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

Yours, Anne
P.S. Will the reader please take into consideration that this story was written
before the writer's fury had cooled?
TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 1943
Dearest Kitty,
Things are going well on the political front. Italy has banned the Fascist Party.
The people are fighting the Fascists in many places -- even the army has joined
the fight. How can a country like that continue to wage war against England?
Our beautiful radio was taken away last week. Dussel was very angry at Mr. Kugler
for turning it in on the appointed day. Dussel is slipping lower and lower in my
estimation, and he's already below zero. hatever he says about politics, history,
geography or ything else is so ridiculous that I hardly dare repeat it: Hitler
will fade from history; the harbor in Rotterdam is bigger than the one in Hamburg;
the English are idiots for not taking the opportunity to bomb Italy to
smithereens; etc., etc.
We just had a third air raid. I decided to grit my teeth and practice being
courageous.
Mrs. van Daan, the one who always said "Let them fall" and "Better to end with a
bang than not to end at all," is the most cowardly one among us. She was shaking
like a leaf this morning and even burst into tears. She was comforted by her
husband, with whom she recently declared a truce after a week of squabbling; I
nearly got sentimental at the sight.
Mouschi has now proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that having a cat has
disadvantages as well as advantages. The whole house is crawling with fleas, and
it's getting worse each day. Mr. Kleiman sprinkled yellow powder in every nook and
cranny, but the fleas haven't taken the slightest notice. It's making us all very
jittery; we're forever imagining a bite on our arms and legs or other parts of our
bodies, so we leap up and do a few exercises, since it gives us an excuse to take
a better look at our arms or necks. But now we're paying the price for having had
so little physical exercise; we're so stiff we can hardly turn our heads. The real
calisthenics fell by the wayside long ago.
Yours, Anne
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4,1943
Dearest Kitty,
Now that we've been in hiding for a little over a year, you know a great deal
about our lives. Still, I can't possibly tell you everything, since it's all so
different compared to ordinary times and ordinary people. Nevertheless, to give
you a closer look into our lives, from time to time I'll describe part of an
ordinary day. I'll start with the evening and night.
Nine in the evening. Bedtime always begins in the Annex with an enormous hustle
and bustle. Chairs are shifted, beds pulled out, blankets unfolded -- nothing
stays where it is during the daytime. I sleep on a small divan, which is only five
feet long, so we have to add a few chairs to make it longer. Comforter, sheets,
pillows, blankets: everything has to be removed from Dussel' s bed, where it's