2 Broken glass

Chapter 2 Broken glass At the start of the new school term. Anne and Lies walked to school together as usual. Anne curled and twirled her hair around her fingers as she talked, casting smiles at the boy beside them. "Anne Frank!" exclaimed Lies in a loud whisper. "You are such a flirt." "No, I'm not," Anne giggled. "Then stop looking at that boy." "But he's looking at me!" Anne retorted. "Besides, I can't help it if he likes me." "You just love people paying you attention," said Lies, laughing. Anne felt she was having the best year ever. For her, 1937 was a golden time. She had a throng of friends, girls and boys, and there

were family trips to the lakes and to Switzerland, to see their cousins. But as time passed, fear began to lurk at the back of Anne's mind, much as she tried to crush it. Aged nine, she overheard scraps of terrifying news from the grown-ups* conversations. They whispered about friends in Nazi Germany who had been rounded up and taken away to work in places called concentration camps. No one had heard from them since. Words like Kristallnacht- "Night of broken glass"- rang in her head. Anne knew that on Kristallnacht, Jews in Germany had been beaten up and the windows of Jewish-owned shops and homes had been smashed in. The dark streets had glittered like a nightmare with shards of broken glass. Safe in Amsterdam, the Franks tried to lead a normal life. But, the following year, 1939.

Edith was more worried than ever. "First Hitler invaded Poland, now Britain's declared war on Germany. It might be us next. What will happen then?"

"Send the girls to us," wrote Otto's cousin Milly, from England. "I know we're at war, but if you think it's the least bit safe, please send the children here." But although Edith and Otto discussed it, they decided to stay together as a family. "We couldn't bear to part with the girls," Otto wrote back. "They mean too much to us." The following May. Anne and Margot had their photographs taken as usual. Anne spent

a happy afternoon sticking the photos into her album. She studied them carefully. Now she was eleven, Anne took her appearance very seriously. She longed to look glamorous. Beside each one, she scribbled a note...

But, later that night, she couldn't sleep. The air was filled with a strange droning noise. She looked at her clock. It said four in the morning. The next moment there was a massive explosion, followed by another and then another. Anne raced into her parents' room. "What's happening?" she cried. Her parents were standing with Margot, staring out of their bedroom window. Anne went to look too. A swarm of planes was streaming across the sky. In the distance, fires burned and the smell of smoke seeped in through the open window. Otto put his arm around Anne and held her close. "They're German planes, Anne," he said. "Hitler's invading."