Its power and evergreen popularity since it was first published in English in 1952 is rooted in the ability of ordinary readers, especially schoolchildren, to identify with Anne and the idea of having to hide to avoid being murdered by totalitarian thugs.īut for almost as long as it has been a literary bestseller, the story of life in the annex has also been fodder for entertainment in the form of a well-known play and movie. A brilliant writer in the making, Anne’s keen powers of observation and honesty, mixed with the hopes and dreams of a child on the cusp of young womanhood who envisioned a productive life once her ordeal was over, make the Diary an essential book. Rather than just the jottings of a bored teen, it is a genuinely great work of literature. Her writing was recovered after the war-subsequently published as The Diary of a Young Girl-and is the most well-known example of Holocaust literature. She is the conduit by which much of the world has been introduced to the Holocaust as well as the mechanism by which many also grant humanity absolution for its crimes and indifference to the fate of the Jews. Credit: Courtesy.Īptly characterized by Dara Horn as “everyone’s second favorite dead Jew” in her book People Love Dead Jews, Anne has become more than just a famous victim.

“A Small Light,” produced by ABC Signature and Keshet Studios for National Geographic, will stream on Disney+ and Hulu. The travails of Otto Frank and his family, who were trapped in an intolerable prison with friends and a few others in an attic where they were forced to spend most of their lives in silence, were immortalized by his younger daughter Anne. (JNS) There is something about the story of the eight Jews who spent more than two years hiding in the secret annex on Prinsengracht 263 in Amsterdam that is irresistible to readers, as well as audiences for plays and movies.

Book people love dead jews