The Netherlands was now an occupied country. That meant the Germans were in control. Up went Nazi flags. Right away, life began to change for everyone. But it changed most of all for the Jews.
Now all Jews—even children like Anne and her sister—had to register with the Germans. Nobody else had to do this. But the Germans wanted to keep track of all Jews. They wanted to know who each person was and where he or she lived. Jews had to turn over nearly all their money to the Nazis. Their businesses were taken away. (Otto handed his over to two good friends who weren’t Jewish and who already worked there.) If Jews worked in companies owned by non-Jews, their jobs were taken away.
Books by Jewish authors were banned. So were movies made by Jews. Jewish people couldn’t even attend movies. That must have upset Anne a great deal. Her parents did all they could. They rented movies and projectors to show at home. Anne and her friend Jackie made tickets and led people to their seats. Anne’s mother provided refreshments.
There were random attacks against Jewish people. One Saturday afternoon a group led by German soldiers beat up and arrested four hundred Jewish men. Otto Frank was lucky enough to stay out of harm’s way. The arrested men were sent to concentration camps. Only one of the men ever returned to the city.
The Dutch people were outraged. They staged a strike. At ten thirty one morning in February, work stopped all over the Netherlands. Streetcars came to a halt. Shops closed. Restaurants didn’t serve food. Factories shut down. It was a countrywide strike. In this way, the Dutch people showed Hitler what they thought of him. His treatment of the Jews was wrong, unfair, and not human.
Did this stop the Germans? No.
By now there was no way for Anne’s mother and father to keep what was happening from their children. Signs went up on park benches. The signs said: “Forbidden to Jews.” The Jews of Amsterdam were no longer allowed in libraries, museums, concert halls, restaurants, or even the zoo.
That summer Jews were forbidden to use public beaches and pools. They could not visit public parks or hotels. How awful for everyone, but most of all children like Anne. Here it was summer and there was nowhere they could go for fun.
Each time something was taken away from them, Jewish people hoped that nothing worse would happen. And indeed there were still happy times for the Franks. Anne spent part of her vacation with her friend Sanne’s family in the country. It was while she was at Sanne’s house that Anne first started noticing boys.
There was also a wedding. Everyone in the Frank family was very close to a young Dutch woman named Miep. Miep worked at the pectin company. She was not Jewish, nor was her new husband, Jan Gies. But Miep had known and respected Otto Frank for many years. Miep was especially close to Anne. Anne did not know it then, but soon this young couple was going to play a very important part in her life. |