Two unseen pages of Anne Frank's diary released
The Anne Frank Foundation released two previously unseen pages from the diary of Anne Frank. On the two pages, which were covered by brown paper, the Jewish girl wrote sexual jokes and what she thought about sex education, ANP reports.
The brown paper-covered texts were made readable with the help of digital photo processing, Ronald Leopold, director fo the foundation, said during a private meeting, according to the news wire. The pages can be viewed online. They won't be officially published until at least next year, after the research is complete.
The Anne Frank Foundation became aware of the pages, pages 78 and 79 in the diary, while scanning the manuscripts in 2001. But the pages were only now made legible with the aid of the Huygens Institute for Dutch History, which examines historical texts and sources using modern technologies.
On the first new page, Anne Frank crossed out some words in such a way that they are no longer readable. Then she wrote: "I will use this wasted page to write 'shameful' jokes." The jokes were written on September 28th, 1942. On the second page, she wrote about sexuality and the existence of prostitution.
According to Peter De Bruijn, researcher at the Huygens Institute, the pages were most probably covered by Anne Frank herself.
Leopold emphasized that the foundation feels obliged to publish the hidden texts, according to the news wire. "The diary of Anne Frank is read by millions of people. We find that we have to share new information." He added that Anne Frank's father, Otto Frank, already published texts that she would rather not have made public.
Frank van Vree, director fo the institute for war, Holocaust and genocide studies NIOD, said that he is "well aware of the paradoxical meaning" of the newly released texts. He calls the jokes Anne Frank wrote down classics. "They make it clear that Anne, with all her gifts, was still an ordinary girl."
Anne Frank was born in Germany. She and her family moved to Amsterdam in 1934, because of persecution by the Nazis. Eight years later they went into hiding at Prinsengracht 263. The family hid in a room closed hidden by a bookcase. In 1944 the family was discovered and arrested. Anne and her sister Margot ended up in Bergen-Belsen in October 1944 via concentration camps Weserbork and Auschwitz-Birkenau. The Jewish girl died early in 1945, probably from the effects of typhoid fever.
Otto Frank was the only member of the family to survive the war. He received his daughter's diary from people who helped hide them. Anne Frank kept the diary while in hiding at Prinsengracht 263. The diary was first published in 1947 under the title Het Achterhuis. According to the Anne Frank Foundation, the diary has since been translated into more than 70 language and sold tens of millions of copies world wide.
