The Diary That Changed the World: The Remarkable Story of Otto Frank and the Diary of Anne Frank

by Karen Bartlett

"A meticulous account of the fascinating, convoluted and sometimes ugly publishing history of the world's most famous diary. Karen Bartlett's book is all the more relevant at a time of untruths and fake news." – Caroline Moorehead, bestselling author of Village of Defying the Nazis in Vichy France

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When Otto Frank unwrapped his daughter's diary with trembling hands and began to read the first pages, he discovered a side to Anne that was as much a revelation to him as it would be to the rest of the world.

Little did Otto know he was about to create an icon recognised the world over for her bravery, sometimes brutal teenage honesty and determination to see beauty even where its light was most hidden.

Nor did he realise that publication would spark a bitter battle that would embroil him in years of legal contest and eventually drive him to a nervous breakdown and a new life in Switzerland. Today, more than seventy-five years after Anne's death, the diary is at the centre of a multi-million-pound industry, with competing foundations, cultural critics and former friends and relatives fighting for the right to control it.

In this insightful and wide-ranging account, Karen Bartlett tells the full story of The Diary of Anne Frank, the highly controversial part it played in twentieth-century history, and its fundamental role in shaping our understanding of the Holocaust.

At the same time, she sheds new light on the life and character of Otto Frank, the complex, driven and deeply human figure who lived in the shadows of the terrible events that robbed him of his family, while he painstakingly crafted and controlled his daughter's story.

Genres: Biography, Holocaust

304 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 28, 2022

About the author

Karen Bartlett is a writer and journalist based in London. She has written extensively for the Sunday Times, The Times, The Guardian and WIRED from Africa, India and the US, and has presented and produced for BBC Radio. She was the youngest director of democratic reform and human rights campaign group Charter88, and began her career in the UK and South Africa. Most recently, she worked with Eva Schloss, writing her Sunday Times bestselling autobiography After Auschwitz: A Story of Heartbreak and Survival by the Stepsister of Anne Frank.

Reviews

[Andrea Tomé · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Rosalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book details Otto Frank’s struggle to get Anne’s dairy published. Karen Bartlett has shown how insincere the publishing world was (and probably still is), with editors and publishes doing deals behind Otto Frank’s back. By the same token, Otto Frank himself wasn’t always upfront about his own negotiations, with different publishers and translators.
Karen Bartlett takes us through the way that different countries have responded to the diary, most notably The Netherland, Germany (both East and West) and the USA. It was interesting that in both The Netherlands and Germany, the diary received a lukewarm reception. While Karen Bartlett highlights that many Dutch and Germans citizens felt that everyone suffered, I think that there was also a collective sense of guilt, nit mentioned but still there. I remember seeing on YouTube, in 2017, an interview with Nikolas Frank (no relation) whose father was commander of Auschwitz, and he talks about this guilt especially for the succeeding generations.
The book is well written, for such a potentially depressing subject matter. Karen Bartlett doesn’t let the book get too involved in Anne’s tragedy, but instead highlights the ongoing fascination with the thoughts of a young Jewish girl. An interesting point, with the GDR (East Germany) and the complaints that govt officials had about former NAZI’s holding positions in the government of West Germany in the 1950s. After the reunification of Germany in the 1990s, many of the Stasi (the GDR Secret Police) had positions in the new govt!
This was a well balanced book on a difficult topic, and Karen Bartlett has managed to bring out the human side of people that were involved in both Anne’s diary and her short life. Anne Frank’s diary should always be a reminder of what was, so that it will never be again, especially in the face of the Holocaust deniers.

[Roisin Walsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having re-read Anne Frank's diary for the first time as an adult earlier this year, I was able to see it in a whole new light and became fascinated with the aftermath of the texts sudden ending.
This book sheds some light on what happened next, then delves into how Otto Frank dedicated the rest of his life to his daughters legacy, and the many struggles around this.
While it could be difficult to read at times because of the heartbreaking subject matter, the actual prose is fast paced and well written in an accesible style. I finished the book in just three sittings. It was a fasicnating and though provoking work.

[KT · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the diary sometime in junior high, and read it again in prep for this book. I appreciate the co text this book gives to how people across the world have responded to the diary and all the complexities and complications that went along with its fame.

[Russell Field · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5