friday, august 14, 1942
dear kitty,
i''ve deserted you for an entire month, but so little has happened that i can''t find a newsworthy item to rte every single day. the van daans arrived on july 13. we thought they wereing on the fourteenth, but from the thirteenth to sixteenth the germans were sending out call-up notices right and left and causing a lot of unrest, so they decided it would be safer to leave a day too early than a day toote.
peter van daan arrived at nine-thirty in the morning (while we were still at breakfast). peter''s going on sixteen, a shy, awkward boy whosepany won''t amount to much. mr. and mrs. van daan came half an hourter.
much to our amusement, mrs. van daan was carrying a hatbox with arge chamber pot inside. "i just don''t feel at home without my chamber pot," she eximed, and it was the first item to find a permanent ce under the divan. instead of a chamber pot, mr. van d. was lugging a copsible tea table under his arm.
from the first, we ate our meals together, and after three days it felt as if the seven of us had be one big family. naturally, the van daans had much to tell about the week we''d been away from civilization. we were especially interested in what had happened to our apartment and to mr. goldschmidt.
mr. van daan filled us in: "monday morning at nine, mr. goldschmidt phoned and asked if i coulde over. i went straightaway and found a very distraught mr. goldschmidt. he showed me a note that the frank family had left behind. as instructed, he was nning to bring the cat to the neighbors, which i agreed was a good idea. he was afraid the house was going to be searched, so we w=nt through all the rooms, straightening up here and there and clearing the breakfast things off the table. suddenly i saw a notepad on mrs. frank''s desk, with an address in maastricht written on it. even though i knew mrs. frank had left it on purpose, i pretended to be surprised and horrified and begged mr. goldschmidt to burn this incriminating piece of paper. i swore up and down that i knew nothing about your disappearance, but that the note had given me an idea. ''mr. goldschmidt,'' i said, ''i bet i know what this address refers to. about six months ago a high-ranking officer came to the office. it seems he and mr. frank grew up together. he promised to help mr. frank if it was ever necessary. as i recall, he was stationed in maastricht. i think this officer has kept his word and is somehow nning to help them cross over to belgium and then to switzend. there''s no harm in telling this to any friends of the franks whoe asking about them. of course, you don''t need to mention the part about maastricht.'' and after that i left. this is the story most of your friends have been told, because i heard itter from several other people."
we thought it was extremely funny, but weughed even harder when mr. van daan told us that certain people have vivid imaginations. for example, one family living on our square imed they sawall four of us riding by on our bikes early in the morning, and another woman was absolutely positive we''d been loaded into some kind of military vehicle in the middle of the night.
yours, anne
dear kitty,
i''ve deserted you for an entire month, but so little has happened that i can''t find a newsworthy item to rte every single day. the van daans arrived on july 13. we thought they wereing on the fourteenth, but from the thirteenth to sixteenth the germans were sending out call-up notices right and left and causing a lot of unrest, so they decided it would be safer to leave a day too early than a day toote.
peter van daan arrived at nine-thirty in the morning (while we were still at breakfast). peter''s going on sixteen, a shy, awkward boy whosepany won''t amount to much. mr. and mrs. van daan came half an hourter.
much to our amusement, mrs. van daan was carrying a hatbox with arge chamber pot inside. "i just don''t feel at home without my chamber pot," she eximed, and it was the first item to find a permanent ce under the divan. instead of a chamber pot, mr. van d. was lugging a copsible tea table under his arm.
from the first, we ate our meals together, and after three days it felt as if the seven of us had be one big family. naturally, the van daans had much to tell about the week we''d been away from civilization. we were especially interested in what had happened to our apartment and to mr. goldschmidt.
mr. van daan filled us in: "monday morning at nine, mr. goldschmidt phoned and asked if i coulde over. i went straightaway and found a very distraught mr. goldschmidt. he showed me a note that the frank family had left behind. as instructed, he was nning to bring the cat to the neighbors, which i agreed was a good idea. he was afraid the house was going to be searched, so we w=nt through all the rooms, straightening up here and there and clearing the breakfast things off the table. suddenly i saw a notepad on mrs. frank''s desk, with an address in maastricht written on it. even though i knew mrs. frank had left it on purpose, i pretended to be surprised and horrified and begged mr. goldschmidt to burn this incriminating piece of paper. i swore up and down that i knew nothing about your disappearance, but that the note had given me an idea. ''mr. goldschmidt,'' i said, ''i bet i know what this address refers to. about six months ago a high-ranking officer came to the office. it seems he and mr. frank grew up together. he promised to help mr. frank if it was ever necessary. as i recall, he was stationed in maastricht. i think this officer has kept his word and is somehow nning to help them cross over to belgium and then to switzend. there''s no harm in telling this to any friends of the franks whoe asking about them. of course, you don''t need to mention the part about maastricht.'' and after that i left. this is the story most of your friends have been told, because i heard itter from several other people."
we thought it was extremely funny, but weughed even harder when mr. van daan told us that certain people have vivid imaginations. for example, one family living on our square imed they sawall four of us riding by on our bikes early in the morning, and another woman was absolutely positive we''d been loaded into some kind of military vehicle in the middle of the night.
yours, anne