June 12, 1942–June 24, 1942

Anne Frank begins her diary with the hope that she will be able to reveal
everything to it, since she feels that she has never truly been able to confide
in anyone. She tells the story of how she acquired the diary on Friday,
June 12, her thirteenth birthday. Anne wakes up at six in the morning and
waits until seven to open her presents. One of the presents is the new diary.
Afterward, Anne’s friend Hanneli picks her up for school. Anne goes to gym
with the other students, although she is not able to participate because her
shoulders and hips dislocate too easily. She returns home at five in the
afternoon. She describes several of her friends—Hanneli, Sanne, and
Jacqueline—whom she has met at the Jewish Lyceum, the local school for
Jewish children.
Anne writes about her birthday party on Sunday and continues to describe her
classmates. She believes that “paper is more patient than people” and feels
that she does not have any true friends and confidants. She has a loving
family and many people she could call friends or admirers, but she cannot
confide in any of them.

Anne then provides a brief overview of her childhood. She was born in
Frankfurt, Germany, in 1929. Her family moved to Holland in 1933because
they were Jewish and her father found a job at a Dutch chemical company.
Anne went to a Montessori nursery school and then went on to the Jewish
Lyceum.
Anne says that her family’s lives are somewhat anxious, especially since they
have relatives still living in Germany. Her two uncles fled to North America,
and her grandmother came to Holland to live with Anne’s family. After 1940,
the Nazis occupied Holland and instituted restrictive laws forcing Jews to wear
yellow stars to identify themselves. The Germans forced the Jews to turn in
their bicycles and shop only during certain hours. Jews were also restricted
from riding streetcars, going outside at night, visiting Christian homes, and
attending most schools. Anne’s grandmother died in 1942, in the midst of this
difficult time.
Anne starts addressing her diary as “Kitty” and writes that she and her friends
have started a Ping-Pong club. After playing Ping-Pong, the girls go to the
nearest ice cream shop that permits Jews, and they let admirers buy them ice
cream. Anne complains that she knows boys will become enamored with her
right away when she lets them bicycle home with her, so she tries to ignore
them. Anne tells Kitty that her entire class is “quaking in their boots” and
waiting to hear who will be promoted to the next grade. She is not worried
about any subject except math, because in math class she was punished for
talking too much. Anne adds that after she wrote a few funny essays on her
punishment, the teacher began joking along with her.

Anne notes that it is hot and realizes what a luxury it is to ride in a streetcar,
since Jews cannot use them anymore. The ferryman lets them ride the ferry,
and Anne says that it is not the fault of the Dutch that the Jews are being
persecuted. She tells her diary that a boy, Hello Silberberg, approached her
and that they have started to see each other more often.

July 1, 1942–July 10, 1942

Anne tells her diary that she has been seeing more of Hello. Hello’s parents
are in Belgium, but there is no way for him to travel there, so he is living in
Amsterdam with his grandparents. On Sunday afternoon, Hello tells Anne that
his grandmother did not approve of his association with such a young girl. He
also says that he prefers Anne to his old girlfriend Ursul. Hello tells Anne that
he will be free Wednesday evenings as well as parts of Saturdays and
Sundays, since he used to go to meetings for a Zionist organization but
decided not to attend them anymore. On Monday, he meets Anne’s parents,
then he and Anne go for a walk and do not return until after eight in the
evening. Anne’s father is furious, and she promises to return before eight in
the future. Anne confesses that she is really in love with a boy named Peter,
even though he is dating other girls, and that Hello is just a friend or a beau.
Anne receives decent grades on her report card but adds that her parents do
not care about grades as much as some of her friends’ parents do. Anne’s
father explains that they will likely have to go into hiding soon, which is why
they have been asking friends to store their belongings. He tells her that they
will “leave of [their] own accord” instead of waiting for the Germans to take
them and that Anne does not have to worry about it right away. She is greatly
dismayed by her father’s plans. Three days later, on Sunday afternoon,
Anne’s sister, Margot, tells her that their father had received a call-up notice
from the SS, the elite Nazi guard. Later, alone in their room, Margot tells Anne
that it was really herself, not Mr. Frank, who had been called up. The girls
quickly start packing their things. The next day, they pile on as many layers of
clothes as they can, since they cannot risk carrying suitcases. Margot leaves
the house first, carrying a schoolbag full of books, and Anne follows later that
evening.

Eventually, the entire family arrives at their hiding place in Otto Frank’s office
building at 263 Prinsengracht. A secret annex was hidden upstairs from the
office, behind a big gray door. Four people who work in the office are informed
of the Franks’ arrival. Margot is waiting for the rest of the family in the annex,
which is stocked with dozens of cardboard boxes that had been sent over
time. Anne and her father start unpacking the boxes as her mother and sister
sleep. Anne writes that she did not have time until Wednesday to consider the
“enormous change in [her] life,” and that she finally had time to tell her diary
about it and think about “what had happened to [her] and what was yet to
happen.”
July 11, 1942–October 9, 1942

Margot and Mr. and Mrs. Frank cannot get used to the chiming of the clock in
the annex, but Anne feels reassured by it. She tells her diary that living in the
annex is similar to being on vacation in a strange boarding house, and she
thinks that the annex is probably the most comfortable hiding place in all of
Holland. Anne’s father had brought her movie posters to the attic in advance,
so she plasters her bedroom walls with them. Anne looks forward to the arrival
of the van Daans, the other family who will live with them in the annex. In a
comment added to this section several months later, however, Anne
expresses how upset she is about not being able to go outside and that she is
terrified that they will be discovered and shot.

