June 12, 1942I hope I will be able to fide everything to you, as I have never been able to fide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of fort and support.ENT ADDED BY ANNE OEMBER 28, 1942: So far you truly have been a areat source of fort to me, and so has Kitty, whom I now write turly.This way of keeping a diary is muicer, and now I hardly wait for those moments when Im able to write in you. Oh, Im so ad I brought you along!SUNDAY, JUNE 14, 1942Ill begin from the moment I got you, the moment I saw you lying oable among my other birthday presents. (I went along when you were bought, but that doesnt t.)On Friday, June 12, I was awake at six oclock, which isnt surprising, si was my birthday. But Im not allowed to get up at that hour, so I had to trol my curiosity until quarter to seven. When I couldnt wait any longer, I went to the dining room, where Moortje (the cat) weled me by rubbing against my legs.A little after seven I went to Daddy and Mama and then to the living room to open my presents, and you were the first thing I saw, maybe one of my presents.Then a bouquet of roses, some peonies and a potted pnt. From Daddy and Mama I got a blue blouse, a game, a bottle of grape juice, whiy mind tastes a bit like wine (after all, wine is made from grapes), a puzzle, a jar of cold cream, 2.50 guilders and a gift certificate for two books. I got another book as well, Camera Obscura (but Margot already has it, so I exged mine for something else), a ptter of homemade cookies (which I made myself, of course, since Ive bee quite an expert at baking cookies), lots of dy and a strawberry tart from Mother. And a letter from Grammy, right on time, but of course that was just a ce.Then Hanneli came to pick me up, and we went to school. During recess I passed out cookies to my teachers and my css, and then it was time to get back to work. I didnt arrive home until five, since I went to gym with the rest of the css. (Im not allowed to take part because my shoulders and hips tend to get dislocated.) As it was my birthday, I got to decide which game my cssmates would py, and I chose volleyball. Afterward they all danced around me in a circle and sang "Happy Birthday.”When I got home, Sanne Ledermann was already there. Ilse Wagner, Hanneli Gosr and Jacqueline van Maarsen came home with me after gym, since were in the same css. Hanneli and Sanne used to be my two best friends. People who saw us together used to say, "There goes Anne, Hanne and Sanne." I only met Jacqueline van Maarsen when I started at the Jewish Lyceum, and now shes my best friend. Ilse is Hannelis best friend, and Sanne goes to another school and has friends there.They gave me a beautiful book, Dutch Sasas and Lesends, but they gave me Volume II by mistake, so I exged two other books for Volume I. Aunt Helene brought me a puzzle, Aunt Stephanie a darling brood Aunt Leny a terrific book: Daisy Goes to the Mountains.This m I y ihtub thinking how wonderful it would be if I had a doglike Rin Tin Tin. Id call him Rin Tin Tin too, and Id take him to school with me, where he could stay in the janitors room or by the bicycle racks when the weather was good.MONDAY, JUNE 15, 1942I had my birthday party on Sunday afternoon. The Rin Tin Tin movie was a big hit with my cssmates. I got two brooches, a bookmark and two books. Ill start by saying a few things about my school and my css, beginning with the students.Betty Bloemendaal looks kind of poor, and I think she probably is. She lives on some obscure street i Amsterdam, and none of us know where it is. She does very well at school, but thats because she works so hard, not because shes so smart.Shes pretty quiet.Jacqueline van Maarsen is supposedly my best friend, but Ive never had a real friend.At first I thought Jacque would be one, but I was badly mistaken.D.Q.* [* Initials have been assig random to those persons who prefer to remain anonymous.] is a very nervous girl whos always fetting things, so the teachers keep assigning her extra homework as punishment. Shes very kind, especially to G.Z.E.S. talks so much it isnt funny. Shes always toug your hair or fiddling with your buttons when she asks you something. They say she t stand me, but I dont care, since I dont like her much either.Hens is a nice girl with a cheerful disposition, except that she talks in a loud void is really childish when were pying outdoors. Unfortunately, Henny has a girlfriend named Beppy whos a bad influen her because shes dirty and vulgar.J.R. - I could write a whole book about her. J. is a detestable, sneaky, stuck-up, two-faced gossip who thinks shes so grown-up. Shes really got Jacque under her spell, and thats a shame. J. is easily offended, bursts into tears at the slightest thing and, to top it all off, is a terrible show-off. Miss J. always has to be right. Shes very rich, and has a closet full of the most adorable dresses that are way too old for her. She thinks shes geous, but shes not. J. and I t stand each other.Ilse Wagner