Anne Frank

‘Het Actherhuis” (The Diary) was the title of the first edition of Anne Frank’s (pronounced “Anna” by her family and friends) “novel”, which she dreamed of publishing after the war. The idea for a novel about her wartime experiences was first suggested while listening to a BBC radio broadcast in which the commentator encouraged listeners to submit their recollections when the war finally ended. The diary was written in what Anne called “the annexe” (sic), the secret rooms at Prinsengracht 263 where the Frank family and four others hid from Nazi occupation troops from 1942-1944. By now, Anne Frank’s story is known worldwide; but actually it is not just her story.

On July 6, 1942 Otto Frank took his family into hiding. As it was, eight people (Otto Frank; his wife, Edith; daughters: Margot and Anne; business associate Hermann van Pels; Hermann’s wife and son: Auguste and Peter; and neighbor Fritz Pfeffer) from the moment they hid until August 4, 1944 they did so in virtual plain view.

The details are known to many; the legend to most; the diary to all. First published in 1947, Anne’s diary was first translated into English in 1950 in Great Britiain and in America in 1952 under the title “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.”  Since then it has been translated into 67 languages worldwide. Although there is no sure way to know, estimated sales of the book top 100,000,000 copies. After 68 years, the youthful image of a smiling child has become synonymous with the plight of European Jews during the World War II.  The Soviet writer IIya Ehrenburg wrote of Anne Frank: one voice speaks for six million—the voice not of a sage or a poet but of an ordinary little girl. President John Kennedy once said: Of all the multitudes who throughout history have spoken for human dignity in times of great suffering and loss, no voice is more compelling than that of Anne Frank.

Dedicated in 1960 as a museum, the Anne Frank House attracts approximately one million visitors per year making it perhaps the single-most popular tourist destination in Holland. The living quarters of the Anne Frank House is completely devoid of furniture just as Otto found it when he finally returned to Amsterdam. (It was of interest to me that Otto allowed furniture to be placed in the annex long enough for photos to be taken and models to be created. He wanted the public to know what their lives were like but he wanted the house left barren to visitors.)

To read Anne’s account of two years in close quarters is to know with great detail the daily interactions of the eight people. However, much like the eight people, hidden in plain view between the lines of the journal is the struggle of a young girl trapped in a nightmare not of her own creation. She held little back. It should be noted that Otto initially insisted that certain portions of the original diary be removed. He edited such things as Anne’s growing sexuality and Anne’s descriptions of Otto and Edith’s marital discord. Although Anne used pseudonyms for people in the house (except herself), Otto restored the true identities of his family. Only until recently have full and unabridged versions of Anne’s diary been available to the public.

Standing: Kleiman and Kugler 

Seated: Bep, Otto, and Miep

Anne’s story reached an abrupt end when Dutch agents of the German occupiers, working from an anonymous tip, raided the house and arrested the eight occupants as well as Johannes Kleiman and Victor Kugler (both charged with “helping Jews”. Kleiman and Kugler were imprisoned and released upon liberation by Allied forces.) The agents failed to recognize the contributions of two women, Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl, neither of whom were arrested. Once alone, Miep and Bep returned to the annex where they found Anne’s diary strewn about the floor. (Anne had begun revising her diary and had compiled multiple loose pages, which Miep and Bep found.) The women collected the papers before efforts to empty the house would have guaranteed that Anne's diary was lost to humanity.

Anne's diary

Upon Otto’s return to Amsterdam after the war, he was given the things Miep had salvaged including Anne’s diary. Before the arrest, Otto knew of the diary. In fact, Anne asked him to hold it for her every evening, thinking it was safe with him. Otto promised never to read it. He once wrote: I didn’t have the strength to read it. He never did, until he was convinced that his daughter was dead. 

It must have been a revelation when he read Anne’s entry from 30 October 1943, which included: I model myself after Father, and there’s no one in the world I love more. He doesn’t realize he treats Margot differently than he does me: Margot just happens to be the smartest, the kindest, the prettiest and the best. But I have the right to be taken seriously too…I am no longer satisfied with the meaningless affection or the supposedly serious talks.  I long for something from Father that he’s incapable of giving…It’s just that I’d like to feel that Father really loves me, not because I’m his child, but because I’m Anne.

Otto once said, “It took me a very long time before I could read it. And I must say, I was very much surprised about the deep thoughts that Anne had, her seriousness, especially her self-criticism. It was quite a different Anne than I had known as my daughter. She never really showed this kind of inner   feeling. She talked about many things, criticized many things, but what her real feelings were, that I could only see from the diary.”

Otto, Margot, and Anne Frank, circa 1930

Otto summed up his personal tragedy when he said, “Most parents don’t know, really, their children.”