preview

A Private Diary to a Public Novel: Anne Frank

Decent Essays

A Private Diary to a Public Novel Anne Frank, like many people during World War II, kept a diary. However, her diary went on to become one of the most famous, most read books about the Holocaust (Histoy.com Staff). How did it happen that Anne’s personal diary turn into the most widely read account of the holocaust? Miep Gies found the diary after Otto, Edith, Margot, and Anne Frank, along with the Van Pels family, and Fritz Pfeffer were arrested. After the war, when Otto returned to Amsterdam and found that he was the only survivor, Miep gave him Anne’s diary (annefrank.org). Otto read his daughter’s diary. He was shocked to find, how different the Anne that he had know as his daughter was from the Anne that the read about (Frank). In the diary, his daughter’s biggest wish became clear to him: to become a famous writer. Otto decided to publish his daughter’s diary, and fulfill Anne’s wish (Anne Frank's Diary Is Published). Since its publication in 1947, it has been translated into 67 different languages, and has sold more than 30 million copies (Conradt). And even people such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Nelson Mandela, and John F. Kennedy have read Anne Frank’s diary. However, this book started out as a 13-year-old girl’s personal diary. On 4 August 1944, the Frank family, the Van Pels family, and Fritz Pfeffer are arrested, and taken away. The Germans took everything in the Secret Annex, but they left the most valuable thing behind, Anne’s diary (Frank, Pressler). Shortly

Get Access