She was ten years old when she went to bed, 80 years ago, and when she woke up the next time, the world as she knew it had ended.
Did the bombs wake her up in the middle of the night?
Did her parents' exclamations wake her up?
Did she hear them turning the radio dial, get up, and wonder what happened?
Did her 14-year-old sister wake her up?
Or did she just wake up the next morning to learn that her country had been invaded?
She and her sister probably didn't go to school that day, although her father did go to work.
Her mother probably told her and her sister to "stay in the house, it's not safe to go out," and I'm guessing she was only too glad to comply.
For the next five days, she lived her life in uncertainty, not knowing what was happening or why, just knowing that her adopted homeland was under attack.
Five days later, the army surrendered.
Five years later, Anne Frank would be dead.
I've been listening to a day-by-day accounting of the World War II years on YouTube. The owner of the channel is a little bit behind due to unavoidable circumstances. :-) The person on the channel reads the day's headlines from the Chicago Tribune 80 years ago (he is a Chicago native) and then will play what would have been broadcast on the radio that day. He's played episodes of Fibber McGee and Molly, The Lone Ranger, and similar shows; he's also broadcast Presidential speeches and breaking news shows.
He's running a little bit behind due to unavoidable circumstances, but in a couple of weeks, he's going to be talking about 80 years ago today, May 10, 1940, which was the day Germany invaded the Low Countries, including the Netherlands, where Anne Frank and her family were living.
His day-by-day approach to recounting history makes me think of the day-by-day lives of people like Anne Frank and her family. We have the advantage of history and are able to see the entire story arc of her life and how it fits into history. She didn't have that advantage. All Anne knew was that one evening, she went to bed, and the next time she got up, the world as she knew it was over.
She didn't know that she'd be dead in five years, that she'd never get to grow up, marry, have children.
Anne could very well join in in singing our theme song:
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
And I feel fine!
Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.
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