Otto Frank took his colleagues and employees at work into his confidence, and they all helped him prepare the upper rooms (at the back of the building where his business was situated) as a hiding place for his family. Items of furniture, bedding, and kitchenware — in fact, everything needed for a regular household — were taken there, little by little, so as not to arouse the attention or suspicion of anyone who was not a party to the pre-planned secret move. After the Franks had moved into the secret hiding place on July 8, 1942, a bookcase was attached to the door leading to the annexe so that the entrance was concealed. The "Secret Annexe" was a reality.
Throughout the two years that the Franks were in hiding, Mr. Frank was a pillar of strength for the group. It was he who tutored Anne, Margot, and Peter, it was he who always tried to soothe members of the group when tempers flared up and nerves were frazzled, and it was he who consoled and encouraged Anne and, presumably, the other members of the group, when the strain of being cooped up, in hiding, and under nightly bombardment became almost too much for them to bear. He readily shared his hiding place with another family, the Van Daans, and later on with another man, Mr. Düssel, even though this meant that the Franks' own living conditions were even more cramped and their food rations far more limited than before.
When the Nazis discovered the hiding place, all the members of the group, together with the two business associates who had been helping them, Mr. Koophuis and Mr. Kraler, were taken to Gestapo headquarters. Mr. Frank told Mr. Koophuis how bad he felt, knowing that his friend was being imprisoned for helping him. Mr. Koophuis told him not to give it another thought, that it had been his decision and he would not have done anything else. The group traveled together, without their Gentile helpers, by train to the reception camp at Westerbork. Although conditions there were bad, the families were still together, so their spirits were not too low. They knew the possibility of deportation to Poland existed, and they were aware of what happened at Auschwitz, Treblinka, Maidanek, and other concentration camps. On the other hand, they knew that the Allies were advancing and that the Russian Army was already deep in Poland, so that if luck were on their side, they might survive until the war was over.