Anne begins to argue with her mother more frequently. She feels that she
does not fit in with her mother or sister, who are both very sentimental. Anne
thinks that her father is the only one who understands her. She knows that
she will not be able to leave the annex until after the war and that only a few
people will be able to visit them. However, she is still hopeful and dreams of
many things.

The van Daan family arrives on July 13, 1942. They come one day ahead of
schedule because German call-up notices are being sent out with increasing
frequency and causing unrest. Mr. van Daan explains what happened after
the Franks’ disappearance. The Franks had deliberately spread false rumors
to throw the Gestapo off their trail, so most of their friends think they went to
Switzerland.

Mr. Voskuijl, the father of one of Mr. Frank’s coworkers, builds a bookcase in
front of the door to the annex to conceal it. Anne’s mother and Mrs. van Daan
argue a lot, and Peter van Daan annoys the Franks with his hypochondria.
Anne adds that Mrs. van Daan and her mother both speak abominable Dutch
but that she will properly transcribe it in her diary. Anne is also studying
French and memorizes five irregular verbs each day. She complains that Mrs.
van Daan criticizes her even though Anne is not her daughter.
Anne and the others in the annex must take turns using the hot water to take
baths, and when the plumber visits the building, they must sit completely still.
Every time the doorbell rings, Anne is terrified because she thinks it is the
Gestapo. Later, Anne imagines that she is in Switzerland and
has 150 guilders to spend. She hears only bad news about the fates of the
Franks’ many Jewish friends and begins to tackle the issue of her identity,
since she is both a German and a Jew.

October 14, 1942–November 20, 1942

Anne continues to keep busy by studying French, math, history, and

shorthand. She writes that she is getting along with her mother and Margot
better. The two sisters agree to let each other read their diaries. Anne asks
Margot what she wants to be when she grows up, but Margot is mysterious
about it.
Anne and the others in the annex have a scare when a carpenter comes to fill
the fire extinguishers without advanced warning. They hear someone banging
on the bookcase and they think the carpenter is going to discover them, but
then they realize it is Mr. Kleiman, a man who helped them hide, trying to
move the door since it is stuck. Miep Gies, a worker in Mr. Frank’s office,
spends a night in the annex along with her husband, Jan. Anne enjoys having
the visitors around.

Later in the week, Mr. Frank becomes ill, but the family cannot call a doctor.
That weekend, Bep Voskuijl, another worker in Mr. Frank’s office, stays in the
annex. Anne writes that she is very excited because she thinks she is about to
get her period. In a note she adds to this section in 1944, Anne writes that she
cannot believe her “childish innocence” from that time, and she calls her
descriptions “indelicate.” She also mentions how the whole time she has been
in hiding she has longed for “trust, love and physical affection.”
Anne reports on some of the British successes in Africa and puzzles over
Churchill’s famous quotation about the war being at “the end of the
beginning.” Mr. Frank recovers from his illness, and Peter turns sixteen. The
residents of the annex also agree to take in an eighth person, and Anne is
very excited at the prospect of a new addition.

The newcomer is Albert Dussel, a dentist who is married to a Christian

woman. Mr. Dussel is excited when Miep tells him of the hiding place, but he
asks for a few extra days to put his accounts in order and treat some patients.
Mr. Dussel meets Mr. Kleiman at an appointed time, and Miep then leads him
to the annex. Mr. Dussel is surprised to see the Frank family because he had
heard they were in Belgium.

The van Daans give Mr. Dussel a tongue-in-cheek list of rules upon his arrival.
He shares a room with Anne and tells her about the atrocities committed
outside, including the murders of women and children. Anne thinks that they
are lucky to be in hiding, and she thinks of the suffering her friends must
endure merely because they are Jewish. Anne writes that she is very upset by
the news, but she resolves that she cannot spend all her time crying. The
loneliness of the attic makes her unhappy.

November 28, 1942–page 65

The residents of the annex use too much electricity and exceed their
ration. Anne begins to feel that Mr. Dussel is a strict disciplinarian and has too
many opinions about etiquette. She writes that it is very difficult being “the
badly brought-up center of attention in a family of nitpickers.” Hanukkah and
St. Nicholas Day come on almost the same day, so the annex holds two
celebrations. They light the Hanukkah candles for only ten minutes, since
candles are in short supply. For St. Nicholas Day, Father hides a basket filled
with presents and a mask of Black Peter in a cabinet.
Mr. van Daan makes sausages to preserve the meat they have bought. Mr.
Dussel opens a pretend dental practice in the annex and comically attempts to
fix Mrs. van Daan’s cavities.