Eva's Story Read Online Free

supper but I was always reluctant to leave and would protest loudly – after all, some children were still outside after eight! – but Pappy insisted that I was not to be out later than supper time. Unlike Mutti, I was not gentle and docile: I had inherited Pappy’s strong character and he enforced many ‘house arrests’ on me for stubbornness. I was so brimful of verve and energy that I always wanted to be outside in the thick of things.
    In time I began to make special friends. I developed a crush on Suzanne Lederman. She had luminous violet eyes, peach skin and thick dark plaits that reached halfway down her back. I hung around her all the time but she wanted to be with two lively girls called Anne and Hanne. This selective group of three went around together. We nicknamed them Anne, Hanne and Sanne because they were an inseparable trio, each of them a little more sophisticated than the rest of us – more like teenagers. They did not want to join in with our childish games and would sit together watching us and giggling over the boys, which I thought was silly. They were always looking at fashion magazines and collecting pictures of filmstars.
    I could look across to Suzanne’s bedroom window from my room and sometimes we would send messages to one another. One warm Sunday afternoon when I was sitting with Suzanne on the steps of our apartment, she confided in me how much she admired her friend Anne Frank because she was so stylish.
    It was quite true. Once, when Mutti had taken me to the local dressmaker to have a coat altered, we were sitting waiting our turn and heard the dressmaker talking to her customer inside the fitting room. The customer was very determined to have things just right.
    â€˜It would look better with larger shoulder pads,’ we could hear her saying in an authoritative tone of voice, ‘and the hemline should be just a little higher, don’t you think?’
    We then heard the dressmaker agreeing with her and I sat there wishing I was allowed to choose exactly what I wanted to wear. I was flabbergasted when the curtains were drawn back and there was Anne, all alone, making decisions about her own dress. It was peach-coloured with a green trim.
    She smiled at me. ‘Do you like it?’ she said, twirling around.
    â€˜Oh, yes!’ I said breathlessly in great envy. I was not up to that standard! Anne appeared so much more grown-up than me, even though I was a month older. She attended the local Montessori school and was a whole year ahead of me in her school work.
    Anne’s apartment was opposite ours in the same square. I often went over there because I wanted to be near Suzanne. The Franks also had a large tabby cat that purred appreciatively when I picked it up. I longed to fondle a pet of my own but Mutti firmly refused to allow me one. I would wander into the sitting room to cuddle the cat and find Mr Frank watching me with amused eyes. He was much older than Pappy and very kind. When he realized how little Dutch I knew he always made a point of talking to me in German. Mrs Frank would prepare lemonade for the children and we would sit drinking together in the kitchen.
    Heinz had developed a crush on two girls, both of whom lived in the same square as us. One, Ellen, was a Jewish immigrant like ourselves but the other, Jopie, was a pretty Dutch blonde. I resented the attention he paid them – in fact, I did not like the idea of my brother paying attention to any other girl. I became quite jealous. After all, I was his little sister and I was intensely proud of him, of his musical gifts and brilliant mind. Apart from this nothing much else troubled me. Spring was here and I loved Amsterdam where my life was at last returning to normal.
    10 May 1940 German invasion of Holland and Belgium
    We had thought that we were safe living in Holland and were settling down to enjoying our new life when, to everyone’s shock, the Nazis invaded