six million voices one girl and a diary Series 2 CD3

20. Pale Blue Horizon (Alternative Version) Courtesy Peter Gondwe

Post Journal
No Diary Entry

19. She Bangs the Drum – For Two Minutes Silence

Eye Witness Testimony
Historical Documentation

Hanneli Goslar: School Friend of Anne Frank (1934-1942)

Both Hanneli and Anne attended the Sixth Public Montessori School in Amsterdam and then the Jewish Lyceum, where they had a strong and close friendship together.

Hanneli speaks of meeting Anne Frank in Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp.

“One day I was told, among all these women, (we learned there were forty Dutch women), that there was Anne Frank. Somebody told me, you know your friend is here next to you in the camp, and I really got crazy because Anne’s family (I thought) was in Switzerland with her grandmother. 

At night I went near the fence, near to the barbed wire and the German in the watchtower would have shoot if he had seen, but it was dark. I started to call, and who should answer me, it was the woman who was in hiding with the Franks, Mrs. Van Piels, (in the Diary Mrs. Van Daan, the mother of Peter). Immediately she said to me, you want Anne, I will call her for you. Margot I can’t call, she is very sick already, so weak she cannot even walk to this fence.

So I was standing there in the cold, and suddenly I heard someone calling me and then I see Anne. This was awful really, it wasn’t the same Anne I once knew, it was a broken little girl. We are both starting to cry. She told me they didn’t go to Switzerland. Then she said she had nobody anymore, she said her mother was dead, but her mother was not dead at that moment, but she didn’t know. If she had known her father was still alive… she was without any hope. Then she told me of Auschwitz and gas camps. Then she says she has nothing to eat, can we help. I gave her this little package, I am throwing it over the fence, some Swedish crackers. And then she is crying, what happened? Well, there were a lot of hungry women. I had to calm her down. We will try again. And we did. Some days after. This time she got the package. But it was the last time we spoke together. I looked for her again, but everything was empty. I spoke with her in February. About six million were wiped out.”

Sources: Interview 11 October 2012
             Interview 22 February 2015 Wikipedia 
n.b. Hanneli (Hannah) Goslar
a.k.a. Lies Goosen, is named in Anne’s Diary: Sunday, 14th June, 1942

‘Then Lies came fetched me and we went to school’ (on Friday 12th June, 1942)

19. She Bangs The Drum - For Two Minutes Silence (Post Journal - Eye Witness Testimony)

Sunday, 29th April, 1945
Post Diary

18. Manna from Heaven

Historical Articles

Food, Not Bombs.
Twenty thousand Dutch civilians starved to death as World War Two drew to an end, while others ate tulip bulbs to stay alive. The Allies stripped their Bombers of weapons and dropped off tons of food instead. Operation Manna delivered families from starvation.

							Article: Wartime Wednesdays Blog
								Elinor Florence, May 14, 2014

Manna From Heaven.
•	June, 1944.
Allied forces landed on the continent and liberated the southern part of Holland, but the north-western part, including the urban centres of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, remained in German hands.

•	September, 1944.
The Dutch government that was exiled in London, called for a general rail strike in Holland, to make it more difficult for the Germans to move their troops around the country. The Germans retaliated by placing an embargo on food sent to occupied Holland

•	Hongerwinter (Hunger Winter)
Winter started very early, and by Dutch standards was extremely cold, with freezing temperatures both day and night, and almost no coal for the stove. People found as much wood as possible for cooking, as well as keeping warm. Hacking down trees, cutting off branches; people tore down buildings and burned furniture to keep warm.

•	January, 1945.
The food was getting scarcer and people were dying. In one neighbourhood, seven thousand people starved to death. Some families ate nothing but sugar beets and tulip bulbs, the bulbs tasted horrible and very bitter. There were people who even ate their dogs and cats.

•	March, 1945.
The number of Dutch people who had starved to death was around twenty thousand. The Dutch government in exile asked the Allies for help. After weeks of negotiating with the Germans, the Allies were given permission to drop food to Dutch civilians.

