The people in the Secret Annex were engaged in a variety of activities. These could be related to housekeeping, furnishing the Secret Annex or supporting the businesses in the building. Apart from keeping themselves busy, the work was also of economic importance to the businesses: the people in hiding had no other income, and it helped the businesses work more efficiently. This work was divided between helping with administration on the one hand and manual work on the other. The survival of the businesses was important for income, but also for the continuity of the hiding place....

Work in the home

Practical work was mainly carried out by Hermann and Peter van Pels. When only the Frank family remained in the Secret Annex, Margot caused a short circuit with the vacuum cleaner. As a result, they were without electricity until the next day.^[1] Otto Frank apparently did not know where the fuse box was or how to change a fuse. When there was another short circuit after the Van Pels family arrived, this time in a desk lamp, 'the gentlemen' did go to the warehouse and the lights came back on immediately.^[2]

It was also Van Pels who built a pantry in the attic. Peter built all kinds of things in the attic. For the bed in his room, Kleiman provided a spring, which Peter then used to make the bed base.^[3]

Peter and Anne also did simpler chores, such as decorating their rooms and pasting up pictures.^[4] Mrs Van Pels was mainly the one who cooked and baked.

Fritz Pfeffer was a doctor and dentist. In the Secret Annex, he treated the teeth of the others there.^[5] When Anne had flu, she was also examined by Pfeffer.^[6] She also describes Pfeffer as "the eternal worker".^[7]

Opekta and Gies & Co.

Especially in the early days, Anne wrote repeatedly about office work and 'work downstairs'. She made debtor lists with her father and sorted out a messed up card index with Margot. They also had to keep a sales book, which Anne said her father would do.^[8] Bep gave Anne and Margot a lot of office work.^[9]

In early '43, there was a note about packing powdered cooking gravy for Gies & Co. Anne became giddy and laughed at the dull chore.^[10] Otto Frank and Hermann van Pels had been forced out of the companies, but they were still involved in them. They were angered by Victor Kugler, whose experiments were jeopardising relations with the Westermann and Heijbroek firms.^[11] When Pomosin executives came from Frankfurt to discuss supplies, Otto Frank overheard the conversation.^[12] In his 1971 address to Yad Vashem, he stated that Kugler deliberately withheld part of the turnover from the books in order to finance the people in hiding.^[13] It is an obvious conclusion that people in hiding and businesses helped each other reciprocally.