The last entry before Anne's fourteenth birthday contains news from the outside world relating to an air battle between German and British planes. The group also learns about strict new regulations concerning Dutch university students which have been imposed by the Nazis. Anne also mentions the fact that the group in the "Secret Annexe" must burn its vegetable peelings and refuse every other day, even though the weather is quite warm, because they must not put anything in the garbage pails for fear that even this might lead to their discovery. She remarks: "How easily one could be betrayed by being a little careless!" (May 18, 1943). This innocent remark is bitterly ironic in view of the group's eventual fate.
The air raids continue to be as frightening as usual, but Anne and the others find relief in nervous laughter at the comical remarks of Mr. Düssel, especially when Mrs. Van Daan goes downstairs to Mr. Düssel's room, ". . . seeking there the rest which she could not find with her spouse," and Düssel receives her with the words, "Come into my bed, my child!"
Anne remarks, "This sent us off into uncontrollable laughter. The gunfire troubled us no longer, our fear was banished!" (May 18, 1943).
This first year of Anne's diary has been eventful, to put it mildly. From being a normal Dutch girl going to school and having fun with her' friends, she has been forced to go into hiding and to be shut up with another seven individuals, unable to go outside, and live as other youngsters do. Apart from the problems which she experiences in her relations with her mother and her sister — problems which are fairly normal for any adolescent — she is also obliged to contend with the problems of being confined in a rather small area with a group of people who generally irritate and annoy her.
