A Teenage Life on the Brink
In May 1942, just weeks before her family went into hiding, Anne Frank wrote a letter to her cousin Bernd to wish him a happy seventeenth birthday. The letter, a charming glimpse into her teenage world, reveals a girl whose life was filled with school holidays, social outings, and the small dramas of youthful romance.
Her days were “great” and she was “busy every day,” a testament to her vibrant and social nature. She casually mentioned that she wouldn’t be home until ten o’clock, and that she was “usually escorted home by a young man,” a detail that shows a teenager living a normal life, a life of freedom that was about to be taken from her. She even inquired about Bernd’s girlfriend and gossiped about her sister Margot’s boyfriend, who was “even younger than mine.”
The letter, filled with lighthearted details about her social life and her love for going to the movies with her father, is a heartbreaking contrast to the reality that was about to unfold. She apologizes for the short letter, writing that she doesn’t “have any time anyway because I’m going with Father to a film show.” This small detail is a poignant reminder of the precious, ordinary moments of her life.
This letter to her cousin is a powerful testament to the person Anne was before her world changed forever. It shows a girl who was full of life, love, and a charmingly ordinary innocence, a girl who, in a beautiful and terrible irony, was living her final weeks of freedom.