Anne Frank's Tales from the Secret Annex (17 page)

On 25 June 1947, Otto Frank wrote a single word in his day book: ‘
Boek
’ signified the publication date of the very first edition of his daughter Anne’s diary, entitled
Het Achterhuis
(The Back House) and printed in a small run of just 1,500 copies to gauge public response.

Since that first publication, nearly 40 million copies of Anne’s diary have been published in 70 languages. Interest in Anne Frank doesn’t seem to wane. In March 2010 readers of the
Daily Mirror
, in an online poll carried out to mark the centenary of International Women’s Day, voted Anne Frank the most inspirational and influential woman of the last 100 years, coming way ahead of such luminaries as Mother Teresa, Princess Diana and Emmeline Pankhurst.

Anne was certainly not the saintly figure of her portrayal in some of the more sentimentalized, dramatic interpretations that have appeared over the decades. She was a real teenager, lashing out in frustration at the failings – as she perceived them – of the adults hiding with her.
However, she certainly developed a strong moral code and maturity during her years of hiding, demonstrated perhaps most clearly within these pages in the story
Give!

The lasting interest and inspiration of Anne Frank’s diary is due not only to the continuing relevance of her writing, expressing the hopes, fears and concerns of a child entering the turbulent world of adolescence, but also of the vision and tenacity of a loving father, Otto Frank, who, despite having come through the hell of Auschwitz, was determined that his daughter’s diary should be used as a ‘force for good’.

Reading Anne’s diary and her stories, and learning about her life, all help young people to understand what it feels like to be the victim of irrational hatred whether it be directed at a person’s race, religion, skin colour, a particular accent, sexuality or even a chosen way of dressing. Through their understanding and personalising of the story of a persecuted teenager, young people – who are facing moral dilemmas every day of their lives – can be encouraged to reflect on the injustices they see around them.

Finally, there is a message of hope to impart to young people. But it is not in the often quoted, out-of-context line near the end of Anne’s diary, in which she states, ‘I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart,’ because of course some of the people she had the misfortune to encounter were not good at heart and there is no happy ending to Anne’s life, only unimaginable cruelty, pain and suffering. The message of hope is that one person can make a difference: Otto
Frank’s determination to have Anne’s diary and these tales published, together with travelling exhibitions about her life and the preservation of her hiding place, which millions of people have visited, lead us to learn how not to hate.

Gillian Walnes MBE
Co-founder and Executive Director
The Anne Frank Trust UK
www.annefrank.org.uk