The Hidden Life of Otto Frank by Carol Ann Lee

Author:Carol Ann Lee
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141909158
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2009-11-14T05:00:00+00:00

Most reviews of Het Achterhuis hailed it as an outstanding book. De Groene Amsterdammer praised ‘the intelligence, the honesty, the insight with which she observed herself and her surroundings, and the talent with which she was able to depict what she saw was astonishing… [Anne is] the symbol of those who shared her fate, those murdered by the Germans.’ On the other hand there were others such as the critic in Amsterdam’s De Vlam, who were dismissive: ‘By no means a war document as such… but purely and simply the diary of an adolescent girl.’

Otto sent scores of copies of the diary out to family and friends, and to the writers, politicians and heads of state mentioned in the book (the Dutch prime minister, Gerbrandy, made the terrible mistake of addressing his letter of acknowledgement to ‘Miss Frank’). Now that the diary had been published, Otto wanted it to enjoy wide success. In a letter to Anne’s former boyfriend Hello Silberberg (in which Otto explains that the other name changes in the diary had been made by him), he urged, ‘You can be content with the description of those days, without knowing it your person will be fixed for the next decades as you were in those years of youth… It is in Anne’s spirit that the book should be read as widely as possible, because it should work for people and for humanity. Speak about it, recommend it to others.’ Silberberg replied a month later, in July 1947: ‘I have never found it as hard to write a letter in my life as I do now. I am convinced that it doesn’t serve any purpose to describe my emotions to you… I am convinced I will never know another person who can fix these thoughts for the future in such a clear, touching and at the same time accusing way.’

In 1947 Otto signed a contract with Ernest Kuhn, a New York attorney, who agreed to represent him in negotiations with American and Canadian publishers. Included in the contract were drama, radio, film and television rights. Twentieth Century Fox expressed an interest in the book, but this came to nothing. In October Otto received a letter from Paul Zsolnay of Heinemann & Zsolnay Ltd in London whose reader in Vienna had given the diary,

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