is a nice girl with a cheerful disposition, but shes extremely fInicky and spend hours moaning and groaning about something. Ilse likes me a lot. Shes very smart, but zy.Hanneli Gosr, or Lies as shes called at school, is a bit orange side. Shes usually shy -- outspoken at horne, but reserved around other people. She bbs whatever you tell her to her mother. But she says what she thinks, and tely Ive e to appreciate her a great deal.Nannie van Praag-Sigaar is small, funny and sensible. I think shes nice. Shes pretty smart. There isnt much else you say about Nannie. Eefje de Jong is, in my opinion, terrific. Though shes only twelve, shes quite the dy. She acts as if I were a baby. Shes also very helpful, and I like her.G.Z. is the prettiest girl in our css. She has a nice face, but is kind of dumb. I think theyre going to hold her back a year, but of course I havent told her that.ENT ADDED BY A A LATER DATE: To my areat surprise, G.Z.wasnt held back a year after all.And sittio G.Z. is the st of us twelve girls, me.Theres a lot to be said about the boys, or maybe not so much after all.Maurice Coster is one of my many admirers, but pretty much of a pest. Sallie Springer has a filthy mind, and rumor has it that hes gone all the way. Still, I thierrific, because hes very funny.Emiel Bo is G.Z.s admirer, but she doesnt care. Hes pretty b. Rob used to be in love with me too, but I t stand him anymore. Hes an obnoxious, two-faced, lying, sniveling little goof who has an awfully high opinion of himself.Max van de Velde is a farm boy from Medemblik, but emily suitable, as Margot would say.Herman Koopman also has a filthy mind, just like Jopie de Beer, whos a terrible flirt and absolutely girl-crazy.Leo Blom is Jopie de Beers best friend, but has been ruined by his dirty mind.Albert de Mesquita came from the Montessori School and skipped a grade. Hes really smart.Leo Sger came from the same school, but isnt as smart.Ru Stoppelmon is a shoofy boy from Almelo who transferred to this school in the middle of the year.. does whatever hes not supposed to.Jacques Kooot sits behind us, o C., and we (G. and I) ugh ourselves silly.Harry Schaap is the most det boy in our css. Hes nice.Werner Joseph is oo, but all the ges taking pce tely have made him too quiet, so he seems b. Sam Salomon is one of those tough guys from across the tracks. A real brat. (Admirer!)Appie Riem is pretty Orthodox, but a brat too.SATURDAY, JUNE 20,1942Writing in a diary is a really strange experience for someone like me. Not only because Ive never written anything before, but also because it seems to me that ter oher I nor anyone else will be ied in the musings of a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl. Oh well, it doesnt matter. I feel like writing, and I have an eveer o get all kinds of things off my chest."Paper has more patiehan people." I thought of this saying on one of those days when I was feeling a little depressed and was sitting at home with my in my hands, bored and listless, w whether to stay in o out. I finally stayed where I was, brooding. Yes, paper does have more patience, and since Im not pnning to let anyone else read this stiff-backed notebook grandly referred to as a "diary,”unless I should ever find a real friend, it probably wont make a bit of differen back to the point that prompted me to keep a diary in the first pce: I dont have a frie me put it more clearly, sino one will believe that a thirteen year-old girl is pletely alone in the world. And Im not. I have loving parents and a sixteen-year-old sister, and there are about thirty people I call friends. I have a throng of admirers who t keep their ad eyes off me and who sometimes have to resort to using a broken pocket mirror to try and catch a glimpse of me in the . I have a family, loving aunts and a good home. No, on the surface I seem to have everything, except my orue friend. All I think about when Im with friends is having a good time. I t bring myself to talk about anything but ordinaryeveryday things. We doo be able to get any closer, and thats the problem.Maybe its my fault that we dont fide in each other. In any case, thats just how things are, and unfortuheyre not liable to ge. This is why Ive started the diary.To enhahe image of this long-awaited friend in my imagination, I dont want to jot down the facts in this diary the way most people would do, but I want the diary to be my friend, and Im going to call this friend Kitty.Sino one would uand a word of my stories to Kitty if I were to plunge right in, Id better provide a brief skety life, much as I dislike doing so.My father, the most adorable father Ive ever seen, didnt marry my mother until he was thirty-six and she was twenty-five. My sister Margot was born in Frankfurt am Main in Germany in 1926. I was born on June 12, 1929. I lived in Frankfurt until I was four. Because were Jewish, my father immigrated to Holnd in 1933, when he became the Managing Director of the Dutch Opekta pany, which