“Mr. Goldschmidt phoned at 9 o’clock on Monday morning and asked if I could come around. I went immediately and found Mr. G in a state of great agitation. He let me read a letter that the Franks had left behind and wanted to take the cat to the neighbours as indicated in the letter, which pleased me. Mr. G was afraid that the house would be searched so we went through all the rooms, tidied up a bit, and cleared away the breakfast things Suddenly I discovered a writing pad on Mrs. Frank’s desk with an address in Maastricht written on it. Although I knew that this was done on purpose, I pretended to be very surprised and shocked and urged Mr. G to tear up this unfortunate little piece of paper without delay.
“I went on pretending that I knew nothing of your disappearance all the time, but after seeing the paper, I got a brain wave. ‘Mr. Goldschmidt,’ I said, ‘It suddenly dawns on me what this address may refer to. Now it all comes back to me, a highranking officer was in the office about six months ago, he appeared to be very friendly with Mr. Frank and offered to help him, should the need arise. He was stationed in Maastricht. I think he must have kept his word and somehow or the other managed to get them into Belgium and then on to Switzerland. I should tell this to any friends who may inquire. Don’t, of course, mention Maastricht.’ “With these words I left the house. Most of your friends know already, because I’ve been told myself several times by different people.”
We were highly amused at the story and, when Mr. van Daan gave us further details, laughed still more at the way people can let their imagination run away with them. One family had seen the pair of us pass on bicycles very early in the morning and another lady knew quite definitely that we were fetched by a military car in the middle of the night.
Yours, Anne
Friday, 21 August, 1942
