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Anne Frank in the Secret Annex: Who Was Who?
This detailed account of the Amsterdam annex where Anne Frank wrote her diary includes the stories of those who helped her and those who hid with her. For two years during the Second World War, young, Jewish Anne Frank lived in hiding from the Nazis. Everything she experienced, thought, and felt, she confided in her diary. She was just as frank in her descriptions of the seven other people in the Annex and of the five helpers who endangered their own lives to look after them. Years later, Anne Frank’s diary became world famous. The Secret Annex was so well set up that the hiders survived there for over two years. Who were these people, how did they meet, and what happened to them? This book shows the background and organization of the Annex and the personal stories of all involved, as well as their relationships and their fates. It also offers many never-before-published photographs. The result is an extraordinary group portrait that stays with the reader long after the last page is turned.
230 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2013
57 people are currently reading
167 people want to read
About the author
Anne Frank Foundation
31 books9 followersThe Anne Frank Foundation (Dutch: Anne Frank Stichting) is a foundation in the Netherlands originally established to maintain the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. This foundation also advocates the fight against antisemitism and racism and publishes the Dutch annual Monitor Racisme en Extreem-rechts (Racism and Extreme Right Monitor), in which the activities of present-day racists and extreme rightists are studied.
Outside the Netherlands, the Anne Frank Foundation organizes expositions and information on Anne Frank.
The Anne Frank Stichting was founded on 3 May 1957 to prevent the tearing down of the house in Amsterdam in which Anne Frank was hidden since 1942 during the German occupation of the Netherlands in the Second World War. In 1960 the Anne Frank Huis became a museum.
The director of the foundation was Hans Westra, who retired in 2011 and was followed by Ronald Leopold.
Outside the Netherlands, the Anne Frank Foundation organizes expositions and information on Anne Frank.
The Anne Frank Stichting was founded on 3 May 1957 to prevent the tearing down of the house in Amsterdam in which Anne Frank was hidden since 1942 during the German occupation of the Netherlands in the Second World War. In 1960 the Anne Frank Huis became a museum.
The director of the foundation was Hans Westra, who retired in 2011 and was followed by Ronald Leopold.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
January 9, 2016
Disclaimer: Arc via Netgalley.
If the world was fair, then everyone who has read, or will read, the Diary of Anne Frank could visit the Anne Frank house in person.
While it is possible to see the house by touring the website, it does not convey the whole claustrophobic feeling. Even today, there is a feeling of being cut off from the outside. It brings something more to a reading of the diary.
There has always been debate about using the diary to teach the Holocaust, mostly centering on either not telling Frank’s whole story or because that story is such a narrow and unusual one. The diary, however, does something more important, it provides a door in – an ideal door for it is the words of a girl who doesn’t understand why, and those words speak to children today who are trying to understand the same thing.
This book should be used in conjunction with the diary for it gives more details about those in hiding with Anne. It makes them more than those who appear because here you have more of the story than Anne Frank’s limited knowledge. This book fleshes out that knowledge.
The biographies include and spend as much time on those besides the Franks. The Van Pels get some nice space and the biographies shed light on not only their marriage but some of the other behavior that Anne Frank witnessed. Both Margot and Edith Frank, who are always overshadowed by Otto and Anne Frank, have more space here and in their respective sections, photos of them without their more famous relatives are included. Pfeffer too gets more space.
It isn’t just the other residents of the Annex that get attention; the helps to get space. While much as been written about Miep Gies, but here Kleiman, Kugler, and Bep Voskuijl get the same amount of attention as does Jan Gies. What comes across especially when viewing the photographs was the tightness in the group of people.
The book is rounded out by very brief information about other people in the surrounding area - such as workers (the cats even get a mention). The book also includes a timeline and map of important camps, making it a good companion to be used in a classroom or when reading the Diary itself.
If the world was fair, then everyone who has read, or will read, the Diary of Anne Frank could visit the Anne Frank house in person.
While it is possible to see the house by touring the website, it does not convey the whole claustrophobic feeling. Even today, there is a feeling of being cut off from the outside. It brings something more to a reading of the diary.
