THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL : THE DEFINITIVE EDITION ... - Fidele

German Officers' Club. The entire corner of Vijzelstraat and Singel has gone up in
flames. The number of air strikes on German cities is increasing daily. We haven't
had a good night's rest in ages, and I have bags under my eyes from lack of sleep.
Our food is terrible. Breakfast consists of plain, unbuttered brea and ersatz
coffee. For the last two weeks lunch has been e. spinach or cooked lettuce with
huge potatoes that have a rotten, sweetish taste. If you're trying to diet, the
Annex is the place to be! Upstairs they complain bitterly, but we don't think it's
such a tragedy.
All the Dutch men who either fought or were mobilized in 1940 have been called up
to work in prisoner-of-war camps. I bet they're taking this precaution because of
the invasion!
Yours, Anne
SATURDAY, MAY 1, 1943
Dearest Kitty,
Yesterday was Dussel's birthday. At first he acted as if he didn't want to
celebrate it, but when Miep arrived with a large shopping bag overflowing with
gifts, he was as excited as a little kid. His darling' 'Lotje" has sent him eggs,
butter, cookies, lemonade, bread, cognac, spice cake, flowers, oranges, chocolate,
books and writing paper. He piled his presents on a table and displayed them for
no fewer than three days, the silly old goat!
You mustn't get the idea that he's starving. We found bread, cheese, jam and eggs
in his cupboard. It's absolutely disgraceful that Dussel, whom we've treated with
such kindness and whom we took in to save from destruction, should stuff himself
behind our backs and not give us anything. After all, we've shared all we had with
him! But what's worse, in our opinion, is that he's so stingy with respect to Mr.
Kleiman, Mr. Voskuijl and Bep. He doesn't give them a thing. In Dussel's view the
oranges that Kleiman so badly needs for his sick stomach will benefit his own
stomach even more.
Tonight the guns have been banging away so much that I've already had to gather up
my belongings four times. Today I packed a suitcase Wl f;the stuff I'd need in
case we had to flee, but as M ther correctly noted,
"Where would you go?"
All of Holland is being punishe or the workers' strikes. Martial law has been
declared, and everyone is going to get one less butter coupon. What naughty
children.
I washed Mother's hair this evening, which is no easy task these days. We have to
use a very sticky liquid cleanser because there's no more shampoo. Besides that,
Moms had a hard time combing her hair because the family comb has only ten teeth
left.
Yours, Anne
SUNDAY, MAY 2, 1943
When I think about our lives here, I usually come to the conclusion that we live
in a paradise compared to the Jews who aren't in hiding. All the same, later on,
when everything has returned to normal, I'll probably wonder how we, who always