deep pockets, and at eleven-thirty they too disappeared. I was dog tired and although I knew that it would be my last night in my own bed, I fell asleep immediately and didn’t wake up until Mummy called me at five-thirty the next morning. Luckily it was not as hot as Sunday and warm rain fell steadily all day. We put on heaps of clothes as if we were going to the North Pole, the sole reason being to take clothes with us. No Jew in our situation would have dreamed of going out with a suitcase full of clothing. I had on two vests, three pairs of pants, a dress, on top of that a skirt, jacket, summer coat, two pairs of stockings, laceup shoes, woolly cap, scarf, and still more; I was nearly stifled before we started, but no one inquired about that.
Margot filled her satchel with schoolbooks, fetched her bicycle, and rode off behind Miep into the unknown at least, as far as I was concerned.
You see I still didn’t know where our secret hiding place was to be. At seven-thirty the door closed behind us. Moortje, my little cat, was the only creature to whom I said farewell. She would have a good home with the neighbours. This was all written in a letter addressed to Mr. Goldschmidt.
There was one pound of meat in the kitchen for the cat, breakfast things lying on the table, stripped beds, all giving the impression that we had left helter-skelter. But we didn’t care about impressions, we only wanted to get away, only escape and arrive safely, nothing else. Continued tomorrow.
Yours, Anne
Thursday, 9 July, 1942
Dear Kitty, So we walked in the pouring rain. Daddy, Mummy, and I, each with a school satchel and shopping bag filled to the brim with all kinds of things thrown together anyhow.
We got sympathetic looks from people on their way to, work. You could see by their faces how sorry they were they couldn’t offer us a lift; the gaudy yellow star spoke for itself.
Only when we were on the road did Mummy and Daddy begin to tell me bits and pieces about the plan. As many of our goods and chattels and necessities of life as possible had been sent away, for months, and they were sufficiently ready for us to have gone into hiding of our own accord on July 16. The plan had had to be speeded up ten days because of the call-up, so our quarters would not be so well organised, but we had to make the best of it. The hiding place itself would be in the building where Daddy has his office, it will be hard for outsiders to understand, but I shall explain that later on. Daddy didn’t have many people working for him: Mr. Kugler, Kleiman, Miep, and Bep Voskuigl, a twenty-three-year old typist who all knew of our arrival. Mr. Vossen, Beps father, and two boys worked in the warehouse; they had not been told.
I will describe the building: there is a large warehouse on the ground floor which is used as a store. The front door to the house is next to the warehouse door, and inside the front door is a second doorway which leads to a staircase. There is another door at the top of the stairs, with a frosted glass window in it, which has “Office” written in black letters across it.
That is the large main office, very big, very light, and very full. Bep, Miep, and Mr. Kleiman work there in the daytime. A small dark room containing the safe, a wardrobe, and a large cupboard leads to a small somewhat dark second office. Mr. Kugler and Mr. van Daan used to sit here, now it is only Mr. Kugler. One can reach Kugler’s office from the passage, but only via a glass door which can be opened from the inside, but not easily from the outside.
From Kugler’s office, a long passage goes past the coal store, up four steps and leads to the showroom of the whole building: the private office.
Dark, dignified furniture, linoleum and carpets on the floor, radio, smart lamp, everything first class. Next door, there is a roomy kitchen with a hot- water faucet and a gas stove. Next to it is the W.C. That is all about the first floor.
A wooden staircase leads from the downstairs passage to the next floor.
There is a small landing at the top. There is a door at each end of the landing, the left one leading to a storeroom at the front of the house and to the attics. One of those really steep Dutch staircases runs from the side to the other door opening on to the street.
The righthand door leads to our ‘Secret Annexe.’ No one would ever guess that there would be so many rooms hidden behind that plain gray
