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🗓️ 4 August 2025
⏱️ 25 minutes
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August 4, 1944. Jewish teen Anne Frank and her family are discovered by the Gestapo after two years in hiding in a “secret annex” behind her father’s business in Amsterdam. This episode originally aired in 2022.
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0:30.9 | It's 10.30 a.m. on August 4th, 1944, in Amsterdam, five years into World War II. |
0:38.2 | On the ground floor of a storefront on the banks of the city's canal, workers in a nondescript warehouse tend to the day's affairs. |
0:42.0 | Food is rationed in Amsterdam's tightly controlled economy, |
0:44.5 | but the Opecta Company is open for business, |
0:48.1 | selling fruit powder gels for Dutch housewives to turn into jam. |
0:50.4 | On the floor above the warehouse, |
0:53.7 | employees sit at desks and handle the business's clerical tasks. But inside their office |
0:55.4 | lies one part of the company's building that they never venture into. At the very back of the |
1:00.2 | room is a bookshelf, and behind it is the entrance to a secret. And it's there, tucked away from the |
1:06.8 | bustle of the business's operations, that Otto Frank, the company's director, hides from view. |
1:12.6 | Otto is a Jew, and in Nazi-occupied Holland, that makes him an enemy of the Third Reich. |
1:18.3 | So for the last two years, Otto and his family have hidden here inside this small, secret annex. |
1:24.7 | Day after day, Otto lives and works in silence. He keeps his steps light and his |
1:30.0 | voice low, and he always stays clear the window. But today, the usual quiet is interrupted. |
1:37.1 | From downstairs, Otto hears the sound of loud, menacing voices. He listens as they echo |
1:42.2 | through the stairwell below, followed by the creek of swinging |
1:45.4 | hinges, and then the sound of people thudding up the stairs. Then he watches in horror as the |
1:51.1 | door to the annex swings open. Otto recoils as an officer in a crisp black uniform raises |
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