Unit

ci ó n
t rib u
us d i s
i d a
Pro hib
A
t school our teacher told us about Anne Frank, the
Jewish girl who lived in hiding during World War II.
We read “Anne Frank’s Diary.” The story that she
wrote was sad, scary and beautiful, all at the same time.
The day I finished the diary, I went to bed thinking about
Anne. She died in a concentration camp in Germany. Before
falling asleep, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if I could talk
to Anne and hear the story from her?”

75
5

U7FRYWCsec2.indd 75 2/1/19 10:03 AM

The Anne of My Dream

ME: Anne, you were born in

Germany, right?
ANNE FRANK: Yes, in Frankfurt,
in 1929. When I was four
years old, Hitler became
the dictator in Germany.
He and his Nazi party
hated the Jews. My
family was Jewish and
they decided to move
to Holland to get away
from the Nazis. I don’t
remember anything

n
about Frankfurt. I was too little. My family and I lived in

i ó
Amsterdam and I went to school there.

ME: Were you a happy child?

rib u c
s t
ANNE FRANK: Oh, yes. I was always playing and joking. I

us d i
had a lot of friends. I didn’t always pay attention at
school like Margot, my older sister. Margot was more

a
serious than me; she was the good girl in the family.

hib i d
ME: When did you realize that life was different for Jews?

Pro
ANNE FRANK: When I was nine and the Nazis destroyed
hundreds of Jewish buildings in Germany: synagogues
(Jewish temples), stores, restaurants and so on. There
were broken windows everywhere. People called it
Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass. This happened
in Germany, but everybody talked about it in Holland.
“What if there were Nazis in Holland? Would we be
safe?” we asked ourselves.

Jews n.–people whose religion is Judaism

party n.–a group of people organized for the purpose of directing the
policies of a government

76

U7FRYWCsec2.indd 76 2/1/19 10:03 AM

 ME: When did the war start?
ANNE FRANK: Germany invaded Poland in 1939. England and
France declared war on Germany. That was how World
War II began. In 1940, the Germans invaded Holland.

ME: Was life difficult for Jews in Holland?

ANNE FRANK: Margot and I were
children, so we didn’t know
everything immediately. In 1941,
we had to leave our school to go
to a Jewish school.
Then Jews had to register
themselves, so that the Nazis
knew where we lived. Next, Jews

ó n
were not allowed to take the bus

ci
anymore, or go to the parks, or

rib u
the swimming pools. I didn’t

s t
understand why the Nazis

us d i
hated us.
In 1942, the Nazis made a new

a
law. Jews had to wear a yellow

hib i d
star, the Star of David, with the
word Jood on it (Jew in Dutch). It

Pro
felt terrible to be separated from
our friends.

ME: Is that when you started writing your famous diary?

ANNE FRANK: Yes. I got the diary as my 13th birthday present.
I called the diary Kitty, imagining that she was my best
friend. I told Kitty all my secrets. Around that time, my
parents started taking furniture from the house.

Dutch n.–the official language of the Netherlands

hate v.–strongly dislike someone or something
register v.–write your name on a list
77

U7FRYWCsec2.indd 77 2/1/19 10:03 AM

 n
ME: Were they preparing to go into hiding?

i ó
ANNE FRANK: Of course! They took the furniture to the

u c
building where my father’s company was. There was a

rib
hidden section in the back of the building. They called it

i s t
the Annex.

us d
A few weeks after my birthday, my sister Margot received
a letter. She was 16 and she had to present herself at the

i d a
police station. My parents didn’t want Margot to go there

hib
because the Nazis could send her to a concentration

Pro
camp. We knew that people never returned from those
camps. So my parents decided to go into hiding.

ME: Did you have time to pack?

ANNE FRANK: No, it was crazy. We couldn’t take suitcases
or big bags because that was suspicious. So we put on
many clothes: a dress, a shirt, pants, two blouses and a
coat. And we filled a small bag with some other clothes,
and of course I took my diary. We got to my father’s


office building. There, we climbed the stairs to the third
floor and my father’s co-worker, Miep, opened the secret
door. It was behind a bookcase.

suitcase n.–a container for belongings during travel

78

U7FRYWCsec2.indd 78 2/1/19 10:03 AM

 ME: What was life like in the Annex?
ANNE FRANK: There was a small apartment in the Annex.
During the day, people worked in the office. They didn’t
know that we lived in the building, so we had to be
quiet. We spoke in soft voices. We couldn’t even flush
the toilet during the day!

ME: How many people lived in the Annex?

