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Indeed Anne Frank and many others in the Netherlands listened to the BBC broadcasts on a daily basis in spite of the harsh penalties that would be meted out if caught. However, there is also was a daily radio broadcast from England under the auspices of the Dutch government in exile, "Radio Oranje". It was on one of those broadcasts that Anne Frank heard one of the Dutch cabinet ministers encourage people in the occupied territory to keep diaries. These daily shortwave broadcasts in Dutch played an extremely important role in strengthening the resistance movement. It was also the only source which gave accurate reports on the movements on the battle fields. To those of us in hiding it gave hope that there was light at the end of the tunnel in spite of the long length of that tunnel. In addition to these broadcasts from England, Radio Moscou would transmit daily in Dutch and report on the situation in the Soviet Union and in a lesser manner on the Allied advances in Africa, Europe or the Far East. None of these broadcasts reached the Netherlands without interference by the Germans. Often the interference was so severe that it was hard to make out what the announcer was saying. On those days, we would listen to the French language broadcast from the BBC only which would be interfered with in France only and come across loud and clear in the Netherlands. >Anne Frank's group certainly listened to the BBC in hiding, as her diary >indicates, and if I recall correctly, it was the BBC's appeal to the >significance of such diaries being kept during the war that led her to >undertake revisions in the interest of the historical record. > >Froma I. Zeitlin >Dept of Classics >Princeton University >Princeton NJ 08544 >609 924 3020 (home), 609 258 3957 (office; secy: 3951 or 6201), 609 258 >1943 (fax) > > Louis de Groot louis@california.com
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