The Best Birthday Present 🎁
In her diary entry from June 1942, Anne Frank beautifully recalled her arrival in the Netherlands, a moment of profound joy and a testament to her parents’ love. After her father, Otto, and mother, Edith, had relocated to Amsterdam, her older sister, Margot, was the first of the girls to join them, arriving in December [1933].
Anne followed a few months later, in February [1934]. She recounted her arrival in a delightful, characteristic way: she was “plonked down on the table as a birthday present for Margot.”
This simple, vivid detail shows the kind of warm, imaginative family life the Franks had built. Instead of a traumatic move, Anne’s arrival was turned into a charming, memorable celebration, a physical gift to her big sister. This memory, written years later from the confinement of the Secret Annex, is a poignant reminder of the loving, playful atmosphere that defined her earliest years in Amsterdam, a stark contrast to the darkness that would soon follow.
