Anne Frank's diary and her stories are the main source for the daily schedule in the Secret Annex. The B version and the stories do require the caveat that there is a strong compositional element involved. Otto Frank and the helpers gave further insight, in various statements after the war, into how the people in the Secret Annex filled their days. In particular, the presence and absence of staff in the office and warehouse determined the difference between weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays. However, it is difficult to establish whether certain routines remained the same during the 25 months of hiding, or whether significant shifts occurred.

Weekdays

An undated entry from Anne's diary, assumed to be from March 1944, describes an 'Anne Frank's daily schedule' on weekdays. In it, she details what such a day looked like. There may be scepticism about its accuracy. For instance, 'getting dressed from seven thirty-eight to seven fifty-five' does sound very detailed for something so mundane. That everything in the Secret Annex followed strict schedules, however, is plausible. According to this 'daily schedule', Anne got up around seven-thirty and then woke her father.^[1]

The Van Pels family's alarm clock rang earlier: at a quarter to seven, after which Hermann van Pels put on water and went to the bathroom. At a quarter past seven, Fritz Pfeffer, meanwhile also getting up, went to the bathroom. Anne then darkened their room. At eight, it was her turn for the bathroom.^[2] Breakfast was taken in the van Pels family room between nine and nine-thirty.^[1]

In her story Wenn die Uhr halb neune schlagt, Anne describes the morning routine of the people in the Secret Annex. It all comes across as a fairly well-oiled machine. Everyone did what needed to be done, and made sure it was quiet again between eight thirty and nine. This prevented the warehouse staff from noticing anything. This was followed by breakfast. Anne, however - the only one - had had a plate of porridge earlier, which the Van Pels family had prepared.^[3]

From one o'clock to a quarter past one, they listened to the radio. Then they ate until ten to two. At two o'clock they listened to the Wehrmachtsbericht.^[4] At five-thirty, when the company closed, Bep came to give them their 'freedom'.^[5] At noon, the helpers came to eat soup.^[6]

In general, all of them went to bed fairly early. When Jan and Miep Gies came to stay one night in October 1942, despite the festive mood, the lights went out at eleven o'clock.^[7]

Saturdays

On Saturdays, the office and warehouse worked in the morning, as was customary at the time. This affected the freedom of movement of the people in hiding. On Saturday afternoon, the curtains in the front office closed, which meant they could move around the offices reasonably freely. Saturday was also the day Miep brought library books,^[8] and Anne twice describes visits by Mrs Kleiman on Saturdays.^[9] The Saturday evening Anne listened to the German variety show on the radio.^[10]

Sundays

The prime source for these details is the story Sunday. On Sundays, the rhythm in the Secret Annex was different from other days. Almost everyone slept in, with only Pfeffer getting up at eight.^[4] Breakfast was late; not until 11.30.^[4] It was also the day they had a bath. Anne quotes on 17 November 1942 the 'Prospectus and guidebook' that Hermann van Pels had made on the occasion of Pfeffer's arrival: 'Baths: On Sundays from 9 o'clock the bathtub is available to all housemates. One can bathe in the W.C., kitchen, private office, front office, all as desired.'^[11]

Besides 'bath day', Sunday also was household chores day. Anne writes the following about this: 'When other people are wearing nice clothes and walking in the sunshine, we here are scrubbing, sweeping and washing.'^[4] Then, in this story, Anne describes how everyone in the Secret Annex was busy until two o'clock with all kinds of household chores, such as washing clothes, shampooing the carpet and scrubbing the bathroom. The accessibility of the office kitchen on Sundays was obviously related to this.

Interestingly, despite the great boredom that Sunday brought, Anne wrote on this day more often than not. This at least applies to the surviving A-version. Whether it was the same in the lost 1943 volumes, we obviously do not know.

Anne on weekends

Anne regularly felt miserable at weekends. Her writings show that she found those days only tedious.^[12] In the early days, Anne writes that she listened to the radio every Saturday night, 'but it gets duller every time.'^[10] By March 1944, only Peter could cheer her up on the weekends.^[13] She writes: 'Although it is Saturday I am not bored! That's because I was in the attic with Peter.'^[14]

Although Anne commented negatively on both days of the weekend, she thought Sunday was the worst. Nobody came over, so there was no distraction and at the same time they had to be extra quiet for the neighbours. Otherwise, Sunday was actually a day when a lot happened in the house. Because there were no staff in the warehouse, the house could be cleaned properly. From about two o'clock in the afternoon, peace returned, followed by sleep. Anne writes: 'It's really not nice to see only sleepy faces in the afternoon between 2 and 4 wherever you go.'^[4]

She also found it an ordeal to watch Pfeffer pray early on Sundays. She got giddy from his wiggling back and forth, she writes in her storybook.^[4] In the B version, she notes on 22 December 1942 that she was irritated by his early gymnastic exercises next to her bed: it gave her a headache.^[15]

The role of helpers

Within the daily schedule of the Secret Annex, the helpers had a clear function. Miep fetched a shopping list in the morning, and delivered what she could get in terms of meat and vegetables in the afternoon. Bep provided milk and bread. At lunchtime, everyone from the office would drop by, and often eat a cup of soup with them. In any case, Bep ate with the people in the Secret Annex every afternoon.^[16] Jan Gies also dropped by to have lunch with Miep. He then visited the people in the Secret Annex and, according to his wife, sometimes stayed for about ten minutes, sometimes half an hour.^[17]

The helpers brought news from outside. Jan Gies, Victor Kugler and Jo Kleiman often stopped by to discuss political developments. Kugler, in particular, emerged from Anne's notes as the 'final person in charge'. It was he who at one point locked the premises at night and took all necessary measures. The premises were rented at that time by Gies & Co, of which company he was director. As part of the Secret Annex routine, the helpers also provided much-needed distraction.

As can be seen, the daily schedule in the Secret Annex was very much determined by external factors. The working hours of Opekta and Gies & Co. greatly influenced the rhythm by which the people there had to live. The - sometimes unexpected - presence of outsiders also played a role. Finally, the rather regimented housekeeping was an imperative element. It was within these frameworks that the people in hiding lived. In her diary, Anne of course often describes the worries in the building, since her entire life took place here. Over time, the daily schedule was subject to change due to, among other things, voucher shortages and illness of helpers. Still, the sources we have are mainly snapshots, about which no overly detailed conclusions for the entire period can be drawn.