In addition to the supply of clothes and food, the Secret Annex needed more matters - such as fuel, electricity and gas. Body care required soap, cosmetics, medicines and bandages. It was also possible to bring flowers into the house on numerous festive occasions.

Fuels and energy

In early November 1942, the stove was lit in the Secret Annex for the first time,^[1] meaning there had to be fuel by then. Private coal consumption in Amsterdam was about 280,000 tonnes a year. An average household used about 1,200 kilos.^[2] As of 10 November 1941, the coal trade was subject to a system of customer loyalty through registration with a supplier.^[3] As tenants of centrally heated flats, the Frank and Van Pels families did not have to deal with this. Fritz Pfeffer, as a room tenant, could not bring coal rations to the Secret Annex, as they were valid only for a specific and officially rented room.^[4] Inevitably, the people in the Secret Annex took some of the coal supplies of Gies & Co. and Opekta.

Daily newspapers in autumn 1942 warned against heating too enthusiastically before it got really cold.^[5] In a diary kept by two Amsterdam sisters during the war years, they wrote on 1 December 1942 that their coal supplier had not had any anthracite for a month and they were therefore forced to burn pearl coke.^[6] During the first winter in hiding, there was already a clear shortage of fuel in Amsterdam.

In the 1943 St Nicholas poem, Peter van Pels was praised for fetching coal and chopping wood.^[7] In early February '44, as fears of an evacuation of the western towns grew, Anne wrote that there was plenty of coal and firewood available.^[8] In the same month, she wrote that Peter was chopping wood in the attic.^[9] By then, the second winter in the Secret Annex was coming to an end to some extent. Firewood could only partially replace anthracite because of its lower heating value. In March '44, Anne writes that "most people" had already run out of coal for a month.^[10] This claim gets support in the underground press.^[11] She did not address the situation in the Secret Annex. Assuming that the eight people in hiding together formed an average household, and in addition had to burn their rubbish, they had also burned about two thousand kilos of coal, so there must have been a regular supply of fuel.

The electricity consumption by the people in the Secret Annex was not great. They had not much more than a few lamps, a vacuum cleaner, probably an electric iron and, after July '43, a small radio. Heavier electrical appliances were in operation in the rest of the building. There were machines with a combined motor power of about 10 HP (7.45 kW) in June 1941.^[12] The machinery thus accounted for a significant proportion of the power consumption in the building. Anne's claim that a 14-day power cut was imminent^[13] cannot be correct, at least not in November '42. Such a sanction was not really possible until spring 1943 at the earliest.^[14] There is no reason to believe that this situation actually occurred.

The office kitchen had a gas water heater and a two-burner stove.^[15] In the Van Pels room there was a cooking facility, and given the baking by Mrs. Van Pels,^[16] one can assume that this included an oven. The water heater and the stove were used for bathing and laundry. There were gas stoves in the office rooms on the first floor.^[17] As with electricity, the gas ration in mid-1941 was set at 75 per cent of the same periods in the previous year, with a minimum of 60 m³.^[18]

Medicines, bandages and toiletries

Sanitary napkins, cotton wool and other bandages were among the textile goods that remained unaffected by rationing rules.^[19] There were shortages, though: Anne writes in autumn 1942 about sanitary napkins that were no longer available.^[20] Otherwise, the diary gives hardly any information about things like bandages and plasters. The Franks' Red Cross box was among the items stored with the Amende family, so it was not present in the Secret Annex.^[21]

Mrs Van Pels ordered various toiletries from Johannes Kleiman in October '42.^[22] Toothpaste 'and the like' were still being delivered in January '44, according to Anne.^[23] Nevertheless, she wrote that in May '43, she ran out of shampoo and washed her mother's hair with green soap.^[24] The lack of resources made hygiene increasingly difficult.^[25] As a rule, everyone in the Netherlands had to make do with about half the previously usual amount of soap.^[26] This general shortage of soap and the resulting national flea plague in 1943^[27] also affected the Secret Annex. Fritz Pfeffer was given a piece of 'air soap' once a month, and Anne accidentally kicked off a piece.^[28] One bar of soap a month was the usual amount provided under standard rationing.^[29]

A related hygiene problem occurred with Mouschi's litter box. He urinated next to his litter box when peat moss was no longer available for changing it.^[30]

Pfeffer was both the company's dentist and general practitioner. When treating Mrs Van Pels' teeth, he apparently used cologne as a disinfectant and petroleum jelly as a wax.^[31] Anne writes that he received a 'foot-operated drill' after some months, and therefore expected to undergo dental treatment soon.^[32]

During the war years, Bep Voskuijl's younger sister Willy worked at the pharmaceutical company Brocades Stheeman on Looiersgracht, incidentally a business associate of Otto Frank since 1933. Bep sometimes asked her sister for medicine, which later turned out to have ended up in the Secret Annex.^[33] Anne mentions in her diary the presence of biomals, valerian and codeine.^[34]

Flowers

Mrs Van Pels received red carnations from her husband on 29 September 1942, her birthday, chrysanthemums from the helpers and roses from the Frank family - Pfeffer did not arrive until November.^[35] As bulbous flowers were not allowed to be grown, chrysanthemums were the main alternative. Prices were high.^[36] At St Nicholas celebrations in December that year, the ladies received lots of flowers from the now three gentlemen.^[37] In that month, the Aalsmeer flower auction did operate, but due to heating bans and fuel restrictions, the only supply came from the 'cold greenhouse'. As a result, many sought-after varieties were not available.^[38]

In the spring of 1944, there were many complaints about flower dealers charging far too high prices.^[39] Nevertheless, Otto Frank received roses and carnations for his birthday on 12 May.^[40] A month later, Anne had a birthday and received lathyrus from Pfeffer, while Peter managed to get her a bunch of peonies.^[41] In those days, flowers were still products on which substantial profits were made.^[42] At thirty Amsterdam florists, the entire stock was confiscated and forcibly sold at set prices, but this windfall came just too late for Anne's birthday.^[43]

The energy and fuel supply in the Secret Annex depended entirely on the presence of Opekta and Gies & Co. in the premises. Coal allocations and power rations from the companies allowed the people there to stoke the stove and use energy without their own input - apart from a financial input.

Supplies of toiletries, medicines and related items sometimes depended on rationing, but all the more on the external contacts of the helpers. These contacts, in turn, were often related to the networks surrounding the companies.

The flowers served to boost morale, of course, but were ultimately a form of luxury. The regular supply of flowers shows that there was still financial room for such expenses throughout the period in hiding.