Anne Frank

Moortje redirects here.

There are four cats named in The Diary of Anne Frank - Moortje, Mouschi, Moffie (Boche) and Tommy. Image File history File links File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Trinomial name Felis silvestris catus (Linnaeus, 1758) Felis silvestris catus The cat, also called the domestic cat or house cat, is a small carnivorous mammal of the subspecies Felis silvestris catus. ... The cover of the UK edition shows Annes first diary notebook The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank was published in Dutch in 1947 (and in English in 1952), using extracts from the diary she kept while in hiding during the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands. ...

Moortje

Moortje was Anne Frank's cat that she had to leave with neighbours (who Anne refers to as "Toosje K.") when she went into hiding with her family to escape Nazi persecution of Jews on July 6th, 1942. Anne said that Moortje was female in a letter but others contradict this^{[citation needed]}. The Frank family first got Moortje in early 1942. Several people, including Anne's friends Jacqueline van Maarsen and Eva Geiringer commented on the fact that Moortje was an exceptionally good-natured cat that loved to be picked up and cuddled, and van Maarsen remarks in her book "Anne and Jopie" that Moortje would even placidly accept tub baths from Anne, remarkable for any cat. Anne Frank Her handwriting, translated: This is a photo as I would wish myself to look all the time. ... Neighbourhood is also a term in topology. ... The Annexe was the original title of the diary of Anne Frank. ... Selection at the Auschwitz camp in 1944, where the Nazis chose whom to kill immediately and whom to use as slave labor or for medical experimentation. ... July 6 is the 187th day of the year (188th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 178 days remaining. ... This article is about the year. ...

Moortje is a traditional Dutch name for black cats. Miep Gies, in her book "Anne Frank Remembered", says that the cat the family had when Anne was only eight or nine years old was also named "Moortje". Possibly it was, though Gies does state in her preface that she remembers these events of "more than fifty years ago" to the best of her recollection. Gies also describes the Frank family as "cat people", and admired a charcoal drawing of a mother cat and her two kittens displayed in the Frank home. Many years later, Otto Frank made a present of this charcoal drawing to Miep Gies, herself a cat lover. A tradition is a story or a custom that is memorized and passed down from generation to generation, originally without the need for a writing system. ... The black cat in a fighting stance is a historically important anarchist symbol. ... Miep Gies, 1945 Hermine Miep Santrouschitz-Gies (born February 15, 1909, Vienna) is one of the Dutch citizens who hid Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis during World War II and preserved Annes diary to be published later. ... Anne Frank Remembered DVD cover Anne Frank Remembered is a 1995 documentary film, made by Jon Blair, about the life of the diarist Anne Frank. ... Otto Frank Otto Heinrich Frank (May 12, 1889 - August 19, 1980) was the father of Anne Frank. ...

Anne makes several references to Moortje in her diary including in her very first entry in the diary on 12 June 1942: The cover of the UK edition shows Annes first diary notebook The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank was published in Dutch in 1947 (and in English in 1952), using extracts from the diary she kept while in hiding during the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands. ...

"On Friday, June 12th, I woke up at six o'clock, and no wonder; it was my birthday. But of course I was not allowed to get up at that hour, so I had to contain my curiosity until a quarter to seven. Then I could bear it no longer, and went to the dining room, where I received a warm welcome from Moortje (the cat)."

Anne wrote about the day the Frank family went into hiding (and the day she left Moortje behind):

At seven-thirty we too closed the door behind us; Moortje, my cat, was the only living creature I said good-bye to. According to a note we left for Mr. Goldschmidt, she was to be taken to the neighbours, who would give her a good home. - written 8 July 1942 about events that happened on 6 July 1942.

One month later she writes in her diary about how much she is missing Moortje:

"I miss Moortje every moment of the day and no one knows how often I think of her; whenever I think of her I get tears in my eyes.

Moortje is such a darling and I love her so much, I dream up all sorts of plans in which she comes back again..." - 12 July 1942.

And later in the year:

""There's always a tiny black cat roaming around the yard, and it reminds me of my dear sweet Moortje. - 1 October 1942.

And in a comment added much later:

I can also understand my homesickness and yearning for Moortje. The whole time I've been here I've longed unconsciously and at times consciously for trust, love and physical affection. This longing may change in intensity, but it's always there. - 22 January 1944.

Homesickness is generally described as a feeling of longing for ones familiar surroundings. ...

Other cats

The cover of the UK edition of The Diary of a Young Girl which shows Anne's first diary

Anne Frank's diary makes mention of three other cats: Image File history File links Diary. ... Image File history File links Diary. ...

• Mouschi - a stray young male cat brought into the Secret Annexe by Peter van Pels, whom Anne calls Peter van Danne.
• Moffie - a warehouse cat, also male, described by Miep Gies as a "big, fat black-and-white tomcat with a slightly battered face." According to Miep: "A Moffen was a biscuit in the shape of a fat little pig. … our cat was known to steal food from other houses in the neighborhood, just as the Germans were doing with our food." The Dutch used the term Moffen to refer to the Germans. In English translations of the diary, this cat is called Boche (a French First World War nickname for the Germans) though Anne never used this name. Early translations struggled to find an adequate translation for Moffie. Moffie disappears during the Frank family's time in the Annexe.
• Tommy - (again a nickname - after Tommy representing the British), used to have fights with Boche and had run away before Anne began her diary.

Peter van Pels (November 8, 1926 – c May 5, 1945), was a German Jewish refugee who hid with Anne Frank and six other people in the Secret Annexe on the Prinsengracht, Amsterdam, during the Nazi Occupation of the Netherlands, and who died in the Mauthausen concentration camp. ... Miep Gies, 1945 Hermine Miep Santrouschitz-Gies (born February 15, 1909, Vienna) is one of the Dutch citizens who hid Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis during World War II and preserved Annes diary to be published later. ... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... A nickname is a short, clever, cute, derogatory, or otherwise substitute name for a person or things real name (for example, Bob, Rob, Robby, Robbie, Robi, Bobby, Rab, Bert, Bertie, Butch, Bobbers, Bobert, Bobadito, Robban, (in Sweden), is short for Robert). ... Tommies from the Royal Irish Rifles in the trenches during the First World War. ...

See also

• Anne Frank House

The canal-side façade of the former Opekta building on the Prinsengracht in 2002. ...

Bibliography

• The Diary of Anne Frank: the Revised Critical Edition - ISBN 0385508476
• Anne Frank Remembered: the Story of the Woman who Helped to Hide the Frank Family, by Miep Gies with Alison Leslie Gold - ISBN 0671662341
• The Footsteps of Anne Frank by Ernst Schnabel, R. Winston (Translator), C. Winston (Translator) - ISBN 0330029967
• Anne Frank: A Biography by Melissa Muller, Rita Kimber (Translator), Robert Kimber (Translator) - ISBN 0747545235
• Roses from the Earth: Biography of Anne Frank by Carol Ann Lee - ISBN 0140276289
• Anne and Jopie by Jacqueline van Maarsen

External Links

• Anne Frank House
• A study of Anne Frank, her diary and the people around her
• The Index of Famous Cats
• Anne Frank as a child recounted by her friend's mother