This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

Sunday, 7 November 1942

Yesterday was Peter’s birthday, he was sixteen. He had some nice presents. Among other things a game of Monopoly, a razor, and a lighter. Not that he smokes much; it’s really just for show.

The biggest surprise came from Mr. Van Daan when, at one o’clock, he announced that the British had landed in Tunis, Algiers, Casablanca, and Oran. “This is the beginning of the end,” everyone was saying, but Churchill, the British Prime Minister, who had probably heard the same thing in England, said: “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” Do you see the difference? There is certainly reason for optimism. Stalingrad, the Russian town which they’ve already been defending for three months, still hasn’t fallen into German hands.

But to return to affairs in our secret den. I must tell you something about our food supply. As you know…

by Winston Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965)
quoted by Anne Frank (June 1929 – March 1945)
in The Diary of a Young Girl
image – Mark Strozier

Tags: Beginnings, Ending, Progress
Posted in Anne Frank, Winston Churchill

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