“We were caught in a vicious circle of unpleasantness and sorrow. Not a very happy period for either us, but at leasst it's coming to an end.”

“Looking back, I realize that this period of my life has irrevocably come to a close; my happy-go-lucky, carefree schooldays are gone forever. I don't even miss them. I've outgrown them. I can no longer just kid around, since my serious side is always there.”

“Once again St. Nicholas DayHas even come to our hideaway;It won't be quite as fun, I fear,As the happy day we had last year.Then we were hopeful, no reason to doubtThat optimism would win the bout,And by the time this year came round,We'd all be free, and safe and sound.Still, let's not forget it's St. Nicholas Day,Though we've nothing left to give away.We'll have to find something else to do:So everyone please look in their shoe!”

“We jumped for joy. After the awful events of yesterday, finally something good happens and brings us...hope! Hope for an end to the war, hope for peace.”

“I see the eight of us in the Annex as if we were a patch of blue sky surrounded by menacing black clouds. The perfectly round spot on which we’re standing is still safe, but the clouds are moving in on us, and the ring between us and the approaching danger is being pulled tighter and tighter. We’re surrounded by darkness and danger, and in our desperate search for a way out we keep bumping into each other. We look at the fighting down below and the peace and beauty up above. In the meantime, we’ve been cut off by the dark mass of clouds, so that we can go neither up nor down. It looms before us like an impenetrable wall, trying to crush us, but not yet able to. I can only cry out and implore, “Oh, ring, ring, open wide and let us out!”

“We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same.”

“I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.”