Of the eight people in the Annex, only Otto Frank survived the war. He returned to Amsterdam hoping for a family reunion. Instead he learned that his wife and daughters were gone. All that was left was the diary and photographs that Miep had saved.
Otto knew that Anne had kept a diary, but he had no idea how much she had written. Or how beautiful her words were.
Otto typed up many pages for his mother and friends to read. Everyone urged him to show Anne’s diary to publishers. The world needed to hear from this remarkable young girl.
In the summer of 1947, Anne’s dream came true. Her diary became a book. She was a published author. First it was called The Secret Annex. Then later the title changed to Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl.
Hitler had murdered six million Jews. That is a fact—a horrible fact—and yet it is almost impossible to understand. Reading about the life of one young girl who died because of Hitler is easier to understand. Anne’s diary made a huge, terrible event personal. Here was a girl with hopes and dreams. All she wanted was a chance to live her life.
In the years that followed, Anne’s diary became world famous. It has been translated into more than sixty-five languages. Otto Frank was ninety-one when he died in 1980. He spent those long years keeping alive the memory of Anne and his family.
He did a very good job. In 1960, the Secret Annex was opened to the public. Every year nearly one million visitors come. The furniture is gone, but Anne’s photos of movie stars are still on the wall. And visitors see where eight people fought to hold onto their lives in the only way they could. By hiding.
The last words in this book about Anne belong to Anne herself. In her diary she wrote, “In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.” |