August 1: Anne’s Last Entry

Anne Frank made her last entry into “Kitty,” her diary, on this date in 1944, after two years in hiding. “I’m what a romantic film is to a profound thinker,” she complained, “— a mere diversion, a comic interlude, something that is soon forgotten: not bad, but not particularly good either. . . . My lighter, more superficial side will always steal a march on the deeper side and therefore always win. You can’t imagine how often I’ve tried to push away this Anne, which is only half of what is known as Anne — to beat her down, hide her. But it doesn’t work, and I know why. I’m afraid that people who know me as I usually am will discover I have another side, a better and finer side. I’m afraid they’ll mock me, think I’m ridiculous and sentimental and not take me seriously. I’m used to not being taken seriously, but only the ‘lighthearted’ Anne is used to it and can put up with it; the ‘deeper’ Anne is too weak.” Therefore, she continued, her “deeper” self “is never seen in company,” but would be fully present, she concluded moodily, “if only there were no other people in the world.” Three days later, she and her family were discovered in their “secret attic.” Anne Frank died in Bergen-Belsen in March, 1945. “I have a reputation for being a boy-chaser, a flirt, a smart aleck and a reader of romances. The happy-go-lucky Anne laughs, gives a flippant reply, shrugs her shoulders and pretends she couldn’t care less. The quiet Anne reacts in just the opposite way.” —Anne Frank, August 1, 1944 Watch the only film footage of Anne, looking out a window before the war: