Yours, Anne
Tuesday, 13 July, 1943
Dear Kitty, Yesterday afternoon, with Daddy’s permission, I asked Mr. Dussel whether he would please be so good (being really very polite) as to allow me to use the little table in our room twice a week in the afternoons, from 4 o’clock till half past five. I sit there every day from half past two till four, while Mr. Dussel sleeps, but otherwise the room plus table are out of bounds. Inside, in our common room, there is much too much going on, it is impossible to work there, and besides. Daddy likes to sit at the writing table and work too sometimes.
So it was quite a reasonable request, and the question was put very politely. Now honestly what do you think the very learned Mr. Dussel replied, “No.” Just plain “No!” I was indignant and refused to be put off like that, so I asked him the reason for his ‘No.’ But I was sent away with a flea in my ear. This was the barrage which followed: “I have to work too, and if I can’t work in the afternoons, then there is no time left for me at all. I must finish my task, otherwise I’ve started it all for nothing. Anyway, you don’t work seriously at anything. Your mythology, now just what kind of work is that; knitting and reading are not work either. I am at the table and shall stay there.”
My reply was, “Mr. Dussel, I do work seriously and there is nowhere else for me to work in the afternoons. I beg of you to kindly reconsider my request!”
With these words the offended Anne turned her back on the very learned doctor, ignoring him completely. I was seething with rage, and thought Mr.
Dussel frightfully rude (which he certainly was) and myself very friendly.
In the evening when I could get hold of Pim, I told him how it had gone off
and discussed what I should do next, because I was not going to give in, and preferred to clear it up myself. Pim told me how I ought to tackle the problem, but warned me that it would be better to leave it till the next day, as I was so het up. I let this advice go to the winds, and waited for Mr.
Dussel after the dishes were done. Pim sat in the room next to us, which had a calming influence on me. I began: “Mr. Dussel, I don’t suppose you see any point in discussing the matter any more, but I must you to do so.” Mr.
Dussel then remarked with his sweetest smile, “I am always, and at all times, prepared to discuss this matter, but it has already been settled.”
I went on talking, though continually interrupted by Mr. Dussel. “When you first came here we arranged that this room should be for both of us. If we were to divide it fairly, you would have the morning and I all the afternoon! But I don’t even ask that much, and I think that my two afternoons are really perfectly reasonable.” At this Mr. Dussel jumped up as if someone had stuck a needle into him. “You can’t talk about your rights here at all. And where am I to go then? I shall ask Mr. van Daan whether he will build a little compartment in the attic, then I can go and sit there. I simply can’t work anywhere. With you one always gets trouble. If your sister Margot, who after all has more reason to ask such a thing, would have come to me with the same questions, I should not think of refusing, but you...” Then followed the business about the mythology and the knitting, and Anne was insulted again. However, she did not show it and let Mr.
Dussel finish speaking. “But you, one simply can’t talk to you. You are so outrageously selfish, as long as you can get what you want, you don’t mind pushing everyone else to one side, I’ve never seen such a child. But after all, I suppose I shall be obliged to give you your own way, because otherwise I shall be told later on that Anne Frank failed her exam because Mr. Dussel would not give up the table for her.”
It went on and on and finally it was such a torrent I could hardly keep pace with it. At one moment I thought, “In a minute I’ll give him such a smack in the face that he’ll fly up to the ceiling together with his lies, but the next moment I said to myself, “Keep calm! Such a fellow isn’t worth getting worked up about.”
