ANNE FRANK biography by Melissa Mueller

Author:Melissa Mueller
Format: epub

Chapter 8

[THE SECRET

ANNEX]

Monday, July 6, 1942. It had been raining steadily since early morning, a warm but heavy early-summer rain that the Franks welcomed. As agreed, Miep knocked on the door at Merwedeplein at seven-thirty to pick Margot up. There were fewer people than usual on the streets-anyone who could was staying inside. No German soldier or Dutch policeman was eager to get himself drenched.

Margot and Miep had the streets pretty much to themselves. Like two young Dutch women on their way to work, they pedaled from the south of Amsterdam toward the center of town. Margot, riding the bicycle she had kept in violation of the Nazi order, stayed close behind Miep, apparently calm but inwardly terrified. She had no idea where she was going, and the mere fact that she was using a bicycle was enough to get her arrested. On top of that she was not wearing her yellow star; that, too, was a serious crime.

Soaked to the skin and trembling with fear, she reached Prinsengracht, and Miep hurried her into the annex. Her only consolation was that she would not have long to wait alone before

her parents and Anne arrived. The three of them had left the apartment shortly after Margot and set off for the Old City on foot. They had left in such haste that Anne didn't even look back. And why should she have? After the war, she would return to Merwedeplein, perhaps in a few weeks, perhaps in a few months. The only thing she regretted was leaving her cat behind. But the neighbors would take care of Moortje.

"We left the house by a quarter to eight I had a combinashion [a kind of slip] on then two vests and two pairs of pants then a dress and a skirt then a wool cardigan and a coat"-with the Jewish star sewn on the left side-"it was pouring and so I put on a headscarf, and Mummy and I each carried a satchel under our arm." Luggage would have aroused suspicion: for some time Jews had been forbidden to change residences.

They walked through the rain for almost an hour, at first along the broad streets of the River Quarter, then on the narrow ones of Amsterdam's Old City, crossing one bridge after another. Despite the rain and despite their nervousness, they struggled to walk normally. Jews in a hurry could have been regarded as Jews attempting an escape, and they might have been stopped.

By the time they reached 263 Prinsengracht, the rain had stopped, and throughout the rest of the day the sun kept breaking through the clouds. But the Franks hardly noticed. Once Miep had shut the door to the annex behind them, the world outside disappeared, reduced to a memory. Their world had shrunk to a little less than fifty square meters. On the third floor of the annex were two small rooms, stuffy and damp, one no more than three meters wide and five long, with massive ceiling beams that seemed to press down on the little room and squeeze the air out of it.

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