didn’t have to wait long. He asked if I would allow him to accompany me to school. “As you’re going my way in any case, I will,” I replied and so we went together. Hello is sixteen and can tell all kinds of amusing stories. He was waiting for me again this morning and I expect he will from now on.
Yours, Anne
Wednesday, 1 July, 1942
Dear Kitty, I’ve not had a moment to write to you until today. I was with friends all day on Thursday. On Friday we had visitors, and so it went on until today.
Hello and I have got to know each other well in a week, and he has told me a lot about his life; he came to Holland alone, and is living with his grandparents. His parents are in Belgium.
Hello had a girlfriend called Ursula. I know her too, a very soft, dull creature. Now that he has met me, he realises that he was just daydreaming in Ursula’s presence. I seem to act as a stimulant to keep him awake. You see we all have our uses, and queer ones too at times!
Jacqueline slept here on Saturday night, but she went to Hanneli on Sunday and I was bored stiff. Hello was to have come in the evening, but he rang up at 6 p.m. I went to the telephone, he said, “Hello Silberberg here,
please may I speak to Anne?”
“Yes, Hello, Anne speaking.”
“Hello, Anne, how are you?”
“Very well, thank you.”
“I’m terribly sorry I can’t come this evening, but I would like to just speak to you; is it all right if I come in for ten minutes?”
“Yes, that’s fine, good-bye!”
“Good-bye, I’ll be with you soon.”
Receiver down.
I quickly changed into another frock and smartened up my hair a bit.
Then I stood nervously at the window watching for him. At last I saw him coming. It was a wonder I didn’t dash down at once; instead, I waited patiently until he rang. Then I went down and he positively burst in when I opened the door. “Anne, my grandmother thinks you are too young to go out regularly with me, and that I should go to the Leurs, but perhaps you know that I am not going out with Ursula any more!”
“No, why is that, have you quarrelled?”
“No, not at all. I told Ursula that we didn’t get on well together, so it was better for us not to go out together any more, but she was always welcome in our home, and I hope I should be in hers. You see, I thought Ursula had been going out with another boy and treated her accordingly.
But that was quite untrue. And now my uncle says I should apologise to Ursula, but of course I didn’t want to do that so I finished the whole affair.
That was just one of the many reasons. My grandmother would rather I went with Ursula than you, but I shan’t; old people have such terribly old- fashioned ideas at times, but I just can’t fall into line. I need my grandparents, but in a sense they need me too. From now on I shall be free on Wednesday evenings. Officially, I go to wood-carving lessons to please my grandparents, but in actual fact I go to a meeting of the Zionist Movement. I’m not supposed to, because my grandparents are very much against the Zionists. I’m by no means a fanatic, but I have a leaning that way and find it interesting. But lately it has become such a mess there that I’m going to quit, so next Wednesday will be my last time. Then I shall be able to see you on Wednesday evening, Saturday afternoon, Sunday afternoon, and perhaps more.”
“But your grandparents are against it, you can’t do it behind their
backs!”
“Love finds a way.”
Then we passed the bookshop on the corner, and there stood Peter Schift with two other boys; he said, “Hello”—it’s the first time he has spoken to me in ages, I was really pleased.
