door. There’s a little step in front of the door and then you are inside.
There is a steep staircase immediately opposite the entrance. On the left, a tiny passage brings you into a room which was to become the Frank family’s bed-sitting-room, next door is a smaller room, study and bedroom for the two young ladies of the family. On the right a little room without windows containing the washbasin and a small W.C. compartment, with another door leading to Margot’s and my room. If you go up the next flight of stairs and open the door, you are simply amazed that there could be such a big light room in such an old house by the canal. There is a gas stove in this room (thanks to the fact that it was used as a laboratory) and a sink.
This is now the kitchen for the van Daan couple, besides being general living room, dining room, and scullery.
A tiny little corridor room will become Peter van Daan’s apartment.
Then, just as on the lower landing, there is a large attic. So there you are, I’ve introduced you to the whole of our beautiful ‘Secret Annexe.’
Yours, Anne
Friday, 10 July, 1942
Dear Kitty, I expect I have thoroughly bored you with my long-winded descriptions of our dwelling. But still I think you should know where we’ve landed.
To continue my story—you see, I’ve not finished yet— when we arrived at the Prinsengracht, Miep took us upstairs quickly into the “Secret Annexe.” She closed the door behind us and we were alone. Margot was already waiting for us, having come much faster on her bicycle. Our living room and all the other rooms were chockfull of rubbish, and indescribably so. All the cardboard boxes which had been sent to the office in the previous months lay piled on the floor and the beds. The little room was
