Naturally it gave me a frightful shock, because there was an unflattering description of her on this particular page.
Yours, Anne
Friday, 25 September, 1942
Dear Kitty, Yesterday evening I went upstairs and ‘visited’ the van Daans. I do so occasionally to have a chat. Sometimes it can be quite fun. Then we have some moth biscuits (the biscuit tin is kept in the wardrobe which is full of moth balls) and drink lemonade. We talked about Peter. I told them how Peter often strokes my cheek and that I wished he wouldn’t as I don’t like being pawed by boys.
In a typical way parents have, they asked if I couldn’t get fond of Peter, because he certainly liked me very much. I said, “Oh dear!” and thought “Oh, no!” Imagine that!
I also said that I thought Peter rather awkward, but that it was probably shyness, as many boys who haven’t had much to do with girls are like that.
I must say that the Refuge Committee of the ‘Secret Annexe’ (male section) is very ingenious. I’ll tell you what they’ve done now to get news of us through to Mr. Van Broks, Opekta’s chief representative and a friend who has surreptitiously hidden some of our things for us! They typed a letter to a chemist in South Zealand, who does business with our firm, in such a way that he has to send the enclosed reply back in an addressed envelope. Daddy addressed the envelope to the office. When this envelope arrives from Zealand, the enclosed letter is taken out and is replaced by a message in Daddy’s handwriting as a sign of life. Like this, Van Broks won’t become suspicious when he reads the note. They specially chose Zealand because it is so close to Belgium and the letter could have easily
