From this, and other remarks which Anne makes, we know that she and the other members of the group in hiding knew what was happening to the Jews on the outside, to a greater or lesser extent. There was a radio in the office, and they would creep downstairs at night and listen to the BBC broadcasts, so that they had a fairly good idea of what was going on.
The windows of the "Secret Annexe" allowed its inmates to see something of what was going on in the streets outside, and on December 13, 1942, Anne writes, "I saw two Jews through the curtain yesterday; it was a horrible feeling, just as if I'd betrayed them and was now watching them in their misery." The members of the group of "protectors" (or helpers) also brought eyewitness accounts of what was happening to Jews outside.
Every sudden, unexplained noise, every real or imagined break-in by burglars, and every stranger who visited the office and the warehouse was a continuous source of fear and concern for the people in the "Secret Annexe." There were several occasions when they sat up all night, afraid to make a sound, fearing that they had heard some-one moving around downstairs.
The Allies' air raids on Amsterdam, the anti-air cannon fired by the Nazis, and the aerial dog-fights between Nazi and Allied aircraft in the sky also constituted a source of alarm for the group in hiding. The building was old and could easily catch fire. For that reason, they had each prepared a small bag of basic necessities to grab in case they had to leave the building in a hurry. But that, of course, was the greatest danger, as it involved their worst fear of all: discovery by the Nazis.
