Ladies and gentlemen,
My husband and I are very honoured by the invitation of the Asahi Shimbun
to come here and tell you something about Anne Frank. We hope that in this

I way you may become more acquainted with her who we loved so much and still

love. We are convinced that her father who, due to his health could

unfortunately not be here personally, is with us in his mind. 3

No doubt_you all know Anne already from what she wrote. It must however be

2, clear to you that such an intelligent girl who during twenty-five months

lived isolated from the world outside and was surrounded mainly'by adults
who all had their own problems, could not really express herself to than,
not even to her parents. As her father declared later her deepest thoughts.'
her inner?self were also for me a closed book.J

As I experienced her in daily life she was always very friendly, smiling,

3 always ready to help out with office?work, which she then did in the

Secret Annexe. But her remarks were always keen and to the point, that really
struck us. She was always very curious, asked for everything that went on
outside. To give you an example, it was my task to go up to the Secret

Annexe first thing in the morning to pick up the shopping-list ask if
anything in particular was needed, and bring news from the world outside.
When I entered,nobody said anything and waited what I had to tell. except

Anne who asked very cheerfully-Hello Miep, what's the news. This very much

to her motherI embarassment, as. 

Ira/L U5,
:Aramben the children' education71anh the van Daan' 5 often complainedfthat Anne

 



and Margot were brought up too freely. Mr. Frank sometimes told me about
these problems, he had to tell someone, and he knew I would not tell anyone
about 

The duration or my morning-visit to the Secret Annexe wasanever long,
twenty minutes at most, as the people who worked in the warehouse could

ask for me. It was also possible that I was needed on the phone, then I had
to be present. After receiving the shopping-list and the other wishes of
the people in hiding I quickly went to the greengrocer who was close to
the office. There I bought as much vegetables as I could get. The greengrocer
who asked nothing but probably understood (as was indeed established after
the war) kept more and more vegetables for me. I also asked him to deliver
the too heavy for me, at the office in lunchtime, when
the warehouse people were having their lunch. I then quickly brought the
potatoes to the office kitchen and hid them in a cupboard. In the evening

 

 

 

w.

 

when the warehouse people had left?Peter went down to pick them up.
I took the vegetables up myself between my office-work. During lunchtime
Elly went up and very quietly had lunch with the people in hiding. My

husband also went up to chat with them and tell the latest news. 

The people in hiding went through many moments of fear and tension.
They had to think with everything they didIr with every step they made,

can we do it, what are the risks involved.

The burglaries in the warehouse downstairs and in the office caused a

lot of unrest, as Anne described in her Diary. Hr. Koophuis had the keys
of the whole house and he was warned by the nightwatchman the next morning
when again there had been a burglary and he had found the door open or
destroyed. The people in hiding were unable to do anything as nobody

was to know that they were there. unfortunately, when the last burglary
occured Hr. Koophuis was in bed with gastric hemorrhage. So my husband
and I went to the house to repair the broken front door provisionally,

so nobody could enter. as that day was a national holiday and nobody of
the staff would come . I will never forget the condition in which we found
people in the Secret Annexe. They'were all laying on the floor, close to
each other. they didn't dare to walk or go to the toilet as they did not
know if there was still anybody, perhaps even police, in the Front house
after the burglary.J

Anne wrote on June 20, 1942 :"It is an odd idea for someone like me to
keep a Diary not only because I have never done so before, but because
it seems that neither 1 - nor for that matter anyone else - will be
interested in the unbosomings of a thirteen-year old schoolgirl".

How different did things turn out. Her youngilife found a tragic end

in a German concentration camp. Her Diary however found its way the

whole world with undiminishing interest. 

You will agree with me that Anne's searching mind, her keennes of

observation, and her ability to describe all the ups and downs and the
peculiarities of the people in hiding showed her talent for writing.

It must have been with all the passiOn of her young personality that 

she confided all events to her diary?friend Kitty.

It is clear that in this vivid, intelligent and sensitive child living

under such abnormal conditions, the transformation from girl to woman

4-

from child to young adult, took place with accelerated speedIts?" 

 

 

 

still kept something of a child in her appearance of course.-J

You may perhaps wonder if Elly and I, the office girls, knew that Anne
kept a Diary. Yes, we knew she did. Once, when I entered the room of the
Franks on an unusual time, I disturbed her during writing. She did not look

particularly friendly and I hurried out of the 

How I would like to tell you something about how Anne?s Diary was found.

In the afternoon of that disastrous day, August 4,1944, when my husband was,

 

back at the office and also Elly had pulled herself together to return, I
we decided to go back to the Secret Annexe after closing time. The German
police had closed the door but not sealed it and I had a spare key.The
oldest warehouse-clerk was taken into confidence, the youngest one was sent
home and the front door closed. Then we all went up, frightened, into the
?0 Secret Anne?jl coan not exactly explain what moved me, Elly or my husband,
to do this was it only curiosity No, certainly not. It was perhaps

a need that we felt to actually see for ourselves that the people that we
loved so much were indeed gone, or to see if we could save anything that
might be important. We walked through the rooms as quick as possible, and

we soon found out that everything that had any value was taken away.

 

What was left, books, papers, photographs and so was scattered on the floor.
There we found Anne's Diary, the first one, which she had received for
her birthday on June 12, 1942, as well as her other Diary papers, and a
lot of loose pages. We didn't dare to stay any longer in the Secret Annexe,
and after I took Anne?s toilet cape and a linen shoebag with me as well,we
went back to the office downstairs in the Fronthouse. w: told the ware?
houseclerk to be present when the furniture was taken away and to collect

all theloosepmges?and hand them oVer to me, which he did. I kept every?

thing in my desk, and didn't read it. When Otto'Frank came back from the
concentration camp end may 1945,'I'did not immediately hang?gyegg?pne's
papers to him, they belonged to Anne and it was still possible that she
had survived and was still alive. Only when it was certain that she had
died I gave him his daughter's heritage 

I 1 Reading and rereading her Diary one must be impressed by the incredible
sense of responsibility with which this young woman described her life
and that of others during the time they were in hiding. With her writing
she kept an open window to the world outside, as she wrote on February 23,
1944, describing the view from the window of the-Gecret Annexe's attic:
"As long as this exists, and I may live to see it, this sunshine, the

cloudless skies, while this lasts, I cannot be unhappy".I hope you will permit

me to end with these words of Janus. 
Thank you. -