Behind A Movable Bookcase - “The Diary Of A Young Girl”

“I’m such an idiot. I forgot that I haven’t yet told you the story of my one true love.”  This is the way in which Anne Frank starts writing about Peter Schiff, in a diary that became known worldwide.

But it is not the diary of a regular teenage girl who puts down her thoughts in a journal and hides it from her parents.  Neither is it the diary of a teenager whose own responsibility is to do her homework and go to school. Anne Frank’s diary is the diary of a 14 year old girl, who writes behind a movable bookcase that hides the secret annex where eight Jews are living.  The hiding place is located in an empty section of Otto Frank’s company and can help them hide from the Nazis after the surrender of the Netherlands.

Four of Otto Frank’s employees supply them with food and provide them with news about the outside world.  Backstairs ,employees are working, therefore the people in captivity have to be very quiet. Two years pass by and Anne tries to live as normally as she can. She wants to become a writer and keeps a minute record of what is happening in her life.  Anne examines her relationship with the members of her family as well as the strong difference about their personality and dreams about returning to school again.

“Will this year, 1944 bring us victory? We don’t know yet. But where there’s hope, there’s life.  It fills us with fresh courage  and makes us strong again. We’ll need to be brave to endure the many fears and hardships and the suffering yet to come.”           

Yet  1944 does not bring victory, but betrayal, and the secret annex is stormed by the German Security Police.  On September 3, Anne is deported on what would be the last transport to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Men are separated from women and Anne would never see her father again. Of the 1020 passengers  500 of them, children which less than fifteen, are sent directly to gas chambers.  Anne is spared, she turned fifteen three months before.  But Anne will never be able to go to school again. Neither will she be able to see her dream of becoming a writer come true. Anne Frank is separated from her mother and relocated to Bergen-Belsen along with her sister Margot. Typhus spreads throughout the camp and kills 17.000 prisoners. Margot falls from her bunk in her weakened state and is killed by the shock.  A few days later, and a couple of weeks before the camp is liberated by the British troops, Anne dies of typhus.

The photograph of Anne’s true love, Peter Schiff, described by her as “the ideal boy:  tall, slim, and good-looking, with a serious, quiet, intelligent face” was donated earlier this year to the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam, and brought “The Diary of a Young Girl” back to the attention of the media.

Ernst Michaelis, Peter’s high school  friend , donated the photograph after reading Anne’s journal.  “A friendly memento of your friend” Peter wrote on the photograph, not knowing at that time that he would never see Ernst again.  But little is it known about Peter’s death. He himself was a victim of the Holocaust and died presumably at Auschwitz, but the date of his death remains unclear. Anne Frank’s journal , published by her father – the only survivor of the family- is more than the diary of a young girl. It will prevail as a proof of utter atrocities for future generations. 

The impact of Anne Frank’s  writings is more powerful than any other history book . Anne is the voice of six million of people who died  as a result of the Holocaust.. Anne Frank did become a writer, a greater writer than she probably dared dream. But Anne’s destiny differed from a regular teenager’s and unfairly prevented her from seeing her dream come true.