With 500 square feet of space, there were only so many spots in the Secret Annex where Anne Frank could find some peace and quiet to be alone with her thoughts. Sometimes, she’d go upstairs to the attic, although the view of the outside world was often too distracting. If she wanted privacy, she’d grab a blanket and head downstairs to the “cozy” front office in Opekta, but only in the evenings or on the weekends when the employees weren’t around.
Anne’s absolute favorite place made the most sense for a writer: the desk in her bedroom. Unfortunately, she had to share it with Fritz Pfeffer, so her time was rather limited. The two fought bitterly over the desk, as Anne documented in her diary. She was even inspired to write a short story about it, “The Best Little Table.” In the dramatic nonfiction tale, she recounted their July 12, 1943 argument that began when the teen “politely” asked Fritz if she could use the desk two afternoons a week at 4 p.m. for 90 minutes. A reasonable request, his response was anything but: “I use that table and I’m not going to give it up!”
Although Anne was “seething with rage” at his rudeness, she knew she wouldn’t get anywhere with the temperamental man. That evening, she asked her father for guidance on how to deal with Fritz and he “cautioned me to wait until the next day, since I was in such a flap. I ignored this last piece of advice.” When she approached Fritz and asked him to reconsider her offer, “he leapt out of his chair as if he’d sat on a pin.” described Anne. “He went on and on until there was such a deluge of words I could hardly keep up…. At long last [his] fury was spent, and he left the room with an expression of triumph mixed with wrath.”
It was at that point Otto got involved to mediate the issue of the desk. After a 30-minute negotiation, Fritz gave in and a resolution was met-but he wasn’t happy about it. “I was granted the opportunity to work without interruption two afternoons a week,” Anne proudly announced to Kitty, “[Fritz] looked very sullen, didn’t speak to me for two days and made sure he occupied the table from five to five-thirty-all very childish, of course.”
