either forbid it, or you trust me through thick and thin, but in any case, just let me be!’ but then leave me in peace as well!”
Yours, Anne
Saturday, 6 May, 1944
Dear Kitty, I put a letter, in which I wrote what I told you yesterday, in Daddy’s pocket before supper last evening. After reading it, he was, according to Margot, very upset for the rest of the day. (I was upstairs doing the dishes.) Poor Pim, I might have known what the effect of such an epistle would be on him. He is so sensitive! I immediately told Peter not to ask or say anything more. Pim hasn’t said any more about it to me. Is that yet in store, I wonder?
Everything is going on more or less normally here again. What they tell us about the prices and the people outside is almost unbelievable, half a pound of tea costs 350 guilders, a pound of coffee 80 guilders, butter 35 guilders per pound, an egg 1.45 guilders. People pay 14 guilders for an ounce of Bulgarian tobacco! Everyone deals in the black market, every errand boy has something to offer. Our baker’s boy got hold of some sewing silk, 90 cents for a thin little skein. The milkman manages to get clandestine ration cards, an undertaker delivers cheese. Burglaries, murders, and theft go on daily. The police and night watchmen join in just as strenuously as the professionals, everyone wants something in their empty stomachs and because wage increases are forbidden, the people simply have to swindle.
The police are continually on the go, tracing girls of fifteen, sixteen, seventeen and older, who are reported missing every day.
Yours, Anne
