Anne Frank Factfile

Margo Frank

Edith Frank

How do we know these facts are true?

We know Anne Frank was a real person who existed because there were several witnesses who have seen /known her, for example Miep Gies (pictured bottom left) gives evidence that she knew Anne and she had seen Anne writing the diary. We see the diary itself (below right); although the diary does not exactly prove that Anne Frank existed. We learn a lot about Anne in her diary, as she mentions lots of things about her, e.g. appearances. We also can see that the appearances are true: from the pictures of her we find. Letters and documents from her family and friends still exist.

There is also evidence that Anne Frank existed in this Nazis' Westerbork deportation book (pictured below left) it is with Red Cross’ International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, Germany. The ledger contains the only mention of Anne Frank among the 50 million pages in the world's largest storehouse of documents on Holocaust victims.

Westerbork deportation book                              The first famous diary Anne wrote in 

Anne and Margot’s pen pal letter

Miep Gies

Anne’s Diary-Genuine?

Anne Frank's handwriting differs in certain areas – one was script, the other was print; one was more adult, the other more childish. The simple explanation for this is that she signed an earlier piece of writing. Ernst Zundel claimed at his trial that the Diary was a fake because it was written with a ballpoint pen. There were some inconsistencies. In the diary itself as well, for example the noises. Those in hiding, we are told, must not make the least sound. This is so much so that, if they cough, they quickly take codeine. The "enemies" could hear them. The walls are that "thin" (25 March 1943). Those "enemies" are very numerous: Lewin, who "knows the whole building well" (1 October 1942), the men from the store, the customers, the deliverymen, the agent, the cleaning woman, the night watchman Slagter, the plumbers, the "health service," the accountant, the police who conduct their searches of the premises, the neighbours both near and far, the owner, etc. It is therefore unlikely and inconceivable that Mrs. Van Daan had the habit of using the vacuum cleaner each day at 12:30 pm (5 August 1943). The vacuum cleaners of that era were, moreover, particularly noisy.

After the diary became widely known in the late 1950s, various allegations against the diary were published, with the earliest published criticisms occurring in Sweden and Norway. The allegations in the Swedish Nazi magazine Fria ord ("Free Words") in 1957 came from the Danish author and critic Harald Nielsen, who had written anti-semitic articles about the Danish-Jewish author  at the beginning of the twentieth century. Among the accusations was a claim that the diary had been written by Meyer Levin, and that Anne Frank had not really existed.

 

Otto Frank

Meyer Levin

In 1958,  was challenged by a group of protesters at a performance of The Diary of Anne Frank in Vienna, who asserted that Anne Frank had never existed, and who challenged Wiesenthal to prove her existence by finding the man who had arrested her. He began searching for Karl Silberbauer and found him in 1963. When interviewed, Silberbauer readily admitted his role, and identified Anne Frank from a photograph as one of the people arrested. He provided a full account of events and recalled emptying a briefcase full of papers onto the floor. His statement corroborated the version of events that had previously been presented by witnesses such as Otto Frank.

Opponents of the diary continued to express the view that it was not written by a child, but had been created as pro-Jewish propaganda, with Otto Frank accused of fraud. In 1959, Frank took legal action in  against Lothar Stielau, a school teacher and former  member who published a school paper that described the diary as a forgery. The complaint was extended to include Heinrich Buddegerg, who wrote a letter in support of Stielau, which was published in a Lübeck newspaper. The court examined the diary, and, in 1960, authenticated the handwriting as matching that in letters known to have been written by Anne Frank, and declared the diary to be genuine. Stielau recanted his earlier statement, and Otto Frank did not pursue the case any further.

What difference does it make whether the diary is true or not?

I don’t think it makes much of a difference although it does make it much more powerful to people to know that it is real - if it was fiction, we could say "that wouldn't happen in real life".  But whether the story is true or not, for me the history was true through the realistic story and the wonderful but tragic account of a Jewish girl in hiding during the Holocaust gets people to share, understand and contribute to the dreadful history by feeling and knowing about it- almost making us indirect victims and making sure it never happens again.

Thank you Anne for sharing your thoughts and your diary with us.