New 'novel' edition of Anne Frank diary is 'what she wanted'

Photo taken in 1940 shows Anne Frank at the age of 12 years, sitting at her desk at the Montessori school in Amsterdam - Getty Images Fee
Photo taken in 1940 shows Anne Frank at the age of 12 years, sitting at her desk at the Montessori school in Amsterdam - Getty Images Fee

For seven decades, the diary of Anne Frank has given the world an intimate and moving account of daily life under Nazi occupation through the eyes of a Jewish schoolgirl in hiding.

But now, the actual account the teenage girl herself had wanted published in novel form has been released for the first time.

The book, called Liebe Kitty - or Dear Kitty, named after the imaginary friend she wrote to - is published only in Germany, Austria and Switzerland due to copyright laws. It has been welcomed as a fascinating insight into the literary aspirations of the talented schoolgirl.

It differs subtly from the version of her diary - translated into more than 60 languages - that is so well known today and was published after her father, Otto, merged her original diary, started when she was 13, with the more polished version she had worked on before she was captured by the Gestapo.

Her father was the only member of the Franks who survived the Holocaust after the family was discovered hiding in the secret annexe of the house in Amsterdam in the Netherlands in August 1944. Anne died aged 15 of typhus in Bergen-Belsen, shortly before prisoners in the camp were liberated by British troops in April 1945.

Otto Frank with his daughters Anne and Margot - Credit: Imogen Brown /Big Apple
Otto Frank with his daughters Anne and Margot Credit: Imogen Brown /Big Apple

It is often been thought Otto Frank’s role as editor of the version he created from those two scripts and sent to publishers 75 years ago may have been unwittingly influenced by his paternal feelings.

Frank had in fact been inspired to write a novel version of her diaries after hearing an announcement broadcast by the BBC in March 1944 by the exiled Dutch education minister who urged citizens to preserve documents as a lasting testimony to the horrors perpetrated by the Nazi regime during the occupation.

That BBC appeal encouraged Anne to pursue more rigorously her literary ambitions. So began her attempts to edit the diaries, removing tracts she felt too personal or mundane while honing her skills as a young writer.

“Her great dream was to become a famous author and journalist,” explained Maatje Mostart from the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, which worked with publishers, Secession Verlag, on releasing Liebe Kitty.

“There are a number of differences between her original diary texts on the one hand and the manuscript of her ‘novel’ on the other.”

A photo taken on January 1, 1942 and released by the Anne Frank Fonds shows a portrait of Anne Frank who died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in May 1945 at the age of 1 - Credit: HO/AFP
A photo taken on January 1, 1942 and released by the Anne Frank Fonds shows a portrait of Anne Frank who died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in May 1945 at the age of 1 Credit: HO/AFP

One striking example of an editorial change is a noticeably kinder tone towards her mother, with whom it is apparent from her original diary she had a distant and cold relationship.

“The reader will read Anne Frank's ‘novel’ with all the creative and literary choices she has made. This actually brings the reader much closer to the writer, Anne Frank,” added Ms Mostart.

Publisher Joachim von Zepelin says he was “amazed” at the literary talent that shines through in the new publication, and demand had “gone through the roof”..

“This composition is very different in style and substance to the original published version,” he said. “It is much more literary. The original one is at times very childish.”

“Otto Frank was not a literary expert, he actually hid the literary qualities of his daughter. From a literary point of view this version is the diamond, it is the best of them all. It is the one that should be published because it is the one she wanted published.

“We are a small publishing house but I’ve never seen anything like this. Anne Frank is an icon in Germany, where everyone student reads her diaries in school. We dealt with our history in a very intense way and she made it approachable.”

This latest publication would probably have never come about had it not been for the work of Laureen Nussbaum, a neighbour of the Franks in Amsterdam who went on to become a professor of literature at Portland State University in the US.

Ms Nussbaum, aged 91 and who can still remember rehearsing a play as a schoolchild with Anne in 1941, worked tirelessly to have the book published as a stand alone text. On a recent tour of Germany to promote the ‘novel’ she told journalists the publication was the realisation of a dream “that I’d worked for 25 years” to realise.