•	 April 29th, 1945.
The Royal Air Force dropped the first load of supplies in what was called Operation Manna. They were later joined by the U.S. Air Force, who called it operation Chowhound. They dropped tins and food parcels from a very low altitude because they did not use parachutes. People cheered and waved when the food came over, so low you could see the crews waving back from the open gun-positions. Everybody danced and screamed, some took out their hidden flags to wave at the aircraft. The manna flights remained in memories as a miracle, a gift of food from the air. Operation Manna brought life, when looking death in the face.

							Article: Maaike Steenhoek.
								Wartime Wednesdays Blog

‘Behold, I will rain down bread from heaven for you.’
								Exodus 16:4 (KJV)

18. Manna From Heaven (Sunday, 29th April, 1945)

17. The Turning of the Leaves

Historical Facts

World War Two – Armistice

It was generally accepted at the time, that the war ended with the armistice of 14th August 1945.

The Second World War
Date: 1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945 (6 years and 1 day)

World War II was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the majority of the world’s countries – including all the Great Powers – eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis.

It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved over 30 countries. In a state of total war, the major participants threw their entire economic, industrial and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources.

Result:	Collapse of Nazi Germany
	Fall of Japanese and Italian Empires
	Dissolution of the League of Nations
	Creation of the United Nations

World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 million to 85 million fatalities.

It included massacres, the deliberate genocide in the Holocaust, strategic bombing, starvation, disease and the first use of nuclear weapons in history.

Remembrance Day
Armistice Day was converted to Remembrance Day after World War II. The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

A ‘Ceremony of the Leaves’ takes place in Manchester Cathedral (England, UK) in the Regimental Chapel each month, carried out by members of the Regimental Association. 

A page is turned in the Book of Remembrance naming those who have died in service.

17. Turning Of The Leaves (Tuesday 14th August 1945)

Post Journal 
No Diary Entry

16. Dancing Poppies

SYNOPSIS

Vox 1: The following story comes out of the death camp at Treblinka.

Vox 2: A dancer stands naked in line waiting for her turn to enter the gas chamber. We see a human being with its natural power to command space reduced to a body taking up space, passively submitting to the prospect of death. A guard tells her to –

Vox 3: “Step out of line and dance!”

Vox 2: She does, and carried away by her authoritative action and by her repossession of a self and a world she dances up to the guard – now within the compass of her space – takes his gun and shoots him.

Vox 1. What a surprise to the guard that a zombie-like creature can spring back to life by means of performance!

Extract taken from:
The Paradox of Cruelty
Philip P. Hallie (1969)
Wesleyan University Press

Exhortation
They shall grow not old
As we who are left grow old
Age shall not weary them
Nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun
And in the morning
We will remember them

Extract taken from:
For the Fallen
Robert Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)
English Poet, Quaker, Pacifist
TREBLINKA

The extermination camp of Treblinka was created by the Nazis to eliminate the huge captive Jewish population in occupied Poland and beyond. In a frenzy of mass murder lasting less than two years, 900,000 jewish men, women and children were murdered in this tiny camp hidden deep in the woods. No one liberated Treblinka – to be a survivor you had to fight your way out.

								Source: PBS America

16. Dancing Poppies (Post Journal No Diary Entry)

15. Barbed-Wire at Bergen-Belsen

Eyewitness Testimony
Historical Documentation

Nanette Konig: Classmate of Anne Frank in 1941

‘In 1941 in Holland, they organised schools for Jewish students. I was in the same school as Anne Frank. (Jewish Lyceum School). I went to Anne’s 13th Birthday Party in June, 1942, and that’s where I first saw her diaries. I didn’t know it (then) but they went into hiding in July.

When I saw her again in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, I was surprised we recognised each other. (emaciated) It was very emotional. We hugged and cried together and talked.

I met her several times (at the camp) and it was from Anne that I learnt what was happening at Auschwitz. She told me about her diary and that she wanted to use it for a book after the war, she never wanted to publish a diary.