manufactures products used in making jam. My mother, Edith Holnder Frank, went with him to Holnd iember, while Margot and I were sent to Aa to stay with randmother. Margot went to Holnd in December, and I followed in February, when I lunked down oable as a birthday present for Margot.I started right away at the Montessori nursery school. I stayed there until I was six, at which time I started first grade. In sixth grade my teacher was Mrs. Kuperus, the principal. At the end of the year we were both in tears as we said a heartbreaking farewell, because Id been accepted at the Jewish Lyceum, where Margot also went to school.Our lives were not without ay, since our retives in Germany were suffering under Hitlers anti-Jewish ws. After the pogroms in 1938 my two uncles (my mothers brothers) fled Germany, finding safe refuge in North America. My elderly grandmother came to live with us. She was seventy-three years old at the time.After May 1940 the good times were few and far between: first there was the war, then the capitution and then the arrival of the Germans, which is wherouble started for the Jews. Our freedom was severely restricted by a series of anti-Jewish decrees: Jews were required to wear a yellow star; Jews were required to turn in their bicycles; Jews were forbidden to use street-cars; Jews were forbidden to ride in cars, even their own; Jews were required to do their shoppiween 3 and 5 P.M.;Jews were required to frequent only Jewish-owned barbershops ay parlors;Jews were forbidden to be out oreets between 8 P.M. and 6 A.M.; Jews wereforbidden to attend theaters, movies or any other forms of eai; Jews were forbidden to use swimming pools, tennis courts, hockey fields or any other athletic fields; Jews were forbidden to go rowing; Jews were forbidden to take part in any athletic activity in public; Jews were forbidden to sit in their gardens or those of their friends after 8 P.M.; Jews were forbidden to visit Christians in their homes; Jews were required to attend Jewish schools, etc. You couldnt do this and you couldnt do that, but life went on. Jacque always said to me, "I dont dare do anything anymore, cause Im afraid its not allowed.”In the summer of 1941 Grandma got sid had to have aion, so my birthday passed with little celebration. In the summer of 1940 we didnt do muy birthday either, sihe fighting had just ended in Holnd. Grandma died in January 1942. No one knows how often I think of her and still love her. This birthday celebration in 1942 was inteo make up for the others, and Grandmas dle was lit along with the rest.The four of us are still doing well, and that brings me to the present date of June 20, 1942, and the solemn dedication of my diary.SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 1942Dearest Kitty! Let me get started right away; its nid quiet now. Father and Mother are out and Margot has goo py Ping-Pong with some other young people at her friend Treess. Ive been pying a lot of Ping-Pong myself tely. So much that five of us girls have formed a club. Its called "The Little Dipper Minus Two." A really silly name, but its based on a mistake. We wao give our club a special name; and because there were five of us, we came up with the idea of the Little Dipper. We thought it sisted of five stars, but we turned out to be wrong. It has seven, like the Big Dipper, which expins the "Minus Two." Ilse Wagner has a Ping-Po, and the Wagners let us py in their big dining room whenever we want. Since we five Ping-Pong pyers like ice cream, especially in the summer, and since you get hot pying Ping-Pong, ames usually end with a visit to the ice-cream parlor that allows Jews: either Oasis or Delphi. Weve long siopped hunting around for our purses or money -- most of the time its so busy in Oasis that we mao find a few generous young men of our acquaintance or an admirer to offer us more ice cream than we could eat in a week.Youre probably a little surprised to hear me talking about admirers at such a tender age. Unfortunately, or not, as the case may be, this vice seems to be rampant at our school. As soon as a boy asks if he bicycle home with me a to talking, imes out of ten I be sure hell bee enamored on the spot and wome out of his sight for a sed. His ardor eventually cools, especially since I ignore his passionate gnces and pedal blithely on my way. If it gets so bad that they start rambling on about "asking Fathers permission," I swerve slightly on my bike, my schoolbag falls, and the young man feels obliged to get off his bike and hahe bag, by which time Ive switched the versation to aopic. These are the most iypes. Of course, there are those who blow you kisses or try to take hold of your arm, but theyre definitely knog on the wrong door. I get off my bike aher refuse to make further use of their pany or act as if Im insulted ahem in no uain terms to go on home without me. There you are. Weve now id the basis for our friendship. Until tomorrow.Yours, AnneSUNDAY, JUNE 21, 1942Dearest