There has always been debate about using the diary to teach the Holocaust, mostly centering on either not telling Frank’s whole story or because that story is such a narrow and unusual one. The diary, however, does something more important, it provides a door in – an ideal door for it is the words of a girl who doesn’t understand why, and those words speak to children today who are trying to understand the same thing.
This book should be used in conjunction with the diary for it gives more details about those in hiding with Anne. It makes them more than those who appear because here you have more of the story than Anne Frank’s limited knowledge. This book fleshes out that knowledge.
The biographies include and spend as much time on those besides the Franks. The Van Pels get some nice space and the biographies shed light on not only their marriage but some of the other behavior that Anne Frank witnessed. Both Margot and Edith Frank, who are always overshadowed by Otto and Anne Frank, have more space here and in their respective sections, photos of them without their more famous relatives are included. Pfeffer too gets more space.
It isn’t just the other residents of the Annex that get attention; the helps to get space. While much as been written about Miep Gies, but here Kleiman, Kugler, and Bep Voskuijl get the same amount of attention as does Jan Gies. What comes across especially when viewing the photographs was the tightness in the group of people.
The book is rounded out by very brief information about other people in the surrounding area - such as workers (the cats even get a mention). The book also includes a timeline and map of important camps, making it a good companion to be used in a classroom or when reading the Diary itself.
November 18, 2024
Enorm handig boekje om te lezen voor het lezen van het dagboek van Anne Frank. Moest dit zelf lezen voor werk maar weet nu al dat ik er nog veel aan ga hebben
November 6, 2024
For anyone who ever wanted to know more about the people mentioned in “The Diary of Anne Frank”, this is a must-read.
Each of the eight persons in hiding, as well as those that helped them, are given a short biography, along with beautiful photographs! I had never seen many of them before. After several visits to the Anne Frank House, and previous extensive reading, I was surprised and pleased to learn many new facts from this small book!
Each of the eight persons in hiding, as well as those that helped them, are given a short biography, along with beautiful photographs! I had never seen many of them before. After several visits to the Anne Frank House, and previous extensive reading, I was surprised and pleased to learn many new facts from this small book!
January 27, 2016
In 2005, the United Nations issued a declaration stating that January 27th would be designated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. It only seems fitting to remember the victims of the Holocaust with a new book about the secret annex where Anne Frank, her family and four other people hid from the Nazis in the annex of her father's business at Prinsengracht 263 in Amsterdam for more than two years.
Anne is a young girl whose short life has resonated in the lives of so many young people since her diary was first published. The Diary of a Young Girl. It is a moving account of Anne's life in the Annex, in which readers discover Anne's humorous side, her mischievous side, her budding sexuality, her hopes and dreams.
But Anne wasn't alone and although she mentions names and incidents in her diary, what do we really know about the other people in the Annex? Or the helpers on the outside? What did the people in the annex do all day? What did they eat? Where did their food and other needed items come from?
The decision to hide from the Nazis, to live in such close quarters for more than 2 years, from July 1942 to August 1944, couldn't have been an easy one to make and definitely requited a plan, detailed organization, and the help of trusted people who could provide them with food and other necessities.
Anne Frank in the Secret Annex: Who Was Who is a comprehensive book that brings it all together so that we may understand the risks and dangers everyone connected to Prinsengracht 263 faced on a daily basis.
The book begins with a very brief history of post WWI Germany, Adolf Hitler's rise to becoming the German chancellor in 1933, blaming the Jews for all of the country's problems. Otto Frank immediately decided to leave Germany and settle in the Netherlands. There he set up his business at Prinsengracht 263. But in 1940, after Germany invaded the Netherlands, they immediately put anti-Jewish regulations in place, making life harder and harder for all Jews living there, until, in 1942, Otto Frank moved his family once again - directly into hiding.
The book continues with description of the daily routine of the hiders, food and it distribution, and other daily discomforts, how holidays and birthdays were celebrated. Even a detailed description of the building they were hiding in.