I am the only one in that class who met her again. I was in camp seven and she was in camp eight. I saw her through the barbed wire.’

Sources: pdaspeakers.com
historyanswers.co.uk
dailymail.co.uk

15. Barbed - Wire At Bergen - Belsen Post Journal No Diary Entry

Thursday, 27th April, 1944 and
Diary Epilogue - Post arrest – Tuesday, 1st August, 1944


13. Noah and The Ark

Dear Kitty,

Mrs. Van Daan was in such a bad mood this morning, nothing but complaints! First, there’s her cold, and she can’t get any lozenges, and so much nose-blowing is unendurable. Next, it’s that the sun is not shining, that the invasion doesn’t come, that we can’t look out of the window, etc. etc. We all had to laugh at her; and she was sporting enough to join in.

At the moment, I’m reading ‘The Emperor Charles V’ written by a professor at Göttingen University; he worked at the book for forty years.

Twelve o’clock: in the attic, I continued my programme with the history of the Church – phew! - till one o’ clock.

Just after two, the poor child sat working (h’m, h’m!) again, this time studying narrow – and broad nosed monkeys. Kitty, tell me quickly how many toes a hippopotamus has!! Then follow the Bible, Noah and the Ark, Shem, Ham and Japeth. Then with Peter: ‘The Colonel’, in English, by Thackeray. Heard my French verbs and then compared the Mississippi with the Missouri.

I’ve still got a cold and have given it to Margot as well as to Mummy and Daddy. As long as Peter doesn’t get it! He called me his “Eldorado” and wanted a kiss. Of course, I couldn’t! Funny boy! But still, he’s a darling.

Enough for today, Good-bye!

Yours, Anne, 

Dairy Epilogue (Post Arrest: Tuesday, 1st August, 1944)

A few months later, in (early) March, she died.

Post Journal
No Diary Entry
(Post Tuesday, 1st August, 1944)

14. Epilogue: Abide and Surrender

SYNOPSIS

During WWII a selection programme was set in place to scatter the Jewish peoples. Some prisoners were sent to primary concentration camps at Westerbork in Holland. Others to Poland at the notorious extermination camp Auschwitz. The two Frank sisters were forced on to Bergen-Belsen to abide its horrors, where their physical bodies, so weakened by sickness, finally surrendered.

Anne told her story, one that would not, could not die.

14. Epilogue Abide And Surrender (Post Journal No Diary Entry Post Tuesday 1st August 1944)

Thursday, 27th April, 1944 and
Diary Epilogue - Post arrest – Tuesday, 1st August, 1944


13. Noah and The Ark

Dear Kitty,

Mrs. Van Daan was in such a bad mood this morning, nothing but complaints! First, there’s her cold, and she can’t get any lozenges, and so much nose-blowing is unendurable. Next, it’s that the sun is not shining, that the invasion doesn’t come, that we can’t look out of the window, etc. etc. We all had to laugh at her; and she was sporting enough to join in.

At the moment, I’m reading ‘The Emperor Charles V’ written by a professor at Göttingen University; he worked at the book for forty years.

Twelve o’clock: in the attic, I continued my programme with the history of the Church – phew! - till one o’ clock.

Just after two, the poor child sat working (h’m, h’m!) again, this time studying narrow – and broad nosed monkeys. Kitty, tell me quickly how many toes a hippopotamus has!! Then follow the Bible, Noah and the Ark, Shem, Ham and Japeth. Then with Peter: ‘The Colonel’, in English, by Thackeray. Heard my French verbs and then compared the Mississippi with the Missouri.

I’ve still got a cold and have given it to Margot as well as to Mummy and Daddy. As long as Peter doesn’t get it! He called me his “Eldorado” and wanted a kiss. Of course, I couldn’t! Funny boy! But still, he’s a darling.

Enough for today, Good-bye!

Yours, Anne, 

Dairy Epilogue (Post Arrest: Tuesday, 1st August, 1944)

A few months later, in (early) March, she died.

