opinion, I have a religion and love. Let me be myself and then I am satisfied. I know that I’m a woman, a woman with inward strength and plenty of courage.
If God lets me live, I shall attain more than Mummy ever has done, I shall not remain insignificant, I shall work in the world and for mankind!
And now I know that first and foremost I shall require courage and cheerfulness!
Yours, Anne
Friday, 14 April, 1944
Dear Kitty, The atmosphere here is still extremely strained. Pim has just about reached boiling point. Mrs. van Daan is in bed with a cold and trumpeting away. Mr. van Daan grows pale without his fags, Dussel, who is giving up a lot of his comfort, is full of observations, etc.
There is no doubt that our luck’s not in at the moment. The lavatory leaks and the washer of the tap has gone, but, thanks to our many connections, we shall soon be able to get these things put right.
I am sentimental sometimes, I know that, but there is occasion to be sentimental here at times, when Peter and I are sitting somewhere together on a hard, wooden crate in the midst of masses of rubbish and dust, our arms around each others shoulders, and very close, he with one of my curls in his hand, when the birds sing outside and you see the trees changing to green, the sun invites one to be out in the open air, when the sky is so blue, then—oh, then, I wish for so much!
One sees nothing but dissatisfied, grumpy faces here, nothing but sighs and suppressed complaints, it really would seem as if suddenly we were very badly off here. If the truth is told, things are just as bad as you yourself