This is followed with detailed biographies of all the people in hiding, those that helped them, other people who worked in or around Prinsengracht 263, even the cats are included. Any one of those peripheral people could have (and may have) turned in the people in the annex to the Nazis if they became aware of their presence.
Anne Frank and her diary have held the attention of readers, young and old, since it was first published, but the publication of Anne Frank in the Secret Annex: Who Was Who? gives readers a more detailed, more rounded out picture of who each individual was, making them more human and less the shadowy people we know from the diary.
It's hard to imagine what it must have been like to be cut off from everyone and everything for more than two years, never going outside, never even breathing fresh air from an open window, and living in silence day by day. This is an ideal book to be used in conjunction with Anne's diary as a way of introducing the Holocaust to young readers.
The book also contains an abundance of photographs, some never before published of everyone and everything related to the secret annex, including photos of all the helpers. There are also maps, including one of the concentration camps that the hiders were sent to after being discovered, a Concise Timeline along with the Lifeline of helpers and hiders, and a useful Glossary, a list of Sources, and suggestions for further reading.
Anne Frank in the Secret Annex: Who Was Who? is available only as an ebook.
And on this 2016 International Holocaust Remembrance Day, please take a moment today to think about all those who were victims of this tragedy, those who didn't survive as well as those who did.
This book is recommended for readers age 12+
This book was sent to me by the publisher, Open Road Media
Curious about Anne Frank in the Secret Annex: Who Was Who? Here's an excerpt you can read:
Excerpt
“Daily Life in the Secret Annex”
“At a quarter to seven, the alarm clock went off in the Secret Annex. The eight occupants would get up and wash before the warehouse workers arrived at half past eight. After that, they had to keep noise to a minimum. They walked in slippers, avoided the creaking stairs, and didn’t use any running water. Coughing, sneezing, laughing, talking, or quarreling was absolutely forbidden. To kill time, the eight would spend the morning reading and studying. Some did needlework, while others prepared the next meal. Miep, working in the office on the first floor, along with Johannes, Victor, and Bep, would go upstairs to the Secret Annex to pick up the shopping list.
“It’s twelve thirty. The whole gang breathes a sigh of relief,” Anne wrote. At noon, the warehouse workers went home for lunch and the annex occupants could relax a little. The helpers from the office usually dropped in, and Jan Gies sometimes joined them. At one o’clock, they all listened to the BBC on the illegal “little baby radio” before having lunch. After the lunch break, the helpers went back downstairs and most of the occupants took naps. Anne often “used this time to write in her diary. Silence prevailed for the rest of the afternoon: Potatoes were peeled, quiet chores done for the office, and reading and studying continued, while below, the helpers worked in the office. Miep and Bep would slip out during the afternoon or after office hours to work their way through the shopping list, which usually included food, clothing, soap, and even birthday presents.
When the warehouse workers left at around half past five, Bep gave the occupants a sign. As the helpers returned to their own spouses or families, the Secret Annex came to life: Someone would grab the warehouse key and fetch the bread, typewriters were carried upstairs, potatoes were set to boil, and the cat door in the coal storage bin was opened for Peter’s cat, Mouschi. Everyone had his or her own task. After dinner, they sometimes played a game. At around nine o’clock, the occupants prepared for bed, with much shuffling of chairs and “the folding open of beds. They took turns going to the bathroom. Anne, being the youngest, went first. Fritz stayed up late studying Spanish in the office downstairs. By about midnight, all of the people in the Secret Annex would be fast asleep.
On Saturday mornings, the warehouse workers would put in half a day’s work, but in the afternoons and on Sundays, the Secret Annex occupants took time for a full sponge baths in a tub, each in his or her own favorite spot in the building. The laundry was done then, too, and the Secret Annex was scrubbed and tidied. There were businesses located in the two adjacent buildings, so during the weekends, the occupants didn’t have to be quite so cautious. But the curtains always remained closed.”
More Curious about Who Was Who?