13. Noah And The Ark (Thursday 27th April 1944 - Diary Epilogue - Tuesday 1st August 1944)

Saturday, 8th July, 1944

12. Strawberry-Menu-Monologue

SYNOPSIS

A ubiquitous haul of strawberries arrives at the annexe. Its fortuitous landing ignites a spark of frenzied immediacy into the air and an eruption of dynamic energy amongst the dwellers of the hideout. Practically speaking, the batch of mono-fruit not only bridges the dire gap of a harrowing ad hoc food supply chain, but emotionally, the surprise package fills the annexe atmosphere with excitement, conversation, action, preparation and occupation, in an otherwise mundane day of deprived existence.

Otto Frank’s jam-making business, Opekta, operating on the floors beneath the secret annexe, is an advantageous link to the produce markets of Holland’s food growers. Mr. B., a representative of Mr. Frank’s company, has managed to obtain twenty-four trays of strawberries.

A hive of high activity ensues as all hands on deck participate in the ritual of washing the fruit, sorting, dividing out, sterilising, boiling, stewing, bottling, and all done daringly, even dangerously, in the middle of the day! (As a rule of necessity, the occupants would be confined to silence during office hours until the warehouse closed for the night and its staff had left the building to return to their homes).

Alas! What follows are two whole days of eating strawberries, every meal strawberries, strawberries and more strawberries, until finally all that remains are strawberries bottled up into jars as jam content. Phew! But just as Anne sighs with relief at the notion of no more strawberries, Margot, Anne’s sister, announces that nineteen pounds of green peas have newly arrived. Anne’s swift response is encapsulated in one word, “Ugh!” And so they start over again, everyone mingling together in their next tedious task… rinsing, shelling, skimming… and eating…. the latest stockpile of green peas and more green peas.

Thursday, 27th April, 1944 and
Diary Epilogue - Post arrest – Tuesday, 1st August, 1944

12. Strawberry - Menu - Monologue (Saturday 8th July 1944)

Tuesday, 18th April, 1944
Wednesday, 19th April, 1944

11. Horse Chestnut Tree

SYNOPSIS

Anne recorded fondly of ‘our horse-chestnut’ tree, no less than three times in her Diary writings. She observed longingly from the annexe windows, throughout all the changing seasons of her interminable two years in hiding from the outside world. The horse-chestnut 
tree stood as a majestic symbol of freedom, near the house at Keizersgracht 188, on the very same Prinsengracht Canal as the secret annex, in Amsterdam.

	‘My darling,
		Is there anything more beautiful in the world as to sit before an open window and enjoy nature, to listen to the birds singing, feel the sun on your cheeks and have a darling boy in your arms’.

									Yours, Anne.

Music 	
-	Original Tune – ‘Don’t sit under the Apple Tree’.
-	Songwriters – Lew Brown, Charles Tobias, Sam Stept. Don’t sit under the Apple Tree (with Anyone else but Me) is a popular song that was made famous by Glenn Miller and by the Andrews Sisters during World War II.
-	Originally, entitled “Anywhere the Bluebird Goes” the melody was an updated version of the 19th Century English Folk Song “Long, Long Ago”. The song debuted in the Broadway 1939 musical “Yokel Boy”.
-	After the United States entered the War in December 1941, Brown and Tobias modified the lyrics to their current form with the chorus ending “… ‘till I come marching home”.
-	‘Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree’ remained in – Your Hit Parade’s – first place from October 1942 through January 1943. It was the longest period for a war song to hold first place.
-	In February 18, 1942 the Glenn Miller Orchestra recorded the song with vocals. This record spent thirteen weeks on the Billboard Charts and was ranked as the nation's twelfth best-selling recording of the year. 
-	In May the song was featured in the film Private Buckaroo as a performance by the Andrews Sisters featuring a tap dancing routine by the Jivin’ Jacks and Jills.
-	The Andrews version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2016.
-	Lew Brown (Russian-American) was a Tin Pan Alley lyricist. Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century. An extraordinary number of Jewish East European immigrants became the music publishers and song writers on Tin Pan Alley.
-	During the Second World War, Tin Pan Alley and the Federal Government teamed up to produce war songs that would inspire the American public to support the fight against the Axis… something they believed was vital to the war effort. Since the music would take up such a large amount of airtime, it was imperative that the writing be consistent with the war message that the radio was carrying throughout the nation.

