CHAPTER TWO
Sunday, 21 June 1942
Everyone at school is waiting to hear what happens next. Who will move up a class, and who will stay down? We’re all trying to guess! I think my girlfriends and I will be OK, though we’ll have to wait patiently to find out.
Most of my teachers like me, but old Mr Keesing gets angry with me because I often talk too much! He made me do some extra homework and write about ‘Someone Who Talks Too Much’.
Wednesday, 24 June 1942
It is so hot! Yesterday I had to walk to the dentist’s from school in our lunch hour. I wish that we could go on a bus or a train, but of course us Jews are not allowed to do that. It was so far that I nearly fell asleep afterwards in the afternoon. They were kind at the dentist’s, though, and gave me something to drink.
I wish I didn’t have to go to school. I’m glad it’s nearly the summer holidays; one more week and our suffering will be over!
But something amusing happened too yesterday. A boy called Hello Silberberg asked me to walk to school with him. Hello is sixteen, and tells lots of funny stories. He was waiting for me again this morning.
Wednesday, 1 July 1942
I haven’t had time to write until today. Hello and I know each other quite well now. His parents are in Belgium. He came to Holland alone, and is living with his grandmother. He had a girlfriend called Ursula, but now that he’s met me, he’s not interested in her any more. I know her too – she’s very sweet and very boring!
Hello came over on Sunday evening. He told me that his grandmother doesn’t like our meetings. But on Wednesday nights, his grandmother thinks that he goes to woodwork lessons – he doesn’t, so he’ll be free to meet me! And he said that he wants to see me on Saturdays and Sundays too!
‘But if your grandmother doesn’t want you to meet me, you shouldn’t do it behind her back!’
‘Everything’s allowed in love and war!’
Hello visited us yesterday to meet my Father and Mother. We had a big tea, and went out for a walk together later. It was ten past eight when he brought me home. Father was very angry because it is so dangerous to be out after eight o’clock. I promised to come home by ten to eight in future.