Settling into the Secret Annexe
by Anne Frank
Match the books/publications with their descriptions and examples.
=
|
a. manual |
A book in which one keeps a daily record of events and experiences.
[f] |
Boys’ Town School Bulletin [c] |
|---|---|---|
|
b. journal |
A published collection of poems or other pieces of writing. [e] |
Dear Friend [f] |
|
c. newsletter |
A newspaper or magazines that deals with a particular subject or
professional activity. [b] |
Fairy Tales from around the World [e] |
|
d. almanac |
A bulletin issued periodically to the members of a society or other
organization. [c] |
How to Build a Model Airplane [a] |
|
e. anthology |
A book giving instructions or information. [a] |
Sportspersons of the Year, 20XX [d] |
|
f. diary |
A handbook, typically published annually, containing information of
general interest or on a sport or pastime. [d] |
The Legal Review [b] |
The extract is taken from The Diary of a Young Girl, based on a diary written in Dutch by Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl. She and her family had to go into hiding for two years during the Second World War, when the Jews were persecuted by the German soldiers. Anne began to keep a diary from her thirteenth birthday. Her moving account records the difficulties and sufferings of innocent families during the War.
Making Connections
Quick answers
1. Complete the following.
a. The hiding place of the family was located in her Father's office building.
b. The first thing that Anne's family did was to sew curtains.
c. Anne gave herself a holiday from 21st August till September.
d. Mr. Voskuijl built a bookcase in front of the entrance.
e. Anne's family made the most of the good weather by lounging on the folding bed in the attic.
Reference to context
2. "Last night, the four of us went down to the private office..."
a. Who are the four of us and why did they go to the office at night?
= The four of us are - Father, Mummy, Anne and Margot.
They went to the office at night to listen to England on the wireless.
b. What had the narrator's mother felt well enough to do earlier in the day?
= The narrator's mother felt well enough to cook split-pea soup earlier in the day.
c. Did the narrator's mother accomplish the task?
= The narrator's mother did nor accomplish the task as the peas were scorched black, and no amount of scraping could get them out of the pan.
3. "We started off immediately the first day with sewing curtains."
a. What were the curtains made of?
= The curtains were made of scraps of fabric.
b. Why were the curtains needed?
= The curtains were needed because they were afraid the neighbours might hear or see them whatever they did.
c. Why does the narrator refer to the curtains as a 'work of art'?
= The narrator refers to the curtains as a 'work of art' as they were varying greatly in shape, quality and pattern. The narrator and her Father stitched them crookedly together with unskilled fingers.
4. "....we were all walking around with bumps on our foreheads..."
a. What had caused the bumps on their foreheads?
= The bookcase which was built in front of the entrance, had caused the bumps on their foreheads.
b. Why had the alterations to the doorway been made?
= The alterations to the doorway had been made as so many houses were being searched and they wanted to keep the annexe secret. So Mr. Kugler thought it would be better to have a bookcase built in front of the entrance to their hiding place.
c. How did Peter van Daan try to solve the problem?
= Peter van Daan cushioned the low doorway by nailing a towel stuffed with wood shavings to the doorframe.
Read, reflect and write
5. How do we know that the narrator loved the Westertoren clock?
= The Westertoren clock told them the time every quarter of an hour. Father, Mummy and Margot could not get used to the sound of it. But the narrator loved it from the start. The sound to of the clock seemed very reassuring to her, especially at night. The narrator wanted to hear the sound of the clock while being in hiding.
6. What was special about the Secret Annexe?
= It was the narrator's Father's office building. They could the sound of the clock of the Westertoren Church of Amsterdam. It was more like being on holiday in some strange pension. It was an ideal place to hide in. It might be damp and lopsided, but there were probably not a more comfortable hiding place in all of Amsterdam.
7. What did Anne her family do to make their surroundings cheerful? Why do you think there was a need to do so?
= The black walls of the bedrooms of the narrator's family was very bare. The Father of the narrator brought her entire postcard collection and film star collection there beforehand. The narrator was able to plaster the walls with pictures with a brush and a pot of glue. This way they made their surroundings cheerful.
I think there was definitely a need to do so. They were hiding themselves from being chased and imprisoned by the German soldiers. They were living in an emergency situation. They did not know what would happen in the next moment. It was immense pressure in there mind. It was obvious to make the surroundings a bit cheerful to reduce their stress.
8. Do you think the narrator was happy with her situation? Support your answer with evidence from the text.
= The narrator was not happy with her situation. She was somehow compromising in that situation as she was wise to understand the current situation they were in. She shared her view that she would never felt at home in that house. At the next moment, she informed that she didn't hate it either. Gradually the narrator made herself accustomed to that situation and she felt that it was not really that bad as they could do their own cooking and could listen to the wireless in her father's office.
9. Anne and her family, and all other families like hers, had to live in fear when they were hiding from the Germans during the Second World War. Write what happens when two countries are at war.
= It turns human life up side down, when two countries are at war. Life becomes uncertain. Much bloodshed and killings becomes obvious. People become helpless. The price of daily necessary commodities increases. Education and health services almost stop. Social and cultural crisis becomes evident for the next few years or may be for the coming decade. To cut a long story short, war moves us backward for at least a decade.
10. Extended writing : Describe how Anne's life changed from 9 July to 21 September 1942. What do you think might have happened after that?
= On 9th July, 1942 it was decided that they would go into hiding in her Father's office building. She never felt at home in that office building. There were not enough of food to cook. They had to make curtains by sewing the scraps of fabrics. They had to listen to England on the wireless with anxiety and fear. As many houses were being searched, they had to fix a bookcase in front of the entrance to make the annex more secret and hard to find. They had no books to read. Her mother had started to take more care of her as it was a very harsh situation of crisis. They could not go out. They spent the beautiful days lying on the folded beds in the attic. Three were another family called van Daans hiding with them at the same building. Total eight people were living there and they had to compromise a lot.
I think, they might have been rescued by some organisations or they might have been arrested by the German soldiers.
The ending of the Narrator's life :
In 1944, the Secret Annex was discovered. The eight people living there were taken to the prison camp in Auschwitz, Poland and finally to a camp in Germany. Anne died of typhus(a bacterial disease) there at the age of fifteen. After the War, the diary was recovered by her father, Otto Frank. In her diary Anne wrote that despite everything she believed that people are really good at heart. She wrote, 'How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.'
About the author :
Anne Frank (1929-1945) was born in Frankfurt, Germany. She moved to Amsterdam with her family in 1933. The family went into hiding in 1942 to escape persecution by the Germans during the Second World War. Anne wrote about her experiences during this period in a diary, which was first published in 1947 and since has been translated in more than sixty language.