11. Horse Chestnut Tree (Tuesday 18th Wednesday 19th April 1944)

Tuesday, 10th August, 1943

08. “To my poor, poor Mr. Westertoren, a Souvenir-Clock-Valse for you.”

SYNOPSIS

Back in July of 1942, more than a year ago, Anne first wrote of the Westertoren clock. Her Diary entry of 11 July describes how both Mummy and Daddy, and sister Margot, just could not get used to the sound it made! Anne, on the other hand, resourcefully wrote of her great delight upon hearing it strike every quarter of an hour! Westertoren, with its highest church tower in Amsterdam, itself an inanimate object, transcended sand and stone, wood and iron – for Anne, its clock ceased to be a mechanical architecture – and instead became (in her own words) “like a faithful friend” … and … “especially at night.” On the quarter hour strike a short tune was performed, plus a cast iron strike bell on the hour and thereby chiming the entire twenty-four hours over Amsterdam. Its clock-face, on the tower, could be seen from the attic of the Achterhaus, where Anne hid from Nazi persecution. Anne Frank eloquently described the chiming of the carillon as an immediate source of comfort and stability to herself, on arrival at her ‘very peculiar boarding house’ where she was expected to suddenly “disappear”. 

Now, more than one year later and still hiding, Anne’s Diary entry for Tuesday, 10th August, 1943 tells of her own great sorrow that “our dear and beloved Westertoren clock bell… has been taken away for war purposes.” For the past week (and for the subsequent remainder of time left in the secret annexe) daily life has become confusing and muddled, for neither by day nor by night, does Anne or any of the occupants of the annexe, know what time it is. None-the-less Anne as ever the optimist, still holds out some hope that a substitute clock ‘of tin or copper’ will be reinstated, to remind the neighbourhood of the much “loved” Westertoren clock.

Historical: During August of 1943, the Westertoren clock in the bell tower of Westerkerk church, Prinsengracht 281, on the banks of the Amsterdam Canal, stopped chiming.

Wednesday, 29th December, 1943

09. Evensong and Evening Prayer

Dear Kitty,

I was very unhappy again last evening. Granny and Lies came into my mind. How faithful and good Granny always was… however naughty I had been, Granny always stuck up for me.

And Lies, is she still alive? O God, protect her and bring her back to us… my fear makes me want to scream out loud sometimes.

I have not enough faith in God. He has given me so much – which I certainly do not deserve – and I still do so much that is wrong every day.

If you think of your fellow-creatures, then you only want to cry. The only thing to do is pray that God will perform a miracle and save some of them.

Yours, Anne

09. Evensong And Evening Prayer (Wednesday 29th December 1943)

Tuesday, 10th August, 1943

08. “To my poor, poor Mr. Westertoren, a Souvenir-Clock-Valse for you.”

SYNOPSIS

Back in July of 1942, more than a year ago, Anne first wrote of the Westertoren clock. Her Diary entry of 11 July describes how both Mummy and Daddy, and sister Margot, just could not get used to the sound it made! Anne, on the other hand, resourcefully wrote of her great delight upon hearing it strike every quarter of an hour! Westertoren, with its highest church tower in Amsterdam, itself an inanimate object, transcended sand and stone, wood and iron – for Anne, its clock ceased to be a mechanical architecture – and instead became (in her own words) “like a faithful friend” … and … “especially at night.” On the quarter hour strike a short tune was performed, plus a cast iron strike bell on the hour and thereby chiming the entire twenty-four hours over Amsterdam. Its clock-face, on the tower, could be seen from the attic of the Achterhaus, where Anne hid from Nazi persecution. Anne Frank eloquently described the chiming of the carillon as an immediate source of comfort and stability to herself, on arrival at her ‘very peculiar boarding house’ where she was expected to suddenly “disappear”. 

