You’d never guess what has happened to us now. The owner of these premises has sold the house without informing Kugler and Kleiman. One morning the new owner arrived with an architect to have a look at the house. Luckily, Mr. Kleiman was present and showed the gentlemen everything except the ‘Secret Annexe’. He professed to have forgotten the key of the communicating door. The new owner didn’t question any further.
It will be all right as long as he doesn’t come back and want to see the ‘Secret Annexe’, because then it won’t look too good for us.
Daddy has emptied a card index box for Margot and me, and put cards in it. It is to be a book card system; then we both write down which books we have read, who they are by, etc. I have procured another little notebook for foreign words.
Lately Mummy and I have been getting on better together, but we still never confide in each other. Margot is more catty then ever and Daddy has got something he is keeping to himself, but he remains the same darling.
New butter and margarine rationing at table! Each person has their little bit of fat put on their plate. In my opinion the van Daans don’t divide it at all fairly. However, my parents are much too afraid of a row to say anything about it. Pity, I think you should always give people like them tit for tat.
Yours, Anne
Wednesday 10 March, 1943
Dear Kitty, We had a short circuit last evening, and on top of that the guns kept banging away all the time. I still haven’t got over my fear of everything connected with shooting and planes, and I creep into Daddy’s bed nearly every night for comfort. I know it’s very childish but you don’t know what it is like. The A.A. guns roar so loudly that you can’t hear yourself speak.
Mrs. van Daan, the fatalist, was nearly crying, and said in a very timid little voice, “Oh, it is so unpleasant! Oh, they are shooting so hard,” by which she really means “I’m so frightened.” It didn’t seem nearly so bad by candlelight as in the dark. I was shivering, just as if I had a temperature, and begged Daddy to light the candle again. He was relentless, the light remained off. Suddenly there was a burst of machine-gun fire, and that is ten times worse than guns. Mummy jumped out of bed and, to Pim’s annoyance, lit the candle. When he complained her answer was firm “After all, Anne’s not exactly a veteran soldier,” and that was the end of it.
Have I already told you about Mrs. van Daan’s other fears? I don’t think so. If I am to keep you informed of all that happens in the ‘Secret Annexe’, you must know about this too. One night Mrs. van Daan thought she heard burglars in the attic; she heard loud footsteps and was so frightened that she woke her husband. Just at that moment the burglars disappeared and the only sounds that Mr. van Daan could hear were the heartbeats of the frightened fatalist herself. “Oh, Putti (Mr. van Daan’s nickname), they are sure to have taken the sausages and all our peas and beans. And Peter, I wonder if he is still safely in bed?” “They certainly won’t have stolen Peter.
Listen, don’t worry and let me go to sleep.” But nothing came of that. Mrs. van Daan was far too nervous to sleep another wink. A few nights after that the whole van Daan family was woken by ghostly sounds.
Peter went up to the attic with a torch—and scamper, scamper! What do you think it was running away? A swarm of enormous rats! When we knew who the thieves were, we let Mouschi sleep in the attic and the uninvited guests didn’t come back again; at least not during the night.
Peter went up to the loft a couple of evenings ago to fetch some old newspapers. He had to hold the trap door firmly to get down the steps. He put his hand down without looking... and went tumbling down the ladder from the sudden shock and pain. Without knowing it he had put his hand on a large rat, and it had bitten him hard. By the time he reached us, as white as a sheet and with his knees knocking, the blood had soaked through his pajamas. And no wonder, it’s, not very pleasant to stroke a large rat; and to get bitten into the bargain is really dreadful.
