When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary

by Alice Hoffman

It would happen now on an ordinary afternoon when sunlight flooded the rooftop. The doorbell rang and an unfamiliar man’s voice was drifting up. It was a summer afternoon and everything was the same, and then, before they knew what was happening, nothing would ever be the same again. Both sisters heard their mother cry out after she closed the door, hurrying with the latch. But it was one lock, not a thousand, and it would never keep out what was waiting for them. A man had just left their house. He walked in a strange way, the way a goblin might, but he was a policeman, an everyday policeman who was posted in this neighborhood, sent to deliver messages from the government. Margot had run out of her room and now she and their mother were huddled together. She sensed that something terrible had happened; she could feel it in her bones. Edith grew pale and blurted, “It’s a call-up for the labor camp.” Margot had heard rumors about what it meant to be called up by a government order. They had all heard the rumors. They would be told they would return, but most vanished and never did.