Now, more than one year later and still hiding, Anne’s Diary entry for Tuesday, 10th August, 1943 tells of her own great sorrow that “our dear and beloved Westertoren clock bell… has been taken away for war purposes.” For the past week (and for the subsequent remainder of time left in the secret annexe) daily life has become confusing and muddled, for neither by day nor by night, does Anne or any of the occupants of the annexe, know what time it is. None-the-less Anne as ever the optimist, still holds out some hope that a substitute clock ‘of tin or copper’ will be reinstated, to remind the neighbourhood of the much “loved” Westertoren clock.

Historical: During August of 1943, the Westertoren clock in the bell tower of Westerkerk church, Prinsengracht 281, on the banks of the Amsterdam Canal, stopped chiming.

08. To My Poor, Poor Mr Westertoren, A Souvenir - Clock - Valse For You (Tuesday, 10th August, 1943)

Tuesday, 22nd December, 1942

06. (Baking with) Butter for Christmas

SYNOPSIS

There is excitement in the annexe today as the occupants learn that they will each receive an extra quarter pound of butter for Christmas. Affording only four illegal ration books, rather than eight, and since being Jews in hiding, they settle happily for this limited increase, yet knowing that people on the outside who obtain legal ration books from the government, and not being Jewish, will each receive an extra half a pound of butter for Christmas.

Disregarding any disparaging thoughts they may have of their discriminatory bonus, Anne sets to task immediately to bake something with her extra portion of butter, producing two cakes and some biscuits before morning is out. The activity is for Anne, a welcome distraction from the irritations of living in a confined proximity of adults. Whilst Mrs. Van Daan is in bed nursing her bruised rib, Anne is continually reminded throughout the day to “ssh-ssh!” At night-time, it is no better as she has to share her bedroom with a gentleman companion who repeatedly calls out to her “ssh-ssh!” Though feeling furious about conditions, Anne knows she has to abandon any thoughts of revenge (like hiding his clothes) in order to keep the peace! Meanwhile, today the annex is happily a hub of seasonal activity.

06. (Baking with) Butter for Christmas, (Thursday 22nd December 1942)

Sunday Morning, 5th July, 1942

02. Children of the Universe

SYNOPSIS

Anne is currently reflecting on how she wants to be a good pupil at her new school, yet feels that she could and should have remained happily at the Montessori School, enjoying each day with her school friends. This is however, no longer an option. For Anne, like all other Jewish children, has been forced to attend a ‘Jewish only’ school, following a mandate of Hitler’s compulsion, an obligatory rule set within the pogroms enforced upon all children of Jewish birth.

Anne recalls an event from several days ago, whilst walking across ‘our little square’ together with her father, Otto Frank. Otto speaks seriously to Anne about ‘going into hiding’. Anne is immediately and unpleasantly shocked. She asks her father why on earth he should be talking of doing that.

Otto explains to Anne that they, the Frank family, have already been distributing food, clothes, and furniture, to other people for over one year. Her father reminds Anne that his family do not wish their belongings to be seized by the Germans, nor worse still, to fall themselves into the clutches of Hitler’s persecuting regime. 

With that profound and final statement, Otto advises Anne to make the most of her young and carefree life whilst she can. Anne concludes today’s Diary entry with an exclamatory statement: ‘Oh, may the fulfilment of these sombre words remain far distant yet!’

The Montessori school philosophy is a method of education, developed by Dr. Maria Montessori, which has over 100 years of success in diverse cultures throughout the world.

A ‘pogrom’ is an organised massacre of a particular ethnic group. The Nazis persecuted Jewish people with sanctioned subversive attacks, violence, wholesale slaughter, and extermination, the holocaust.

