I was there with Anne Frank in The Secret Annex

Hey guys!

I bet most of you are familiar with Anne Frank.

Anne Frank

A diarist who lived from 1929 to 1945 during World War 2 in Amsterdam where Adolf Hitler purged the land from Jewish. Yes, Anne Frank was a teenage Jews. Millions of Jews dead including Anne Frank and her family. The only survivor in the family was her dad, Otto Frank. 

As I flipped through the pages from the first page, all I could feel is a strong of emotions and desire from a young girl who had different lens in viewing her surrounding and environment. I had vivid impressions  living in Secret Annex or the warehouse together with Frank and Van Dan's family (Mr and Mrs Van Daan and their only son, Peter). Anne wrote a clear description about the annex, the people in the annex and what did they do during the confinement. 

Edith Frank

Detached from the outside world, they tried their best to live normally despite of the ceaseless boredom, ever - present threat of discovery and threat, and the cruelties living cloistered in the warehouse. This left me stunned and wonder what would I do or would be upon walking in her shoes.

There are several events that reside in my mind for a long time from this diary and at the same time act as a reminder me to me that war is a great horror and a huge testament to all people regardless age and class group. 

1. The moment when Anne went to the creaky windows and tried to breathe the fresh air through the creaks.
 

Anne expressed in her diary how she was longing to go out and breathe the fresh air, watch the sunset and enjoy how the Mother Nature took place from one time to time. You know, like right now, we don't have much time to appreciate all these small things that happen around us. The moon and the sun and the air that we breathe. But during her time, these small things that made her not losing hopes for a better tomorrow. 

Peter Van Daan

2. In love with Peter

Fourteen and fifteen is the critical age for every young girl to love and to be loved by her significant other and Anne was not exceptional. Confined in the secret house, Anne started to fall in love with Peter, the only young lad in the house. She was in state of denial at the first place and later she found that Margot had the same feelings to Peter. There were a few times Anne described Peter and how she spent time with him in his room at the annex in her novel. This event leaves me thinking how war actually could steal a large amount of time to every people especially children and teenagers to grow. They had to adapt themselves with situation that is way too much for them! But as the time goes by, they had no options and lived as what it was as they just could not identify the feelings that were kept too long underneath.

Otto Frank

3. Pim and Anne. 

I love and adore Pim (Otto's nickname) and a kind of relationship that he had with his daughters Anne and Margot. Especially Anne. When Anne was in love with Peter, she talked a glimpse about it to his father and if it is okay for her to go upstairs, in Peter's room to do French or any other homework. Pim disapproved a bit and carefully explained to Anne that maybe she should avoid to have a deep relationship with Peter. As they would be seeing each other everyday, in fact every second that if misunderstanding arouse from them, both would feel uncomfortable. Anne refused to listen to her dad and she was being obstinate. She ended up writing a letter to Pim. 

A line from Anne's letter to her dad

Margot Frank

"Since we have been here, from July 1942 until a few weeks ago, I can assure you that I haven't had any easy time. If you only knew how I cried in the evenings, how unhappy I was, how lonely I felt, then you would understand that I want to go upstairs!"

Reading her letter, Pim could not do nothing but crying!  He later had a pep talk with Anne and explained to her his reasons and how much he loves her. The emotional conversation en

d up Anne hugging her dad and how regret she was to say such things to a person who is willing to do anything to protect her. I don't know about you, but I easily fall in love to a relationship between father - daughter. And as the leader of the two families, Pim always tried his best to solve the conflict between the family members when each of them suffered from depression and boredom that triggered continuous commotion. In other words, he kept his sanity when everybody was just about losing their control during the ghastly confinement.

Honestly, it has becoming an obsession to me on Anne History. That I continue to dig more, to read more about her and her family  in the internet from other people point of view. When the ladies were separated with Pim, they were moved to a concentration camp in Bergen - Belsen . There, the barracks leader of the concentration camp, Irma Sonnenberg Menkel, admitted that she used to see a young girl with a paper and a pen (where it was really hard to find one at that time) losing in thought at the camp. 

A line from Irma's writing in 2012, 

I have a dim memory of Anne Frank speaking of her father. She was a nice, fine person. She would say to me, “Irma, I am very sick.” I said, “No, you are not so sick.” She wanted to be reassured that she wasn’t. When she slipped into a coma, I took her in my arms. She didn’t know that she was dying. She didn’t know that she was so sick. You never know. At Bergen-Belsen, you did not have feelings anymore. You became paralyzed. In all the years since, I almost never talked about Bergen-Belsen. I couldn’t. It was too much.

Middle : Was the hiding place or the secret annex of Frank and Van Daan's families
for two years.

Anne died not long after Margot and Edith died. few sources said she suffered from typhus. The war ended three months later. 

Reading this masterpiece written by a young girl, there were moments I felt like I was there with them, woke up in terror in the middle of the night due to the bomb explosion and the constant fear and threat. This is what war is only capable to do and it takes one precious element in each of us, it is peace.

"The only component that can across the boundaries of race, ethnicity and religion during war is only one thing, that is compassion towards each other." 

-Azizah Adib Rahim-

https://www.ou.org/holidays/yom-hashoah/saw-anne-frank-die/