ANNE FRANK: At first, it was just my parents, Margot and
me. After a week, Mr. and Mrs. van Pels moved in with
their son Peter. I didn’t really like Peter. He was shy and
boring. Four months later, another man arrived, Mr.
Fritz Pfeiffer. Now there
were eight of us, in a tiny

n
apartment. I had to share

ci ó
my room with boring Mr.

rib u
Pfeiffer.

i s t
ME: What did you do during

us d
the day?
ANNE FRANK: Margot and I

d a
had school. My parents

hib i
taught us math and

Pro
French. I really didn’t pay
much attention.
I kept thinking about
going back to a real
school again. I tried to be
happy when I was with
the others.

boring adj.–not fun

flush v.–to clean the toilet by making water flow through the bowl
shy adj.–timid

79

U7FRYWCsec2.indd 79 2/1/19 10:03 AM

 ANNE FRANK: When I
was by myself, I was
serious and sad.
I poured my heart
out to Kitty, my
imaginary friend in
the diary. I suppose
you’ve read the diary?
ME: Of course, it’s
amazing! You describe
the events and
express your feelings
so well.
ANNE FRANK: Thanks!

i ó n
When I was 12,

u c
I wanted to be an

rib
actress and go to

s t
Hollywood, but by

us d i
the time I was 14,
I had decided to be a writer. I also read a lot. Our friend

d a
Miep went to the public library every Saturday and we

hib i
shared the books. At night we listened to the radio, and

Pro
in the daytime we studied and read. On Saturdays and
Sundays, Miep came to visit us and tell us about life
outside the Annex.
Miep and a few others from the office helped us with
food, but sometimes there wasn’t enough. The Annex
only had one small window and we weren’t allowed to
go close to it because people could see us. We lived in
terrible isolation and I couldn’t dance or sing or run.
I felt like a bird in a cage. I was desperate, but we were
grateful that we were safe.

pour one’s heart out v.–to express feeling

80

U7FRYWCsec2.indd 80 2/1/19 10:03 AM

 ME: If you felt so alone, why didn’t you become friends
with Peter?
ANNE FRANK: You know that; you’ve read my diary!
ME: Yes, but I’d like to hear the story from you.
ANNE FRANK: Okay. The thing is that there were five adults
and three children in the Annex. The person who was
my best friend was my father Otto. He was always
supportive, patient and kind. My sister was older than
me and she was
more mature.
Peter was 14 and
he understood me
better than Margot.
Peter and I sat near

i ó n
the window and

u c
looked at the big tree

rib
outside (we could

s t
only see the top of

us d i
the tree). We spent
a lot of time talking

d a
about life outside

hib i
the Annex. Little by

Pro
little, I sort of fell in
love with him – well,
I liked him better.
After all, I was a 13-
year old girl!

ME: Did you continue writing in your diary?

ANNE FRANK: Yes, all the time. In the beginning I wrote
about myself, but later I started writing short stories,
too. Writing was my escape. In my diary, I was free to
explore different worlds.

alone adv.–without the company of others

81

U7FRYWCsec2.indd 81 2/1/19 10:03 AM

 ME: And then somebody betrayed you? Right?
ANNE FRANK: Yes. It happened in August 1944, after two
years in the Annex. The Nazis got a tip from somebody.
We don’t know from whom. They came to my father’s
office building and said, “We know there are Jews hiding
in this building. Take us to them!” So Victor Kugler,
who worked there, had to show them the entrance to
the Annex. They took all eight of us to jail and they
also took two people from the office, Mr. Kugler and Mr.
Kleiman.

ME: Where did they take you?

ANNE FRANK: They sent us to Camp Westerbork in the north of
Holland. They gave us blue overalls. The overalls had red

n
marks. The red meant we were criminals because we had

ci ó
gone into hiding. They cut our hair and took away our

rib u
dignity. Then the Nazis separated the men from the women

t
and we could only see our father for a little while at night.

us d i s
ME: Did you have any
hope?

d a
ANNE FRANK: American,

hib i
British and Canadian

Pro
troops were in France on
D-Day, June 6, 1944. At the
camp, we told each other
that the Allied Forces were
going to end the war and
free Holland soon.
However, we knew the Nazis
might kill many people
before that.

