The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank-Friday-July 10-1942

 

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Friday, July 10, 1942

As they reached the buiding (263, Prinsengracht), Miep quickly took them through the long hallway (corridor). Then they went upstairs to the next floor and  entered the Annex (the hiding place). She shut the door behind them.

Margot had reached there earlier on her bike and was waiting for them.

The rooms were filled with material such as cardboard boxes, which piled on the floor and the bed. The small living room was filled from floor to the ceiling with linen. Amrgot and their mother could not move a muscle . Anne and her father had to toil hard to clear the mess to make the beds clean at  night. Margot and the mother were too tired and nervous to eat anything.

They again started working together to clean the mess on Thursday morning also. Bep and Miep had gone to the grocery shopping to make arrangement for food. They scrubbed the kitchen floor and got busy for morning to evening.

Saturday, July 11, 1942

Anne’s father, mother and Margot were not used to (habitual) of the chiming Westertoren Clock (ringing sound made by the clock). Anne liked it in spite of its ringing after every hour.

The walls of the bed room were blank. Anne was obliged to her father because he had already brought her entre postcard and movie-star collection. After that, Anne was able to pasting pictures on the wall, which looked nice after that.

In the meantime, Margot and the mother recovered of their fatigue and metal disturbance.

After that, Anne writes about the previous day when her mother felt like cooking soup of the split pea for the first time in that place. After putting the ingredient into the pan, she put it on the burning stove and went downstairs. She got busy in talking there and forgot about the soup. The material was scorched in the pan and it was useless for them.

Next, Anne explains as to how they were afraid that their neighbours might hear about their presence in the hiding place. So they did not want to create any sound that could reach their ears. Then Anne says that the previous night, the four of them went downstairs into their father’s private office and listened to England on the wireless set Anne was scared to think that someone might hear them and she begged her father to take her back upstairs. Her mother understood all and she took her upstairs along with her.

They sawed curtains with their unskilled fingers. Actually those couldn’t be called curtains as they were just scraps (small pieces) of fabric of different shapes, size, quality and pattern.

After preparing them, they fixed them on the windows.

The building of their right side, was a branch of Keg company and to the left a furniture workshop.

All the workmen worked there for a few hours. In spite of that, Anne and her family members were afraid of making any sound that could  travel through walls to them. Margot was also advised not to cough at night even though she was suffering from bad cold. Anne was looking forward to the arrival of the van Daans. The get-together was fixed to be on Tuesday. Anne says that silence in the evening and at night made her feel nervous, so she expected more fun o Tuesday.

She adds that it was really not so bad living there in the hiding place since they could do their own cooking and could listen to the radio in her father’s office.

Mr. Kleiman, Miep and Bep had been very helpful to them. They had already stored a lot of ‘rhubarb’ (a kind of plant that can be cooked and eaten), strawberries and cherries. They also had reading material and were going to buy lots of games. They could not look out of the windows and go outside and they had to be quiet so that the people outside the building could not hear them.