The essential companion to Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl, first published in 1958, is back in print for the first time in more than 25 years
Ernst Schnabel interviewed 42 of the people mentioned by Anne Frank in her diary, including her father, other family members, and close relatives and friends, in order to offer an accurate
picture of who she actually was. Otto Frank initiated this project, such was the demand for more information about his daughter following the publication of her diary—as well as to combat
growing accusations at the time, from the far right, that the diary was fake. Anne Frank left only a faint trail behind her. Acquaintances describe her as gracious, capricious at times, and
full of ideas. She had a tender, but also critical spirit; a special gift for feeling deeply and for fear, but also her special kind of courage. This superbly written document broadens the
picture we have of this extraordinary youn girl. It also tells the full dramatic story of her family’s betrayal, and its disastrous aftermath in the concentration camps of Auschwitz and
Bergen-Belsen.