betray v.–give information to an enemy

hope n.–a confident desire
jail n.–a place where criminals are kept

troop n.–a military unit

82

U7FRYWCsec2.indd 82 2/1/19 10:03 AM

 ME: And then?
ANNE FRANK: Then they
put a thousand Jews
on a train. We had to
stand up as there was
no place to sit. There
were no bathrooms, so
you can imagine the
smell! The van Pels
family and Mr. Pfeiffer
were also on the train.
They took us to Auschwitz, in Poland. When we arrived,
we saw black smoke and we smelled burnt meat. They
killed people with gas and burned the dead bodies. It was a

i ó n

death camp. We were desperate.

u c
We had to work from early in the morning till late at night.

rib
They wanted us to suffer more. They separated men and

id st
women. I never saw my father or Peter again. Later they
put Margot and me on another train and we had to say

s u
good-bye to our mother. They took my sister and me to

ida
another concentration camp, in Bergen-Belsen in Germany.

i b
There, my sister fell sick with typhoid fever and she died. I

Pro h
was weak and got sick.
I died, too.

ME: I’m so sorry.

ANNE FRANK: It was a terrible, useless death. A month later
the Allied Forces liberated the concentration camp, but it
was too late for many of us.

ME: How many Jews died during World War II?

ANNE FRANK: Around 5 or 6 million Jews. Imagine, 5 or 6
million men, women and children were killed. All useless
deaths.
smoke n.–a cloud of tiny particles caused by something burning
useless adj.–having no use
weak adj.–not strong

83

U7FRYWCsec2.indd 83 2/1/19 10:03 AM

 ME: Did any of your family survive?
ANNE FRANK: Yes, my father. He didn’t know whether Margot
and I were alive, so he looked everywhere. Then he spoke
to a girl that knew us in Bergen-Belsen and she told him
that we were dead. My father’s colleague, Miep, found
my diary in the Annex and she gave it to my dad. He
decided to publish it in 1947.

ME: Many people have read it.

ANNE FRANK: Yes. It was translated into more than 50
languages. My story made people understand that war is
useless.

ME: Anne, how can you tell me these things if you are
dead?

i ó n
ANNE FRANK: You are dreaming, remember! I’m the voice in

u c
your dream.

t rib
ME: Okay, please continue.

us d i s
ANNE FRANK: War is useless,
I said. I cannot believe

a
that people still start

hib i d
wars all the time. For
example, in this 21st

Pro
century, there have been
wars in Afghanistan,
Iraq, Lebanon,
Palestine, Somalia,
Sudan and in many,
many other regions.
Humanity needs to
learn from the mistakes
that we made in the
past.

dream n.–a sequence of mental images during sleep

84

U7FRYWCsec2.indd 84 2/1/19 10:03 AM

 Here are some of the things
Anne said in her diary:

She said that despite everything,

she believed that people are
really good at heart.

She said that she simply

couldn’t build her hopes on
a foundation of confusion,
misery and death. She said
she thought that peace and
tranquility woud return again.
She said how true her daddy’s words
were when he said that all children mus
t
look after their own upbringing
ing. He said
that parents can only give good advice

n
or put them on the right paths, but the

i ó
final forming of a person’s character

u c
lies in their own hands.

rib
She said that no one
had ever become

i s t
us d
poor by giving.
She said that laziness may
appear attractive, but

i d a work gives satisfaction.

hib
She wrote that we all live
with the objective of being

Pro
happy and that our lives She reminded us to
are all different and yet th
of all the beauty sti ink
the same. ll left
around us and be
happy.

She wondered if anyone

She said that if
would ever think that
someone was happy,
so much went on in the
they would make
soul of a young girl.
others happy too.

laziness n.–not wanting to work

soul n.–the nonphysical aspect of a person
upbringing n.–early training

85

U7FRYWCsec2.indd 85 2/1/19 10:03 AM

 After Reading

Write a diary.
Keep a diary for two weeks. Write about things that
happened to you, what you did, how you felt. At the end
of the two weeks, prepare a summary of the diary. Put the
events and activities in the order in which they occurred and
specify the time and place.

References

1. https://custom-writing.org/blog/writing-tips/free-essay-writing-
tips/17711.html
2. https://penandthepad.com/write-autobiography-2002081.html

i ó
3. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/dreamscloud/12-easy-steps-

c n
u
for- keeping-a-dream-journal-_b_8812012.html

i s t rib
us d
Suggested Further Reading

a
Frank, A. (1993). Anne Frank: The diary of a young girl. Bantam.

hib i d
Yousafzai, M. (2015). I am Malala: The girl who stood up for

Pro
education and was shot by the Taliban. Back Bay Books.

Favilli, E. (2016). Good night stories for rebel girls. Timbuktu

Labs, Inc.

86

U7FRYWCsec2.indd 86 2/1/19 10:03 AM