police, officials, they all either work with their fellow citizens and help them or they tell tales on them and have them sent to prison. Fortunately, only a small percentage of Dutch people are on the wrong side.
Yours, Anne
Friday, 31 March, 1944
Dear Kitty, Think of it, it’s still pretty cold, but most people have been without coal for about a month—pleasant, eh! In general, public feeling over the Russian front is optimistic again, since things there are terrific! You know I don’t write much about politics, but I must just tell you where they are now; they are right by the Polish border and have reached the Pruth near Romania.
They are close to Odessa. Every evening here they expect an extra communique from Stalin.
They fire off so many salvos in Moscow to celebrate their victories that the city must rumble and shake just about every day—whether they think it’s fun to pretend that the war is close at hand again or they know of no other way of expressing their joy, I don’t know!
Hungary is occupied by German troops. There are still a million Jews there, so they too will have had it now. The chatter about Peter and me has calmed down a bit now. We are very good friends, are together a lot and discuss every imaginable subject. It is awfully nice never to have to keep a check on myself whenever we get on to precarious ground, as I would have to with other boys, We were talking, for instance, about blood and via that subject we began talking about menstruation. He thinks we women are pretty tough. Why on earth I wonder? My life here has improved, greatly improved. God has not left me alone and will not leave me alone.
