Diary of Anne Frank 65 years in print

It is 65 years ago today that the diary of Anne Frank first appeared in print. On 25 June 1947, Anne’s father Otto Frank – the only one of the eight people in hiding in the Secret Annex who survived the extermination camps – simply noted in his diary: ‘Book’. Later he said of that day: ‘If she had been here, Anne would have been so proud.’

Otto returns to Amsterdam

After the liberation of Auschwitz, Otto returns to Amsterdam. On the journey back he hears of the death of his wife Edith. He hopes that his daughters Margot and Anne are still alive, but then he learns that they too have not survived the war. The helper Miep Gies gives him Anne’s diary papers, which she has kept in her desk drawer since the arrest of the people in hiding. In the diary Otto reads that after the war Anne wanted to publish a book about her time in hiding. She had even rewritten a large part of her original diary. Otto Frank hesitates at first, but he finally decides to fulfil his daughter’s wish.

Newspaper article: ‘A child’s voice’

Otto Frank types out Anne’s diary, and it finds its way via a number of different contacts to Jan and Annie Romein, both historians. Jan Romein is deeply impressed, and writes an article about Anne’s diary that appears on the front page of the Dutch newspaper Het Parool on 3 April 1946. ‘For me, all the hideousness of fascism is embodied in this apparently insignificant diary of a child, more than in all the Nuremberg court documents put together’, he writes. A number of publishers become interested. ‘The Secret Annex: Diary letters from 14 June 1942 to 1 August 1944' is published by Contact publishers of Amsterdam on 25 June 1947 in an edition of 3,000 copies.

Deep thoughts and feelings

Otto Frank later recalled what he felt when he read the diary for the first time: ‘I began to read slowly, only a few pages each day, more would have been impossible, as I was overwhelmed by painful memories. For me, it was a revelation. There was revealed a completely different Anne to the child that I had lost. I had no idea of the depths of her thoughts and feelings.'

Worldwide

After the first Dutch edition in 1947, Anne’s diary is published in Germany and France in 1950. An English translation follows in 1952. The book has currently been translated into seventy languages.

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Otto Frank collection acquired

The Anne Frank House has acquired an important collection of letters, photos and documents relating to Otto Frank, the father of Anne Frank. The collection originates from the estate of the actor Joseph Schildkraut, who corresponded with Otto Frank in the early 1950s in preparation for his role as Otto in the stage version of Anne’s diary.

The collection includes a number of unique letters and documents concerning Otto Frank’s attempts to emigrate to the USA with his family before they went into hiding. The Anne Frank House was able to acquire the collection thanks to a contribution from the BankGiro Lottery.

The diary of Anne Frank became especially popular in the USA after it was adapted into a stage play. Otto Frank, the only one of the eight people in hiding in the ‘Secret Annexe’ to survive the war, was closely involved in the creation of the play. In the correspondence between Otto Frank and the actor Joseph Schildkraut, Otto answers questions that Schildkraut has in preparation for his role. The correspondence forms an important source for the history of the creation of the play and its success in the USA, and provides a wealth of information on the Frank family and the period in hiding. The collection also includes photos of the Frank family, the Van Pels family and Fritz Pfeffer (the other people in hiding in the Secret Annexe), and the helpers Johannes Kleiman, Victor Kugler, Bep Voskuijl and Miep and Jan Gies.

Emigration attempts

The estate of Joseph Schildkraut also contains letters and documents of Otto Frank that Nathan Straus, a good friend of Otto Frank from the USA, gave to Schildkraut to help him prepare for his role. In a letter from 1936, Otto writes to Nathan that his children are doing well, but that the threat of the Nazism is also tangible in the Netherlands. There are also various documents, including a letter from Otto to Nathan from 1941, which concern Otto Frank’s attempts to emigrate to the USA with his family. These letters and documents are the bitter testimony to the hopeless situation in which the Frank family found itself.

Valuable addition

Among its other activities, Anne Frank House curates the Otto Frank archive. The archive contains letters on the publication of the diary and the creation of stage plays and films, correspondence of Otto Frank with readers of the diary, documents connected with legal actions against neo-Nazis and documentation on the history of the Anne Frank House. The collection from the estate of Joseph Schildkraut is a valuable addition to the Anne Frank House’s archives.

BankGiro Lottery

The Otto Frank collection that has been acquired originates from the estate of Joseph Schildkraut, whose widow, Leonora Schildkraut, consigned it to the auction house, Doyle New York. With the mediation of Doyle New York, Leonora Schildkraut withdrew the collection from the auction, and the Anne Frank House was able to acquire it thanks to a contribution from the BankGiro Lottery.

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