The Boy With The “beautiful brown eyes”
Does the name Peter Schiff ring a bell?
Well probably not, but what if I told you that this young boy was written about in one of the most widely read books in the world, it has been translated into 67 languages, it is the legendary journal of a young Jewish girl that was hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam during World War II for 25 months in the confines of the Secret Annex above her fathers office until she, her family and friends were betrayed to the Nazis and were found, arrested and deported to concentration camps where she died at the tender young age of 15 of typhus at Bergen-Belsen.
Would you have any idea who I am talking about now?
In case you don’t, then I will tell you. This young boy with “beautiful brown eyes” is the “one true love” that Anne Frank wrote about in her diary and through the years millions have wondered about.
Anne had fallen for the boy when she was just 11 years old and to her “Peter was the ideal boy: tall, slim and good-looking, with a serious, quiet and intelligent face”
I suppose the attraction was mutual because according to school friends they would walk hand and hand home from school.
Anne saw Peter for the last time a few days before moving to the Secret Annex and she never forgot him because she wrote about him 1½ years later.
Unfortunately they both died in 1945, Anne in Bergen Belsen concentration camp and Peter in Auschwitz.
I think it is such a sad story, sort of a modern day Romeo and Juliet if you will. And the sadder part is that this world seems not to have learned anything from the horrors of World War II because the same things still go on to this day even though people swore that it could and would never happen again!
The photo of Peter Schiff was donated to the Anne Frank museum by his former childhood friend Ernst Michaelis who recently realized that there were no known pictures of Schiff and contacted the museum.
I myself have always been fascinated with Anne Frank and her diary. I have also been to the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam many times and of course with this new discovery they will surely see me there again! My advice to you is that if you visit Amsterdam this is a Thumbs Up Must See.
As you walk through the Secret Annex it as though you can still to this day feel their presence and fear…or at least I do!
Only known photo of Peter Schiff
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Anne Frank
That’s all for me today, see you back again tomorrow for more…
JabberWocky!
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