actually, I'm what a romantic movie is to a profound thinker-a otten: not bad, but not particularly good either I hate haVing to tell you this, but why shouldn't I adhter, more superficial side will always steal a march on the deeper side and therefore alin You can't iine how often I've tried to p:ush away this Anne, which is only half of what is known as Anne-to beat her down, hide her But it doesn't work, and I knohy

I'm afraid that people who know me as I usually am will discover I have another side, a better and finer side I'm afraid they'll mock me, think I'm ridiculous and senti taken seriously, but only the ”lighthearted” Anne is used to it and can put up with it; the ”deeper” Anne is too weak If I force the good Anne into the spotlight for even fifteen minutes, she shuts up like a clam the moment she's called upon to speak, and lets Anne nu Before I realize it, she's disappeared

So the nice Anne is never seen in coh she ale when I'm alone I know exactly how I'd like to be, how I amon the inside But unfortunately I'm only like that with myself And perhaps that's why-no, I'm sure that's the reason why-I think of myself as happy on the inside and other people think I'uided by the pure Anne within, but on the outside I' at its tether

As I've told you, what I say is not what I feel, which is why I have a reputation for being boy-crazy as well as a flirt, a so-lucky Anne laughs, gives a flippant reply, shrugs her shoulders and pretends she doesn't give a darn The quiet Anne reacts in just the opposite way If I' completely honest, I'll have to ad very hard to change ainst a , ”You see, that's what's becoative opinions, dis faces, people, who dislike you, and all because you don't listen to the ; advice of your own better half” Believe me, I'd like ;' to listen, but it doesn't work, because if I' on a new act and I have to saveabout my own family, who assume I must be sick, stuff me with aspirins and sedatives, feel my neck and forehead to see if I have a temperature, ask aboutin a bad mood, until I just can't keep it up anyet cross, then sad, and finally end up turning ood part on the inside, and keep trying to find a way to become what I'd like to be and what I could be ifif only there were no other people in the world

Yours, Anne M Frank

ANNE'S DIARY ENDS HERE

AFTERWORD

On the ust 4, 1944, sometiracht Several figures eeant, Karl Josef Silberbauer, in full uniform, and at least three Dutch members of the Security Police, armed but in civilian clothes Soht people hiding in the Annex, as well as two of their helpers, Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleih not Miep Gies and Elisabeth (Bep) Voskuijl-and took all the valuables and cash they could find in the Annex

After the arrest, Kugler and Kleiman were taken to a prison in Amsterdam On September 11, 1944, they were transferred, without benefit of a trial, to a camp in Amersfoort (Holland) Kleiman, because of his poor health, was released on September 18, 1944 He reed to escape his imprisonment on March 28, 1945, when he and his fellow prisoners were being sent to Gerrated to Canada in 1955 and died in Toronto in 1989

Elisabeth (Bep) Voskuijl Wijk died in Amsterda in Amsterdam; her husband Jan died in 1993

Upon their arrest, the eight residents of the Annex were first brought to a prison in Amsterdam and then transferred to Westerbork, the transit camp for Jews in the north of Holland They were deported on September 3, 1944, in the last transport to leave Westerbork, and arrived three days later in Auschwitz (Poland)

Her to the testiassed to death in Auschwitz in October or Noveas chauste van Pels (Petronella van Daan) was transported froen-Belsen, from there to Buchenwald, then to Theresienstadt on April 9, 1945, and apparently to another concentration cah the date of her death is unknown Peter van Pels (van Daan) was forced to take part in the January 16, 1945 ”death march” from Auschwitz to Mauthausen (Austria), where he died on May 5, 1945, three days before the camp was liberated

Fritz Pfeffer (Albert Dussel) died on Deceamme concentration camp, where he had been transferred from either Buchenwald or Sachsenhausen

Edith Frank died in Auschwitz-Birkenau on January 6, 1945, froot and Anne Frank were transported froen Belsen, a concentration camp near Hannover (Germany) The typhus epidemic that broke out in the winter of 1944-1945, as a result of the horrendous hygenic conditions, killed thousands of prisoners, including Margot and, a few days later, Anne She must have died in late February or early March The bodies of both girls were probably duraves The camp was liberated by British troops on April 12, 1945 Otto Frank was the only one of the eight to survive the concentration camps After Auschas liberated by Russian troops, he was repatriated to Amsterdam by way of Odessa and Marseille He arrived in Amsterdam on June 3, 1945, and stayed there until 1953, when he moved to Basel (Switzerland), where his sister and her family, and later his brother, lived He inally from Vienna, who had survived Auschwitz and lost a husband and son in Mauthausen Until his death on August 19, 1980, Otto Frank continued to live in Birsfelden, outside Basel, where he devoted hihter's diary with people all over the world