Five anecdotes behind the faces of the Secret Annex
• While everyone was assigned chores, Peter was instructed to haul the heavy bags from the greengrocer up to the attic. On one occasion, “one of them suddenly split open and a torrent of brown beans went cascading down the stairs. It was weeks before the last beans were found, they had been wedged into every nook and cranny of the stairwell.”
• The Annex’s Romeo and Juliet: Anne Frank’s roommate and the eldest occupant of the Secret Annex, Fritz Pfeffer - the only one without family or loved one at his side - was gripped with loneliness. His evenings were filled with writing letters to his “Lotte,” his great love Charlotte Kaletta, a Catholic woman whom he was forbidden to marry due to the Nuremberg Race Laws. He relied on Miep to serve as messenger to deliver the letters where he professed that Charlotte’s love will strengthen him.
• Miep was deemed the pack mule and carrier pigeon for the eight inhabitants of the Secret Annex. “Every Saturday, she also brought along five library books, which the Secret Annex occupants eagerly looked forward to. ‘Ordinary people don’t know how much books can mean to someone who’s cooped up,’ Anne wrote.”
• After the betrayal that led to the Secret Annex’s exposure and the inhabitants’ arrest, the ladies were sent to Westerbork transit camp where they “were forced to dismantle batteries, a dirty and dangerous business. The workday began at five o’clock in the morning. Seated at long tables, the women broke open batteries in order to remove the carbon rods. Then they picked out the sticky brown mass, which contained poisonous ammonium chloride. Finally, all the components were separated for use in the arms industry.”
• When Frank Otto, Anne’s father and lone survivor, returned to the Secret Annex, he “found the rooms practically empty and abandoned. For him, that emptiness symbolized the loss of his fellow sufferers who had not returned from the camps. For this reason, Otto later decided that the Secret Annex should remain this state.”
Anne is a young girl whose short life has resonated in the lives of so many young people since her diary was first published. The Diary of a Young Girl. It is a moving account of Anne's life in the Annex, in which readers discover Anne's humorous side, her mischievous side, her budding sexuality, her hopes and dreams.
But Anne wasn't alone and although she mentions names and incidents in her diary, what do we really know about the other people in the Annex? Or the helpers on the outside? What did the people in the annex do all day? What did they eat? Where did their food and other needed items come from?
The decision to hide from the Nazis, to live in such close quarters for more than 2 years, from July 1942 to August 1944, couldn't have been an easy one to make and definitely requited a plan, detailed organization, and the help of trusted people who could provide them with food and other necessities.
Anne Frank in the Secret Annex: Who Was Who is a comprehensive book that brings it all together so that we may understand the risks and dangers everyone connected to Prinsengracht 263 faced on a daily basis.
The book begins with a very brief history of post WWI Germany, Adolf Hitler's rise to becoming the German chancellor in 1933, blaming the Jews for all of the country's problems. Otto Frank immediately decided to leave Germany and settle in the Netherlands. There he set up his business at Prinsengracht 263. But in 1940, after Germany invaded the Netherlands, they immediately put anti-Jewish regulations in place, making life harder and harder for all Jews living there, until, in 1942, Otto Frank moved his family once again - directly into hiding.
The book continues with description of the daily routine of the hiders, food and it distribution, and other daily discomforts, how holidays and birthdays were celebrated. Even a detailed description of the building they were hiding in.
This is followed with detailed biographies of all the people in hiding, those that helped them, other people who worked in or around Prinsengracht 263, even the cats are included. Any one of those peripheral people could have (and may have) turned in the people in the annex to the Nazis if they became aware of their presence.
Anne Frank and her diary have held the attention of readers, young and old, since it was first published, but the publication of Anne Frank in the Secret Annex: Who Was Who? gives readers a more detailed, more rounded out picture of who each individual was, making them more human and less the shadowy people we know from the diary.
It's hard to imagine what it must have been like to be cut off from everyone and everything for more than two years, never going outside, never even breathing fresh air from an open window, and living in silence day by day. This is an ideal book to be used in conjunction with Anne's diary as a way of introducing the Holocaust to young readers.
