Anne Franks diary proves the pen is mightier than the sword

It has been 75 years since one of the most beloved books of the 20th century first appeared. Its author was a teenage girl who initially began writing only for herself, in order to confide her private thoughts to her diary.  A victim of the NAZI Holocaust, Anne Frank was just a teenager when she died at the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp.

Anne Franks diary was first published in 1947. She had come up with the title of the book herself: The Secret Annex. The Dutch edition received positive reviews, such as 'a war document of striking density' and ‘Parents and educators are strongly advised to read this diary.’ Anne Frank's diary is now available in over 70 languages.  

As Gillian Walnes Perry recently wrote; "The young Nobel Peace laureate Malala Yousafzai cites Anne Frank’s diary as her favourite book. Nelson Mandela described how a copy of Anne Frank's diary was smuggled into Robben Island prison, where prisoners were encouraged to read it as a testament to the power of the human spirit." 

In 2021, Library of Exile was created as a 'space to sit and read and be'. An installation at the British Museum by artist and writer, Edmund de Waal, Library of Exile housed more than 2,000 books by exiled authors. The books within the library have since travelled to their final home in Iraq, to support survivors of the 2014 ISIS genocide at the University of Mosul.