Welcome to Check this out! Podcast4kids and their grown ups where we explore people, places, ponderings and past moments from history that shape the world around us. My name is Amy Contreras, and I’m Cece.
Today is part 2 of our episodes on Anne Frank, the amazing girl who live in hiding with her family from the Nazis during world war 2 and documented her entire experience in her diary. She is part of our newest series on
Cece: Women Who Changed the World
I mentioned at the end of part 1 that we would be having some guests to help us talk about Anne Frank and her experience. I’ll introduce them in a moment. First, let’s see what you remember about Anne Frank from part 1. You know what that means, its lightning round time!
True or False Anne was given her diary as a hanukkah gift when she was 12 years old.
The answer is false, anne was gifted the red and white checkered diary on her 13th birthday in June of 1942
The Frank Family weren’t the only Jewish people who hid in the secret annex from the nazis. Who else was in hiding with them?
- A group of 6 jewish school children
- Another Family with 2 adults and 2 kids
- Another family as well as a single adult
The answer is C, the Van Pels family moved in with their 17 year old son Peter, and a single man named Fritz Pfeffer also was in hiding with the frank family.
True or False the frank family went into hiding because Otto Frank was summoned to a labor camp in germany
The answer is False. Anne’s older sister Margot received a summons to a camp in Germany and the franks went into hiding the next day.
What country did Anne Frank live in when her family went into hiding?
- Germany
- The Netherlands
- France
The answer is B, her family lived in Amsterdam, a city in the netherlands.
Last question.
How do we all know about the diary of Anne Frank today?
- Her father otto frank survived WW2 and published her writings
- When Anne was an adult she sold her diary to a book publisher
- The Nazi forces found her diaries and put them in a museum
The answer is A. Otto Frank, anne’s father was the only person who hid in the secret annex who survived WW2. One of the helpers who supported the Frank family and others while they were hiding found Anne’s diary and kept it safe. It was returned to Otto Frank after the war.
Part 1 on Anne Frank covered a lot, great job refreshing your brain on everything we already talked about!
Well to help me with telling you more about Anne Frank and her diary I have my friends Andrea Fischlowitz and Mika Weiss here to help us. Thank you for being here with us as we talk about Anne Frank, her Diary, her life, and the world she grew up in.
Introduce themselves
Mika and Andrea, you have family who survived the holocaust, correct?
- Andrea/Mika yes Mika’s great grandparents lived in Hungary and survived the concentration camps.
Thank you for being with us as we talk about Anne Frank and her diary.
Mika, would you share a quote from Anne Frank’s diary with our listeners?
Mika: Sure, here is one about her time living under Nazi rule. Anne Frank wrote "I long to ride a bike, dance, whistle, look at the world, feel young and know that I'm free, and yet I can't let it show. Just imagine what would happen if all 8 of us were to feel sorry for ourselves or walk around with the discontent clearly visible on our faces. Where would that get us?"
Thanks Mika. Remember Anne Frank was only 13 when her family moved into the secret annex with the Van Pels family and Fritz Pfeffer. She experienced growing up in a tight space where all these people were on top of each other and they couldn’t even go outside to get fresh air!
Cece:What?
Yea! They didn’t go outside the entire time they were in hiding!
Anne Frank hoped to be a journalist some day, and after time in the annex she got the idea she’d publish a novel about her time in hiding from the Nazis. She began to re-write her diary in May of 1944, one that was less private and was geared towards eventually publishing it. But her original diary showed so much of who she was. Mika will you share another quote from anne’s diary with us?
Mika: "Writing in a diary is a really strange experience for someone like me. Not only because I've never written anything before, but also because it seems to me that later on neither I nor anyone else will be interested in the musings of a 13-year-old schoolgirl." June 20, 1942
Thanks Mika. That was even before she moved into the secret annex.
I mentioned she wrote about her first love in her diary. While living in the secret annex, young Anne Frank fell in love with the older boy, Peter Van Pels, who was also in hiding with his family. She wrote a lot about him in her diary.
Anne Frank sometimes addressed her diary entries to an imaginary friend she called “Dear Kitty”. Dear Kitty started appearing in her diary in September of 1942, a couple of months after the family had gone into hiding. She liked writing in her diary as though she was writing back and forth with another person.
