THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL : THE DEFINITIVE EDITION


Anne Frank


Edited by Otto H. Frank and Mirjam Pressler
Translated by Susan Massotty


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BOOK FLAP


Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl is among the most
enduring documents of the twentieth century. Since its
publication in 1947, it has been read by tens of millions of
people all over the world. It remains a beloved and deeply
admired testament to the indestructable nature of the human
spirit.


Restore in this Definitive Edition are diary entries that
had been omitted from the original edition. These passages,
which constitute 30 percent more material, reinforce the fact
that Anne was first and foremost a teenage girl, not a remote
and flawless symbol. She fretted about, and tried to copie
with, her own emerging sexuality. Like many young girls, she
often found herself in disagreement with her mother. And like
any teenager, she veered between the carefree nature of a
child and the full-fledged sorrow of an adult. Anne emerges
more human, more vulnerable, and more vital than ever.


Anne Frank and her family, fleeing the horrors of Nazi
occupation, hid in the back of an Amsterdam warehouse for two
years. She was thirteen when the family went into the Secret
Annex, and in these pages she grows to be a young woman and a
wise observer of human nature as well. With unusual insight,
she reveals the relations between eight people living under
extraordinary conditions, facing hunger, the ever-present
threat of discovery and death, complete estrangement from the
outside world, and above all, the boredom, the petty
misunderstandings, and the frustrations of living under such
unbearable strain, in such confined quarters.


A timely story rediscovered by each new generation, The
Diary of a Young Girl stands without peer. For both young



readers and adults it continues to bring to life this young
woman, who for a time survived the worst horror of the modern
world had seen -- and who remained triumphantly and
heartbreakingly human throughout her ordeal. For those who
know and love Anne Frank, The Definitive Edition is a chance
to discover her anew. For readers who have not yet
encountered her, this is the edition to cherish.


ANNE FRANK was born on June 12, 1929. She died while
imprisoned at Bergen-Belsen, three months short of her
sixteenth birthday. OTTO H. FRANK was the only member of his
immediate framily to survive the Holocaust. He died in 1980.
MIRJAM PRESSLER is a popular writer of books for young
adults. She lives in Germany.


Translated by Susan Massotty.


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FOREWORD


Anne Frank kept a diary from June 12, 1942, to August 1,
1944. Initially, she wrote it strictly for herself. Then, one
day in 1944, Gerrit Bolkestein, a member of the Dutch
government in exile, announced in a radio broadcast from
London that after the war he hoped to collec...

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