The book also contains an abundance of photographs, some never before published of everyone and everything related to the secret annex, including photos of all the helpers. There are also maps, including one of the concentration camps that the hiders were sent to after being discovered, a Concise Timeline along with the Lifeline of helpers and hiders, and a useful Glossary, a list of Sources, and suggestions for further reading.
Anne Frank in the Secret Annex: Who Was Who? is available only as an ebook.
And on this 2016 International Holocaust Remembrance Day, please take a moment today to think about all those who were victims of this tragedy, those who didn't survive as well as those who did.
This book is recommended for readers age 12+
This book was sent to me by the publisher, Open Road Media
Curious about Anne Frank in the Secret Annex: Who Was Who? Here's an excerpt you can read:
Excerpt
“Daily Life in the Secret Annex”
“At a quarter to seven, the alarm clock went off in the Secret Annex. The eight occupants would get up and wash before the warehouse workers arrived at half past eight. After that, they had to keep noise to a minimum. They walked in slippers, avoided the creaking stairs, and didn’t use any running water. Coughing, sneezing, laughing, talking, or quarreling was absolutely forbidden. To kill time, the eight would spend the morning reading and studying. Some did needlework, while others prepared the next meal. Miep, working in the office on the first floor, along with Johannes, Victor, and Bep, would go upstairs to the Secret Annex to pick up the shopping list.
“It’s twelve thirty. The whole gang breathes a sigh of relief,” Anne wrote. At noon, the warehouse workers went home for lunch and the annex occupants could relax a little. The helpers from the office usually dropped in, and Jan Gies sometimes joined them. At one o’clock, they all listened to the BBC on the illegal “little baby radio” before having lunch. After the lunch break, the helpers went back downstairs and most of the occupants took naps. Anne often “used this time to write in her diary. Silence prevailed for the rest of the afternoon: Potatoes were peeled, quiet chores done for the office, and reading and studying continued, while below, the helpers worked in the office. Miep and Bep would slip out during the afternoon or after office hours to work their way through the shopping list, which usually included food, clothing, soap, and even birthday presents.
When the warehouse workers left at around half past five, Bep gave the occupants a sign. As the helpers returned to their own spouses or families, the Secret Annex came to life: Someone would grab the warehouse key and fetch the bread, typewriters were carried upstairs, potatoes were set to boil, and the cat door in the coal storage bin was opened for Peter’s cat, Mouschi. Everyone had his or her own task. After dinner, they sometimes played a game. At around nine o’clock, the occupants prepared for bed, with much shuffling of chairs and “the folding open of beds. They took turns going to the bathroom. Anne, being the youngest, went first. Fritz stayed up late studying Spanish in the office downstairs. By about midnight, all of the people in the Secret Annex would be fast asleep.
On Saturday mornings, the warehouse workers would put in half a day’s work, but in the afternoons and on Sundays, the Secret Annex occupants took time for a full sponge baths in a tub, each in his or her own favorite spot in the building. The laundry was done then, too, and the Secret Annex was scrubbed and tidied. There were businesses located in the two adjacent buildings, so during the weekends, the occupants didn’t have to be quite so cautious. But the curtains always remained closed.”
More Curious about Who Was Who?
Five anecdotes behind the faces of the Secret Annex
• While everyone was assigned chores, Peter was instructed to haul the heavy bags from the greengrocer up to the attic. On one occasion, “one of them suddenly split open and a torrent of brown beans went cascading down the stairs. It was weeks before the last beans were found, they had been wedged into every nook and cranny of the stairwell.”
• The Annex’s Romeo and Juliet: Anne Frank’s roommate and the eldest occupant of the Secret Annex, Fritz Pfeffer - the only one without family or loved one at his side - was gripped with loneliness. His evenings were filled with writing letters to his “Lotte,” his great love Charlotte Kaletta, a Catholic woman whom he was forbidden to marry due to the Nuremberg Race Laws. He relied on Miep to serve as messenger to deliver the letters where he professed that Charlotte’s love will strengthen him.