02. Children Of The Universe (Sunday Morning 5th July 1942)

Tuesday, 30th June, 1942
Friday, 3rd July, 1942

01. Danz Tanz Jewish Girl

SYNOPSIS

Anne’s Diary is bursting with life! Her ‘joie de vivre’ spirit spills from every line, every word she writes. Just 13 years young, her days are packed with a social calendar that buzzes as busily as the inside of a beehive, and Anne the queen bee. Her energy is catching. Life is good. Choices are abundant. She has a generous circle of happy girlfriends and boy admirers. The Frank family home is bustling with constant visitors. And Anne has not had a free instance to sit down and write of her cheerful life, for a full week, until now.

So, in her new Diary, to Dear Kitty, Anne unwraps with youthful frivolity, the gaiety of events that fill her days to the brim. Musing over the prospect of having boyfriends, or one boyfriend, or beau, Anne records of handsome Harry Goldberg calling her up on the telephone to speak with her; coming round to the front door to see her - Anne quickly changing into another frock and tidying her hair – waiting nervously for his arrival -  and then playing it cool by delaying answering the door! Harry’s family have objections towards Anne being younger than he; Harry’s grandmother objects to Harry giving up his previous girlfriend for Anne (a ‘soft, dull creature’, Anne writes); Harry giving up his meetings at the Zionist Movement so as to make more time for being with Anne; “Love finds a way.” Anne writes. ‘Then we (Anne and Harry) passed the bookshop on the corner, and there stood Peter Wessel with two other boys; he said “Hello” – it’s the first time he has spoken to me for ages, I was really pleased. Harry and I walked on and on…’

The Diary cascades with all the fun and frolics of an adolescent girl blossoming forth in a window of optimistic days and juvenile innocence. Anne’s friend Jopie playfully teases Anne on the subject of love; and Eva, another friend of Anne, scrutinises Harry with questions of “Who do you like best, Anne or…?” Unperturbed Anne closes the Diary entry in amusement, with her own delightful design of mind – ‘It’s easy to see that Harry is in love with me.’

01. Danz Tanz Jewish Girl (Tuesday, 30th June, 1942 Friday, 3rd July, 1942)

Post-August, 1944 
'The End'

Postlude: 'Remember Me' [After the Journal}

Synopsis

On 4th August 1944 the Secret Annexe, betrayed by an unknown source, was revealed, raided and seized by Nazi Police. All the occupants were arrested.

On 3rd September 1944, the Jewish prisoners crammed into cattle trucks, were shunted eastward to Auschwitz concentration camp, for extermination.

In these bestial and savage conditions, older members of the group weakened. Mr. Van Daan was selected for the gas chamber. His son Peter was not heard of again. 

Otto Frank, Anne's father had a fortunate break which took him to the camp hospital, and subsequently he survived. Anne's mother died.

The two sisters were sent on to Bergen-Belsen. In February 1945, they both succumbed to typhus. Margot, in a weakened state, fell out of her bunk bed and died.

Anne's tenacious, enduring and courageous spirit, which had upheld and sustained her young life through a monstrous period of catastrophic history, was finally crushed. She, who had held fast to hope, freedom and a bright ambitious future, was finally overcome. Several days later, early in March, Anne Frank ultimately passed away.

Discovery and Publication:

After the annexe raid and arrests back in August 1944, Anne's journals were discovered lying on the floor amidst old newspapers, by a cleaner. The cleaner handed the notebooks over to Miep and Elli, two party members paramount in sustaining and concealing life in the secret annexe. They held onto the Diary until Anne's father, Otto Frank, returned from the war. 

On the 3rd April 1947, Jan Romein, a historian, wrote a short article about Anne's Diary, which had been typed up by Otto Frank.

Publishers immediately expressed interest. 

On 25th June 1947, 'The Secret Annexe' was published in Amsterdam.

Dedication

During the writing of her Diary, Anne Frank expressed a hope not to have lived her life in vain, without purpose, but rather to have been worthy and instrumental in bringing gladness to humanity.

