Anne Frank Essay, Research Paper

In the early to middle 1940+s the Jews in Europe were persecuted by Adolph Hitler and +The Green Police,+ solely for being Jewish. People who helped the Jews in any way were also persecuted and sent to concentration camps, where they, along with the Jews, were starved and eventually died. The Frank and Van Daan families were two of very few that survived almost to the very end. Mr. and Mrs. Frank, Anne and Margot, Mr. and Mrs. Van Daan, Peter, and Mr. Dussel made up +the family,+ that secretly lived in the Annex above an office building for more than two years, avoiding persecution. Although they appear to be typical human beings, Mr. and Mrs. Van Daan had some personal characteristics that only became evident after living in the Annex for quite a while. After living with the same people for a while, a natural reaction is to treat them like you would your family: talk the same, express your emotions the same, treat them as if they were one of you. Mr. Van Daan, a stout, portly man in his late forties, became rude to everyone after he properly adjusted to +hiding.+ He treated Anne and the rest of +the family+ as if they were scum, always talking down to them. Through the context that Mr. Van Daan spoke, it became obvious to the reader that he was a +bully,+ one who could never blame himself, but could always blame others. Besides the fact that Mr. Van Daan was terribly rude, he was also a heavy smoker, which didn+t help how +the family+ felt about him. Mrs. Van Daan, in particular pointed out that smoking was a filthy habit and that is was the cause for her husband+s bad temper. Naturally, Mr. Van Daan+s stubbornness got the best of him, and he continued to smoke. Mr. Van Daan was by far the most selfish person in +the family.+ He was so glutton, that late at night, he would sneak out to the kitchen to steal food. He always wanted more than his share, whether or not it was at someone else+s expense. Mr. Van Daan was extremely ungrateful, as well. He was always looking at the negative side of things, becoming frantic in foreign situations. He never showed gratitude towards the Frank+s, Miep, or Mr. Kraler for the various aids they provided.

Unlike Mr. Van Daan, Mrs. Van Daan showed that thought she was better than everyone else from the beginning. She was more or less classified as a snob. She was basically just the kind of woman you would love to hate. Her bragging was endless. Whether it was about how nice her legs were, or about her many high school romances, Mrs. Van Daan never failed to annoy Anne, especially through her flirtatious ways. One of the many negative traits that Mrs. Van Daan possessed was her over protectiveness of Peter and also how she loved to baby him. At fifteen, Peter was still being teased about girlfriends and other nonsense by his mother. Mrs. Van Daan never really gave Peter the freedom he needed to live his own life, nor showed him the love he needed. Together, Mr. and Mrs. Van Daan made an odd couple. They were almost complete opposites, but they did possess a few common characteristics. For one, both Mr. and Mrs. Van Daan strongly dislike Anne and her intelligence. Maybe they felt +put under a microscope,+ because Mrs. Van Daan does mention that whatever anyone says, Anne always managed to jot down. The Van Daans were also depressingly negative. They were always looking on the down side of the situation. You might say that they were being somewhat realistic, though. On the outside, the Van Daans were normal people, but on the inside, they were just as much a mess as anyone. Unfortunately, August 4, 1944 marked the day that +The Green Police+ raided the secret annex and +the family+ was split up and sent to different concentration camps. Mrs. Frank and Mr. Van Daan were the first to die at Auschwitz, followed by Margot, Mrs. Van Daan and then Anne at Bergen-Belsen. Peter died in Mauthausen, the same day that American troops liberated the camp. After being sent back to Germany, Dussel died in Neuengamme. Mr. Frank was the only member of +the family+ to survive.