Anne Frank (1929 - 1945) writing at her desk in her house at Merwedeplein, circa 1941.

Diary of a Somebody

When Anne Frank’s father published her diaries, they inspired awe, criticism, and lawsuits. Seventy-five years later, they’re still the center of controversy

By Karen Bartlett

Rarely does the suspect of a 77-year-old murder case become the lead story in every news bulletin and newspaper around the world. However, the announcement in January that a team led by a retired FBI investigator had discovered the man who betrayed Anne Frank and her family to the Nazis led to a sensational run of headlines, until a quick rebuttal by historians, and outraged protests by the suspect’s granddaughter, led to an equally swift climbdown and the withdrawal of the book that accompanied the investigation from some markets.

Over time, speculation about who betrayed Anne has reached the same fever pitch as conspiracy theories about who killed President Kennedy, but as I researched my own book, The Diary That Changed the World, I was astonished to discover the complicated history of a book that spurred court cases, lifelong feuds and murder threats, and drew in public figures as well known as Eleanor Roosevelt and Nelson Mandela, and as notorious as the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il.