" I want to go on living even after my death" she wrote.
 "And therefore, I am grateful to God for this gift, of expressing all that is in me." 
Then she hesitated, questioned herself momentarily,  
"Will I ever be able to write anything great, 
will I ever become a journalist or a writer?"

Translated into 67 languages, with over 60 million copies sold around the world, Anne's question is a rhetorical one, it just does not require an answer.

With a literary flair for the genius, a noble mind and a twinkling spirit, she left us ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’. 

Through her writing, her journalism, Anne’s 'will to live', indelibly lives on.

Historical post note:

On 30th April 1945, Adolf Hitler committed suicide.
The 7th May 1945, saw unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany’s Armed Forces and the end of Hitler’s Third Reich.

On May 8th 1945, a public holiday was declared, celebrated as V.E. (Victory in Europe) Day. Freedom arrived two months too late for Anne Frank.

15. Postlude Remember Me  [After The Journal]

Pre-June, 1942
'The Beginning'

Prelude [Before the Journal]. 

Synopsis

Anne Frank, at 13 years old, was an energetic, spirited, lively and intelligent girl, with a talented insight and determined ambition to become a writer.

Before going into forced hiding in the secret annexe at 263 Prinsengracht, Amsterdam, Anne had lead a normal and happy life with her family, parents Otto and Edith Frank, older sister Margot, and Moortie the cat. Vibrant and outspoken Anne, with her clever and witty personality, attracted many peer friends, girls and boys alike. Life was good.

Then the Nazis came to power. Hitler’s anti-Jewish laws catapulted life into a diabolical daily existence of obstacles.

Jews were banned from public travel on trams, forbidden to drive, and forced to hand over their bicycles, severing modes of transport through Amsterdam. Jews were prohibited from all places of entertainment, theatres and cinemas, swimming baths and tennis courts. Jews were restricted to buying their shopping between the hours of three and five in the afternoon, and then only at shops marked with a ‘Jewish’ board. Jews must attend only Jewish schools. Jews must not visit Christians. Jews must wear a yellow star.

Within this hub of decrees, suffering and struggle, daily life back-slid into daily horror, fear and chaotic endurance.

1. Prelude [Before The Journal]

Welcome to the Anne Frank Project.

CLICK ON ANNE'S PORTRAITS TO READ HER DIARY CONTENT. 

Anne Frank was a 13 year old girl, living an ordinary life in Amsterdam, Holland. Caught up in World War Two, Anne lost her life, but left behind an enduring legacy in the writing of her Diary. During those turbulent times, Anne examined through words and in her thinking, to rationalise everything – the behaviours of other people, and in the party of hideaways with whom she was trapped inside a secret annexe for two years; and the actions of Hitler and his army of followers, of their attempt to wipe out the Jewish population. Anne’s own personal feelings towards others, her adolescent mood swings, the daily grinding routines within the secret annexe, her love of nature, God and music, her fears of the unknown, the joy of love as she became aware of her fluctuating emotions for boys, her own self-recognition of developing from a child into a young woman; all of these aspects were recorded into the detailed expressions of Anne’s two years of Diary writing. 

Although Anne was physically trapped and immobilised within the square footage of the secret annexe, she was always moving forward in her mind, through her rigorous and continued education; reading and learning were keenly structured into her two years of enforced hiding from the world. Through contemplation and reflection, dreaming and forward thinking, Anne was constantly maturing. This ethos I have hoped to incorporate into the music, to make it a travelling music, a travelling experience for the listener, a progressive journey for and in the mind of the audience, encapsulating two predominant years of Anne’s life. I advocate that the content and impact of Anne’s illuminating Diary gives cause to the expression of many manners of musical composition to be explored and displayed. As for the profound significance of this abominable subject on victimisation, I have intended to produce a sincere and honest music biography of The Diary of Anne Frank. And through my music, to remind the cause for peace, tolerance, and non-violence amongst all peoples, past, present and future.

Thanks for reading
Chris Williams - Creator of the Anne Frank Project

Chris Williams

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