Kitty,Our entire css is quaking in its boots. The reason, of course, is the upiing in which the teachers decide wholl be promoted to the grade and wholl be kept back. Half the css is makis. G.Z. and I ugh ourselves sick at the two boys behind us, . and Jacques Kooot, who have staked their entire vacation savings on their bet. From m to night, its "Yoing to pass, No, Im not,”"Yes, you are," "No, Im not." Even G.s pleading gnces and my angry outbursts t calm them down. If you ask me, there are so many dummies that about a quarter of the css should be kept back, but teachers are the most uable creatures oh. Maybe this time theyll be uable in the right dire for a ge. Im not so worried about my girlfriends and myself.Well make it. The only subject Im not sure about is math. Anyway, all we do is wait. Until then, we keep telling each other not to lose heart.I get along pretty well with all my teachers. There are nine of them, seven men and two women. Mr. Keesing, the old fogey who teaches math, was mad at me for the loime because I talked so much. After several warnings, he assigned me extra homework. An essay on the subject "A Chatterbox." A chatterbox, what you write about that? Id wbrry about that ter, I decided. I jotted down the assig in my notebook, tucked it in my bag and tried to keep quiet.That evening, after Id fihe rest of my homework, the note about the essay caught my eye. I began thinking about the subject while chewing the tip of my fountain pen. Anyone could ramble on and leave big spaces between the words, but thetrick was to e up with ving arguments to prove the y of talking. I thought and thought, and suddenly I had an idea. I wrote the three pages Mr. Keesing had assigned me and was satisfied. I argued that talking is a female trait and that I would do my best to keep it under trol, but that I would never be able to break myself of the habit, since my mother talked as much as I did, if not more, and that theres not much you do about ied traits.Mr. Keesing had a good ugh at my arguments, but when I proceeded to talk my way through the css, he assigned me a sed essay. This time it was supposed to be on "An Incible Chatterbox." I ha in, and Mr. Keesing had nothing to pin about for two whole csses. However, during the third css hed finally had enough. "Anne Frank, as punishment for talking in css, write an essay entitled Quack, Quack, Quack, said Mistress Chatterback.“The css roared. I had to ugh too, though Id ) nearly exhausted my iy oopic of chatterboxes. It was time to e up with something else, j something inal. My friend Sanne, whos good at poetry, offered to help me write the essay from beginning to end in verse. I jumped for joy. Keesing was trying to py a joke oh this ridiculous subject, but Id make sure the joke was on him. I finished my poem, and it was beautiful! It was about a mother dud a father swan with three baby dugs who were bitten to death by the father because they quacked too much. Luckily, Keesing took the joke the right way. He read the poem to the css, adding his own ents, and to several other csses as well. Sihen Ive been allowed to talk and havent been assigned ara homework. On the trary, Keesings always i making jokes these days.Yours, AnneWEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 1942Dearest Kitty,Its sweltering. Everyone is huffing and puffing, and in this heat I have to walk everywhere. Only now do I realize how pleasant a streetcar is, but we Jews are no longer allowed to make use of this luxury; our own two feet are good enough for us.Yesterday at lunchtime I had an appoi with the dentist on Jan Luykenstraat. Its a long way from our school on Stadstimmertuihat afternoon I nearly fell asleep at my desk. Fortunately, people automatically offer you something to drink. The dental assistant is really kind.The only mode of transportatioo us is the ferry. The ferryman at JosefIsraelkade took us across when we asked him to. Its not the fault of the Dutch that we Jews are having such a bad time.I wish I didnt have to go to sy bike was stolen durier vacation, and Father gave Mothers bike to some Christian friends for safekeeping. Thank goodness summer vacation is almost here; one more week and our torment will be over.Something ued happened yesterday m. As I assing the bicycle racks, I heard my name being called. I turned around and there was the nice boy Id met the evening before at my friend Wilmas. Hes Wilmas sed cousin. I used to think Wilma was nice, which she is, but all she ever talks about is boys, and that gets to be a bore. He came toward me, somewhat shyly, and introduced himself as Hello Silberberg. I was a little surprised and wasnt sure what he wanted, but it didnt take me long to find out. He asked if I would allow him to apao school. "As long as youre headed that way, Ill go with you," I said. And so we walked together.Hello is sixteen and good at telling all kinds of funny stories.He was waiting for me again this m, and I expect he will be from now on.