Annexed Blog Post- Story of Anne Frank's Lover

Annexed, by Sharon Dogar, tells the story of Peter Van Pels, a teenager who hid in "the Annex" with Anne Frank and her family during World War II. I read Anne Frank's diary a few years ago. Reading a story that describes the experiences in the Annex in a different point of view was quite interesting to read about. What horrified me most in the book was the experiences people had in the concentration camps.

After being sent to Auschwitz, the largest concentration camp, Peter Van Pels, Otto Frank, Anne Frank's father, and Hermann Van Pels, Peter's father, were exposed to the horrors of concentration camps. Although many Jews were abused physically, I felt that most people truly died from the devastation and traumatic events that took place in these camps.

Our clothes have gone, our hair has gone-our names have gone. We are numbers now. (pg. 291)

Very often, Jews were required to strip off their clothes and bear the cold winter days, naked. When I first read this line, it seemed insignificant to me. But as the book progressed, Peter, in a desperate attempt to survive, stole others' possessions to use for bartering with soldiers and other Jews. If he found something worth some money, he was able to trade it in for more food. He tried to convince others that if they gave him their possessions, he would supply them with food to sustain themselves. He was deceitful and manipulative. He went against all of his morals and almost lost his sense of humanity. When Peter had to strip his clothes, it was as if he was stripping away his identity. 

When is it okay to steal? Peter often asked himself this question. Is it ever okay to steal? When you're an inch away from death, is stealing still bad? When I first tackled these questions, I thought that maybe it was okay to steal if you were in a desperate situation. But I then realized that it's never okay to steal. To save your own life and "deprive" someone else of survival is self-fish. It is a sin. As the book crept closer to Peter's death, he felt remorse for what he had done. He wished he had never stole from innocent victims and tricked them. He died, hoping for forgiveness.