• Miep was deemed the pack mule and carrier pigeon for the eight inhabitants of the Secret Annex. “Every Saturday, she also brought along five library books, which the Secret Annex occupants eagerly looked forward to. ‘Ordinary people don’t know how much books can mean to someone who’s cooped up,’ Anne wrote.”
• After the betrayal that led to the Secret Annex’s exposure and the inhabitants’ arrest, the ladies were sent to Westerbork transit camp where they “were forced to dismantle batteries, a dirty and dangerous business. The workday began at five o’clock in the morning. Seated at long tables, the women broke open batteries in order to remove the carbon rods. Then they picked out the sticky brown mass, which contained poisonous ammonium chloride. Finally, all the components were separated for use in the arms industry.”
• When Frank Otto, Anne’s father and lone survivor, returned to the Secret Annex, he “found the rooms practically empty and abandoned. For him, that emptiness symbolized the loss of his fellow sufferers who had not returned from the camps. For this reason, Otto later decided that the Secret Annex should remain this state.”
February 25, 2022
This is a well researched book, which builds up the picture of those in and around the Secret Annexe with a wide array of photographs and information. It does not delve too deeply into the minutiae and is played straight down the middle emotionally (which make the stories even more moving).
I thought it was very well done, but it may be a bit light for people already familiar with Anne Frank and her famous diary.
7th Edition, 2018.
I thought it was very well done, but it may be a bit light for people already familiar with Anne Frank and her famous diary.
7th Edition, 2018.
May 3, 2016
Great book and completely necessary reading for everyone, in tandem with "The Diary of Anne Frank". This should never be repeated, but it is SAD, because people are currently being persecuted and fleeing from their homes for fear of death and they are being turned away.
Will we never learn?
Depressing, but necessary read. Good illustrations and nice to have background on those in the Annex in hiding and those who helped them until someone found out.
What kills me is that they still don't know who it was who tipped the Nazis off and how they knew. The truth may never be known, more's the pity.
Very good book. Excellent resource to augment the Diary. Clear and not overly long, this would be a good addition to a classroom where the Diary is being taught.
I recommend it to everyone. Five stars.
My thanks to NetGalley and Open Road Integrated Media for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.
Will we never learn?
Depressing, but necessary read. Good illustrations and nice to have background on those in the Annex in hiding and those who helped them until someone found out.
What kills me is that they still don't know who it was who tipped the Nazis off and how they knew. The truth may never be known, more's the pity.
Very good book. Excellent resource to augment the Diary. Clear and not overly long, this would be a good addition to a classroom where the Diary is being taught.
I recommend it to everyone. Five stars.
My thanks to NetGalley and Open Road Integrated Media for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.
December 8, 2018
Dit boek geeft een duidelijk en informatieve weergave over de personen in en om het Achterhuis. Zeker een aanrader na een bezoek aan het Achterhuis.
September 28, 2024
We read The Diary of Anne Frank: the Play in the 8th grade English class that I teach, and I am always looking for additional resources to help the students better understand this time in history and the experiences of the people that lived it. This book will be a great addition to my resource shelf. It begins with some historical background for the people hiding in the Secret Annex, goes on to detail aspects of daily life while in hiding, and then provides a brief biography of each individual. It includes many photographs, which I think will be especially helpful in making this story more real for my own students.
* I received an electronic copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review.
* I received an electronic copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review.
January 5, 2023
Todos conhecemos a história de Anne Frank. Este livro de não-ficção vai mais além. Apresenta-nos a história de cada um dos residentes clandestinos do esconderijo bem como dos seus ajudantes. Fala do antes, durante e pós-guerra de cada um. Um relato triste.
Tem fotos ao longo de todo o livro que nos fazem perceber que aquelas pessoas eram simplesmente alguém como nós.
Tem fotos ao longo de todo o livro que nos fazem perceber que aquelas pessoas eram simplesmente alguém como nós.