Anne’s diary was made into a play that was on Broadway it won both the Tony Award for best play and the Pulitzer Prize for best drama. It was also made into a movie in 1959.
Anne Frank, her family, the Van Pels, and Fritz Pfeffer didn’t step outside one time during the 2 years they were in hiding. Her diary was her outlet to express herself. It was hard to live in such close quarters with her family and the others in the secret annex.
Mika: "I've asked myself again and again whether it wouldn't have been better if we hadn't gone into hiding; if we were dead now and didn't have to go through this misery, especially so that the others could be spared the burden. But we all shrink from this thought. We still love life, we haven't yet forgotten the voice of nature, and we keep hoping, hoping for...everything." May 26, 1944
This was just a couple of months before the Frank family was discovered by the nazis. Her diary was often hopeful, but also expressed her frustrations and longing to live outside of hiding. She fought with her mom a lot, and was frustrated with her often. One of her diary entries said
Mika: "Have my parents forgotten that they were young once? Apparently, they have. At any rate, they laugh at us when we're serious, and they're serious when we're joking." March 24, 1944
Anne’s diary is one of the most widely read accounts of the Jewish experience during World War 2 and the Holocaust. On August 4, 1944 the family’s hiding place was discovered by the Gestapo (German Secret State Police). All 8 people hiding in the secret annex were arrested, along with two of the helpers. They were all sent to Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Poland.
A quote from Anne’s diary shows the fear of being caught the 8 people in the secret annex lived in
Mika: I see the eight of us in the Annex as if we were a patch of blue sky surrounded by menacing black clouds. . . . [They loom] before us like an impenetrable wall, trying to crush us, but not yet able to. I can only cry out and implore, “Oh ring, ring, open wide and let us out!”
After being sent to Auschwitz concentration camp with her family, in October of 1944 Anne and her sister Margot were moved to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. While there, both Anne and her sister, Margot, got a sickness called typhus in the spring of 1945 and died.
Cece: How sad
Otto Frank, Anne’s dad, was the only person who lived in the secret annex that survived the concentration camps and the holocaust. One of the original secret annex helpers Miep Gies found Anne’s diary and writings and hid them from the Nazis. When she returned Anne’s diary documents to Otto Frank she told him ‘This is the legacy of your daughter Anne.’
One of Anne’s final entries in her diary has a quote that I love
Mika "It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart." July 15, 1944
Anne Frank changed the world by honestly documenting her experiences as a jewish teenager under Nazi rule during a time when it was dangerous just to be Jewish. Her observations, dreams, and thoughts strike a chord with lots of people around the world because even when she lived in unbelievable circumstances she still experienced so many things we can all understand. While most of us don’t have any idea what its like to live in hiding for over 2 years and never go outside. Many of us do understand the things she wrote about like her first love, fighting with her mom and family, dreams of life outside of wartime, and hopes for the future.
I encourage you to check out the diary of Anne Frank at the library with your grownup and read about her experiences. Because this episode only scratched the surface of World War 2, the Holocaust, and the lives of the people impacted by the war. Remember at Check This Out we encourage you to take your learning into your own hands! Be curious, ask questions when you learn about moments from history, and seek out additional information and stories!
Now, you know we don’t just love talking about people, places, and past moments from history
Cece: We also love to rhyme
Here is a poem we wrote for you about anne frank - Mika would you mind reading it for us?
MIKA: In the secret annex where the Franks had to hide,
Anne wrote in her diary with hope as her guide.
She had dreams of peace and a world after war
Her diary pages were filled with thoughts, stories, and yearning for more
Though times were tough and Nazi forces loomed tall,
Her courage, writing, and spirit still inspire us all.
Thanks for listening to another episode of Check this out! Here at the “check this out” podcast we know there is a lot of information and it can be overwhelming to find accurate information! This podcast is a tool for you to help you do something called “citing your sources”. As you get older and do projects for school you’ll learn that certain types of websites or information sources aren’t verified or have evidence and documentation to back them up. On “check this out” we use verified sources to build the stories you hear about.
Verified sources are materials or information that have been confirmed for accuracy, and credibility through an evaluation process! Our sources for this week's episode are anne frank house, encyclopedia britannica, the diary of anne frank book, history.com and womens history.org
Cece: Thanks for listening, see you next episode!
