EN

Anne Frank is presented with a diary for her 13th birthday

Anne Frank was given a red-checked diary for her 13th birthday. It had been bought at Boekhandel Blankevoort, around the corner.

Anne Frank was given a red checked diary for her thirteenth birthday on Sunday 12 June 1942.[1] Two days later, she wrote in it:

"I'll begin from the moment I got you, the moment I saw you lying on the table among my other birthday presents. (I went along when you were bought, but that doesn't count.) On Friday, June 12th I was awake at six o'clock, which isn't surprising since it was my birthday. (...) A little after seven I went to Daddy and Mama and then to the living room to open my presents, and you were the first thing I saw, maybe one of my nicest presents."[1]

In a letter to Meyer Levin, Otto Frank wrote: "The diary was bought by my wife". In his stage adaptation, Levin made it appear that Hanneli Goslar had given the diary to Anne. Otto did not object to this ("liberty of the writer"), but did note that in reality Edith had bought the diary. [2]

Footnotes

  1. a, b Anne Frank, DIary Version A, 14 June 1942, in: The Collected Works, transl. from the Dutch by Susan Massotty, London [etc.]: Bloomsbury Continuum, 2019.
  2. ^ Anne Frank Stichting, Anne Frank Collectie, Otto Frank Archief, reg. code OFA_155: Otto Frank aan Meyer Levin, 8 september 1952.