tuesday, may 16, 1944

my dearest kitty, just for a change (since we haven't had one of these in so long) i'll recount a little discussion between mr. and mrs. van d. last night:

mrs. van d.: "the germans have had plenty of time to fortify the atlantic wall, and they'll certainly do everything within their power to hold back the british. it's amazing how strong the germans are!"

mr. van d.: "oh, yes, amazing.

mrs. van d.: "it is!"

mr. van d.: "they are so strong they're bound to win the war in the end, is that what you mean?"

mrs. van d.: "they might. i'm not convinced that they won't."

mr. van d.: "i won't even answer that."

mrs. van d.: "you always wind up answering. you let yourself get carried away, every single time."

mr. van d.: "no, i don't. i always keep my answers to the bare minimum."

mrs. van d.: "but you always do have an answer and you always have to be right! your predictions hardly ever come true, you know!"

mr. van d.: "so far they have."

mrs. van d.: "no they haven't. you said the invasion was going to start last year, the finns were supposed to have been out of the war by now, the italian campaign ought to have been over by last winter, and the russians should already have captured lemberg. oh no, i don't set much store by your predictions."

mr. van d. (leaping to his feet): "why don't you shut your trap for a change? i'll show you who's right; someday you'll get tired of needling me. i can't stand your bellyaching a minute longer. just wait, one day i'll make you eat your words!" (end of act one.)

actually, i couldn't help giggling. mother couldn't either, and even peter was biting his lips to keep from laughing. oh, those stupid grown-ups. they need to learn a few things first before they start making so many remarks about the younger generation!

since friday we've been keeping the windows open again at night.

yours, anne m. frank

what our annex family is interested in (a systematic survey of courses and readina matter)

mr. van daan. no courses; looks up many things in knaur's encyclopedia and lexicon; likes to read detective stories, medical books and love stories, exciting or trivial.

mrs. van daan. a correspondence course in english; likes to read biographical novels and occasionally other kinds of novels.

mr. frank. is learning english (dickens!) and a bit of latin; never reads novels, but likes serious, rather dry descriptions of people and places.

mrs. frank. a correspondence course in english; reads everything except detective stories.

mr. dussel. is learning english, spanish and dutch with no noticeable results; reads everything; goes along with the opinion of the majority.

peter van daan. is learning english, french (correspondence course), shorthand in dutch, english and german, commercial correspondence in english, woodworking, economics and sometimes math; seldom reads, sometimes geography.

margot frank. correspondence courses in english, french and latin, shorthand in english, german and dutch, trigonometry, solid geometry, mechanics, phys- ics, chemistry, algebra, geometry, english literature, french literature, german literature, dutch literature, bookkeeping, geography, modern history, biology, economics; reads everything, preferably on religion and medicine.

anne frank. shorthand in french, english, german and dutch, geometry, algebra, history, geography, art history, mythology, biology, bible history, dutch literature; likes to read biographies, dull or exciting, and history books (sometimes novels and light reading).