Anne Frank Part 8: How Did Eight People Survive Day After Day in the Secret Annex?

Anne Frank Part 8: How Did Eight People Survive Day After Day in the Secret Annex?

 

Today I want to take a look at what everyday life was really like in the annex once all of the eight people were living together. Although they had escaped deportation, every single day was controlled. There was routine and the constant risk of being discovered. The fear must have been overwhelming.

 

From Monday to Saturday, they  followed a strict timetable. Before the warehouse workers arrived, everyone rushed to wash, use the bathroom and eat breakfast. From around 8:30 in the morning until the workers left in the evening, they had to remain almost completely silent. They could not run water, walk heavily, speak loudly or even flush the toilet if there was a risk of being heard below. Even dropping a spoon or moving a chair could have put all eight lives in danger.

 

To pass the many hours, Anne continued with her schoolwork, read books, practised languages and wrote in her diary. Otto Frank spent a lot of his time helping to oversee his businesses from the Annex, discussing important matters with the helpers who carried messages between him and his employees whenever it was safe to do so. He also educated Anne and Margot, while the other adults read, studied or completed household tasks. Fritz Pfeffer often spent part of the day writing letters to his fiancée, Charlotte Kaletta, who he had been separated from because she was not Jewish. The helpers secretly passed on some of his letters whenever they could. Anne, who had to share her tiny bedroom and writing table with Fritz, often became frustrated because he spent so long writing his letters and this left her with little space for her study or writing in her diary. At lunchtime, Miep Gies, Victor Kugler, Johannes Kleiman and Bep Voskuijl brought food, supplies and news from the outside world. Without their courage, the people in hiding could not have survived as long as they did.

 

When the workers went home, the Annex came to life. Meals could be finally be cooked, the radio was also switched on to listen secretly to BBC broadcasts, conversations became louder and everyone could move around a lot more freely. But these brief moments of normality, didn’t stop arguments from happening. The eight people shared such a small space with almost no privacy so it was inevitable.

 

It is remarkable that they managed to live this way for more than two years.

 

Which part of life in the Secret Annex do you think would have been the hardest to cope with?