September 20, 2018
Very good book
I remember having to read The Diary of Anne Frank in school, and her writing captivated me. I've always wanted to know more about her and the other inhabitants of the Secret Annex, so when this book was made available for the Kindle, I downloaded it. It was a rather short read, but very informative. I never knew that Anne have pseudonyms to every one in the Annex not related to her, and all the people who helped them while they hid. I did dock a star for poor editing/proofreading, the most glaring of which was using immigrate instead of emigrate ( think the IMmigrant IMmerses himself in his new country while the EMigrant EMbarks from her old country to remember when you should use each), and a picture of Otto with his second wife Fritzi was mistakenly used for a picture of his first wife Edith. Other than that, this was a very fine book indeed, which is rare for a free Kindle download.
I remember having to read The Diary of Anne Frank in school, and her writing captivated me. I've always wanted to know more about her and the other inhabitants of the Secret Annex, so when this book was made available for the Kindle, I downloaded it. It was a rather short read, but very informative. I never knew that Anne have pseudonyms to every one in the Annex not related to her, and all the people who helped them while they hid. I did dock a star for poor editing/proofreading, the most glaring of which was using immigrate instead of emigrate ( think the IMmigrant IMmerses himself in his new country while the EMigrant EMbarks from her old country to remember when you should use each), and a picture of Otto with his second wife Fritzi was mistakenly used for a picture of his first wife Edith. Other than that, this was a very fine book indeed, which is rare for a free Kindle download.
May 27, 2024
Got to go to Amsterdam and see the Anne frank house, which is where I got this book. A really good source of extra information on the secret annex and their lives before, during and after hiding. It truly sucks how close they were to not being discovered but also in how close some of them were to being liberated.
November 10, 2025
This is a good companion piece to Anne Frank’s diary. Gives some more historical/factual context to the Franks, Van Pels, and the helpers.
While the information is good and very informative it is not written very well (and I’m wondering if it was translated from Dutch?) and has many places that are clunky.
While the information is good and very informative it is not written very well (and I’m wondering if it was translated from Dutch?) and has many places that are clunky.
May 14, 2020
Powerful
This book tells you the background stories of everyone who was involved with the secret annex. It also tells you what happened to everyone after they were caught. I liked it. The people who helped the Frank family and the others were courageous. Just a very powerful book
This book tells you the background stories of everyone who was involved with the secret annex. It also tells you what happened to everyone after they were caught. I liked it. The people who helped the Frank family and the others were courageous. Just a very powerful book
January 21, 2022
This is mostly just an informational book, but I found it a good companion to my reading of the new book about the cold case of who betrayed the people in the Secret Annex. Informational, and it has good pictures.
November 14, 2022
I think it is probably worth reading this before reading The Diary of Anne Frank as it gives the background that she does not.
It is kept factual, with lots of pictures and little details that serve as poignant reminders of what each of these individuals faced.
A worthy companion to Anne’s diary.
It is kept factual, with lots of pictures and little details that serve as poignant reminders of what each of these individuals faced.
A worthy companion to Anne’s diary.
June 13, 2017
About the backgrounds of the people mentioned in the diary. For any one who has read the diary and wants a bit more information.
February 15, 2020
Very good
This is a good book to read if you want to know more and dig deeper into the people involved with Anne Frank
This is a good book to read if you want to know more and dig deeper into the people involved with Anne Frank
February 13, 2016
Like many of us, I read Anne Frank's diary when I was a teenager. My heart broke for this exquisitely curious and lively girl and the smart, sweet and cutting way that she wrote about her experience in the Secret Attic. I read everything I could about her and as a Jewish girl living in a neighborhood replete with survivors, I imagined what I would do in the same situation. As I got older I began to question some of the ways that her story was used to teach about the Holocaust. I began to chaff at the quote that is the most cited from her diary, "I keep my ideals, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart." I thought of her lying on the ground dying with her dead sister next to her in Bergen-Belsen and wondered what she still thought about human nature and hated the whitewashing of the pain and horror of the Holocaust. Yet, for me Anne Frank and her story just cuts me to the core.
