Anne In Lockdown  

Lots of people have heard of Anne Frank. She was, and still is, an inspiration. Though we are stuck indoors at the moment, it is not like what Anne and everyone else in the Annexe experienced. But there are some things that are the same – East Asian people are being discriminated against and abused, just because the pandemic started in China. In China, black people are being banned from shops and bars, because people think they carry the virus more than anyone else. All around us, people of different colours and religions are being mistreated and discriminated against even more than usual and that prompts me to think:  

“How would Anne Frank deal with the Covid–19 pandemic?”.  

 

Anne’s Lockdown Blog 

27 April 2020 
16:07 

The novelty of lockdown has long since worn off. I long to be free from these walls, this house that holds me a prisoner. I want to run, sing, jump, play, meet up with friends, go on a picnic and everything else that I’m not allowed to do. I’m a teenage girl, for heaven’s sake! This is meant to be the part of my life when I can socialise, where I can meet up with friends, where I should be on a shopping spree followed by a cinema visit, but instead I’m in a pokey little house with seven other people who are arguing over who gets to pick the TV channel. What a joyous year. 

You may wonder why we are hosting so many people in our home. Don’t worry, we’re not breaking any rules. Four of the eight of us are my family, the Franks. There’s me, my sister Margot, my mother Edith and my father Otto. We agreed to let the Van Daans stay in our house for two weeks whilst their house was having a renovation. Then lockdown was announced, and Mrs Van Daan decided it was too dangerous to go outside, Now, no–one else can go outside because of her paranoia. Dussel, our dentist, is here because before lockdown he moved out of his now ex–girlfriend’s house. Then, out of pity and politeness, Pim (Father) offered a place to stay for a couple of nights. Then lockdown was announced! It’s all down to bad timing.  

I think I’ll go now- the arguing is making it hard to concentrate. I think I’ll join the row, just to make things a little more interesting …  

Bye,  

Anne  

28 April 2020 
17:26  

Home–schooling is tedious. Our school is setting MOUNTAINS of work, but there isn’t a timetable and there are NO virtual lessons. I don’t know when half the pieces are due, so I write on my blog or do some reading, and then I suddenly remember about my work. I don’t get any sleep, since I work well into the night, and Mother scolds me about being lazy and irresponsible. I’m way better at getting work done than most of my friends- well, some, anyway. My friend Jacques doesn’t do it at all and comes up with the most ridiculous excuses! Her mum chooses to believe them and emails the school with an even crazier excuse- I wish Mother was like that.  

Home–schooling isn’t the only monotonous part of lockdown. So is everything else. Eating the same old breakfast, having the same old conversations because we’ve already talked about EVERYTHING, doing the same old walks. Our whole day is repetitive, dull and UNBEARABLY boring. Except on Sundays. On Sundays, everyone makes an effort to shake things up, to be friendly, to be kinder. My Sundays are usually spent texting Cassie and Sharon- they are both Chinese, so lots of people won’t talk to them. It’s horrible that people are being discriminatory to people for no good reason. The amounts of rude texts and notes that Cassie and Sharon have received is unbelievable and also horrible. They’ve received things like: “Go back to Wuhan, Corona Cassie!”, and worse things, like: “There’s no room for you in our country. We all want you gone, so stop spreading your diseases and leave!”. 

I was shocked when Sharon received this text, because I know that some people a.re racist, but the whole community? I’m not sure wha.t’s going on. I’m going to go and figure it out now.  

Bye!  

Anne  

 

1st May 2020 
14:57  

I know I haven’t been writing for a few days. You can’t blame me, too much has been going on!  

I think I’ve worked out why people are being so horrible to Cassie and Sharon. People are living in fear of this pandemic. They don’t want to be anywhere near anyone carrying it. Tha.t doesn’t make it okay for them to assume all Chinese people have it, or for them to be racist, prejudiced and absolutely vile. None of this is okay. People think they are so entitled, like they are so superior, like rules don’t apply to them. They spend every second of the day worrying about the pandemic, but then they think  

”I think I’ll go for a nice long walk far away!”.  

Don’t they realise it’s not about individual risk? That by breaking lockdown rules, they a.re endangering not only themselves, but others around them?  

Earlier today, something horrible happened. It’s easier to show you than to explain. 

 

Anne 
Hi there! 

 

Cassie 
Anne, there’s something we need to tell you_  

 

Sharon 
Our Mum says we have to block all our 
contacts except family members. She says she 
doesn’t want us to receive any 
more hateful texts. Sorry.  

 

So that’s what happened. People’s hateful words have prevented me from being able to talk to my two amazing best friends, led my friends to believe there’s something wrong with them AND made lockdown even worse. I hope you’re happy, haters. 
Goodbye,  

Anne 

Anne would not have wanted this to happen. Even if she wasn’t the one being discriminated against, she would have felt miserable. We shouldn’t be prejudiced. Please, just think before you act. 

-by KATIE, aged 11

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