Anne Frank in the Secret Annex adds to what we know about Anne, the other seven people who hid in the attic and the helpers. It does this through photographs, maps timelines and additional readings. It deepens our understanding of the day to day life that she experienced and gives context to the diary as we learn more about her family's life before the war and how she came to the secret annex. I especially appreciated being able to gain a fuller understanding of the three families that hid together notably some of the adults who Anne wrote about her conflicts but little more. For example, I learned about Fritz Pfeffer and the woman he loved but could not marry because Jews and Non-Jews could not marry under the 1935 Nazi Nuremberg Laws. It also gives us vital and more complete information about the people who protected and loved them;how they worked together despite the danger and that several of them were sent to concentration camps when the Franks were discovered and so much more. The book feels gritty and raw in its factual presentation and that took me right into the book which I stayed up to finish. I would not read Anne Frank in the Secret Annex without first reading her diary, in conjunction or ideally, afterwards. Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to review this book for an honest opinion.
Anne Frank in the Secret Annex adds to what we know about Anne, the other seven people who hid in the attic and the helpers. It does this through photographs, maps timelines and additional readings. It deepens our understanding of the day to day life that she experienced and gives context to the diary as we learn more about her family's life before the war and how she came to the secret annex. I especially appreciated being able to gain a fuller understanding of the three families that hid together notably some of the adults who Anne wrote about her conflicts but little more. For example, I learned about Fritz Pfeffer and the woman he loved but could not marry because Jews and Non-Jews could not marry under the 1935 Nazi Nuremberg Laws. It also gives us vital and more complete information about the people who protected and loved them;how they worked together despite the danger and that several of them were sent to concentration camps when the Franks were discovered and so much more. The book feels gritty and raw in its factual presentation and that took me right into the book which I stayed up to finish. I would not read Anne Frank in the Secret Annex without first reading her diary, in conjunction or ideally, afterwards. Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to review this book for an honest opinion.
January 15, 2016
I have been lucky enough to visit the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam twice now and have been intrigued and touched each time I have made the visit. To be in the rooms that kept them safe for two years is moving and the displays that they have there are great - but I have always wanted to know more, more about who they were, more about their helpers, more about who breached their trust and ultimately what we have learnt from their sufferings. This book is very good and I loved the way it was set out with the many detailed and clear photos - a lovely and informative way to display the tragic story that should never be forgotten.
February 21, 2017
Excellent.
January 29, 2016
I have read the diary and many articles about Anne Frank and the group in the secret annex, and still found this book very interesting with lots of new information for me. I liked that it gives so much detail about all the people involved and enjoyed the many photographs.
Excellent book, with great information.
Excellent book, with great information.
February 25, 2014
Didn't learn much new about any of the participants reading this book. It's basically 4-5 pages of biographical information, pulled from previously published books, and organized in to a "Who's Who" format.
October 9, 2015
Purchased this book after the visit to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, Netherlands in April 2015. I encourage those who visit the Museum should buy one. (Just checked their online store, the book is temporarily out of stock. October 2015)
January 21, 2016
I loved the diary of Anne Frank which is part of my childhood reading. this book didn't really have the same draw or the same engrossing nature. maybe this is because I loved the diary that this seems not as good.
January 25, 2015
emozionante e toccante.
Da leggere perché non dobbiamo dimenticare
Da leggere perché non dobbiamo dimenticare
March 19, 2015
Een mooi vormgegeven boekje waarmee je de mensen leert kennen waar Anne mee geleefd heeft of haar familie geholpen hebben. Goed als aanvulling op 'Het Achterhuis'.
January 14, 2016
A fascinating insight into the real lives of everyone mentioned in Anne Frank's diary.
July 6, 2016
It was an interesting book and I learned a few news things about the people in the Secret Annex - as well as information about the helpers, the people who worked in the business and others.
August 6, 2016
Very powerful. Got to know the other members of the secret annex as well as those who hid them.
July 26, 2020
Very good guide about all those involved with the Secret Annexe. Perfect to read alongside the diary just to help you keep who with who is who! I
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