If the fates had been kind, a world-famous author would have celebrated her 80th birthday yesterday. The fates, however, were not kind, and she never made it past sweet sixteen. She never lived to see herself become famous, as a result of the book prepared from her diary, which she had begun on her 13th birthday. Indeed, the diary survived only because of a family friend who, along with others, helped her and her family at tremendous personal risk.
The book was originally published in the Netherlands as Het Achterhuis: Dagboekbrieven van 12 Juni 1942 – 1 Augustus 1944 (literal translation: The Back House: Diary Notes from 12 June 1942 – 1 August 1944), in 1947 in Holland. Even without clicking the link above, I'm sure you all realized the author to whom this introduction referred. What you may not remember immediately is that she nicknamed her diary "Kitty". More about this below....
The first English translation in 1952 was published as The Diary of a Young Girl, but colloquially, just about everyone refers to the book as The Diary of Anne Frank. One other way of translating the Dutch title into English is The House Behind. Another less strictly literal English translation of the Dutch title of the book is The Secret Annex.
It is generally accepted that the reason behind Anne Frank's choice of nickname for her diary "Kitty" came from the Dutch author Setske van Beek-de Haan (1889-1948), who wrote under the pen name of Cissy van Marxveldt. One set of her books tells of a young Dutch woman, Joop ter Heul, such as these volumes:
De H.B.S. tijd van Joop ter Heul (The High School Years of Joop ter Heul; 1919)
Joop ter Heul's problemen (Joop ter Heul's Problems; 1921)
Joop van Dil-ter Heul (1923; the Dutch title refers to her married name, AFAICT)
Joop en haar jongen (Joop and Her Son; 1925)
In her diary entry for September 21, 1942, Anne Frank notes:
"Every other week Mr. [Johannes] Kleiman brings me a couple of books written for girls my age. I'm enthusiastic about the Joop ter Heul series. I've enjoyed all of Cissy van Marxveldt's books very much. I've read The Zaniest Summer [Een zomerzotheid] four times, and the ludicrous situations still make me laugh."
Citation: The Diary of a Young Girl (The Definitive Edition), Anne Frank (ed. Otto H. Frank and Mirjam Pressler, translated by Susan Massotty). Doubleday (1995), p. 37 (QPBC edition).
Berteke Waaldijk of the University of Utrecht has commented on the influence of Cissy van Marxveldt and the Joop ter Heul series on Anne Frank and her diary, as follows:
"Van Marxveldt's work was not exactly part of the Dutch literary canon, but it is no exaggeration to say that almost all women raised in the Netherlands in the 1920's are familiar with her books for girls.
The direct and important influence Cissy van Marxveldt had on Anne can easily be traced in the striking differences between versions a and b for the first six months. We can detect how Anne read van Marxveldt and used form and content from the Joop ter Heul series in finding a form for her own diary. The series consists of four books [written during Anne's lifetime] describing the life of a girl, Joop ter Heul, in an upper middle-class family in Amsterdam, her friends, her marriage and her life as a mother, and later her involvement in charity work. The books are well-written, funny, and touching. Updated reprints (substituing cars for carriages) still sell in huge numbers."
Citation: Berteke Waaldijk, "Reading Anne Frank as a Woman", in Anne Frank: Reflections on Her Life and Legacy, edited by Sandra Solotaroff-Enzer. University of Illinois Press (2000), p. 115.
The Joop ter Heul books are told in the form of diary entries, after her father has forbidden her to write letters to her friends, so that she addresses her friends in her diary. One of Joop's friends is named Kitty Francken. (You'll note the last name.) Waaldijk noted that to her knowledge, the Joop ter Heul books have never been translated into English.
In addition, in real life, Anne Frank had a friend and classmate at the Montessori school in Amsterdam, who went by the nickname "Kitty". Both the Franks and Kitty and her family were captured and interned in the Westerbork concentration camp in the Netherlands, but Anne Frank and Kitty never met up again. Kitty and her family were eventually transported to the Terezin concentration camp. Unlike Anne Frank, Kitty survived, and eventually became a dentist. In her biography of Anne Frank, Melissa Müller noted about Otto Frank, Anne Frank's father, and Kitty:
"After the war, Otto Frank stayed in touch with Kitty. He assumed that Anne had her in mind when she chose the name Kitty for her fictional pen pal."
Citation: Melissa Müller, Anne Frank: The Biography (translators, Rita and Robert Kimber). Metropolitan Books (1998), p. 290.
Kitty did not publicly make a big deal about her possibly being the "Kitty" referred to in the diary:
"Fearing that she would become an object of public interest, Kitty chose to remain anonymous. She had no desire, as a survivor, to bask in the worldwide fame of her dead friend Anne. Kitty is married, has two children, and lives in Holland."
Citation: Müller, p. 290
However, in spite of Muller's comments above, Kitty's identity is actually now open knowledge, such as reported here. Her name is Käthe Egyedi, and in fact, she is visible in childhood pictures of Anne Frank and her friends, such as a picture from this link from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. (The same picture is reproduced in the Pressler edition of the diary.) To see this picture, you click on the "2" towards the bottom of the screen. From that page of "Anne Frank's Photo Album", the largest picture on page 2 shows Anne Frank and friends. You can click on that picture to magnify it. The text above the picture reads, in Anne Frank's own handwriting:
"Op Anne's 10e verjaardag" (On Anne's 10th birthday)
Below the picture, before the names, "v.l.n.r." means "van links naar rechts" (from left to right). You'll see that Anne Frank wrote the name as "Käthe Egyedie". For the etymologically inclined, the name "Egyedi" is of Hungarian origin.
I mentioned that the reason the diary survived at all was because of one person, who, in addition to her tremendous bravery in helping to keep the Franks and the other concealed inhabitants at 263 Prinsengracht alive, had the quickness of mind to retrieve Anne Frank's diary pages and prevent them from falling into the hands of the authorities, after the capture of the Franks and the other hidden residents. Her intention was to give them back to Anne Frank after the war, but this was not to be. This person is Miep Gies, born February 15, 1909. She is, happily, still with us, as she noted on her website:
'Ik ben nu 100 jaar. Dat is een imponerende leeftijd, die ik ook nog in redelijke gezondheid heb bereikt. Dan kun je zeggen dat je geluk hebt gehad en het hebben van geluk lijkt de rode draad te zijn die door mijn leven loopt.'
"I am now 100 years old. That is an impressive age, and I have also achieved it in reasonable health. So you could say that I've had good luck, and good luck seems to be the 'red thread' that has run through my life."
In her second diary entry on May 11, 1944, Anne Frank has two comments with particular resonance. The first comes in the context of her reading a biography of Galileo, among other things:
"Now I'm getting everything all mixed up. Well, what can you do with a memory like mine? Just imagine how forgetful I'll be when I'm eighty!"
Citation: Anne Frank, p. 294.
She then addresses her diary as follows:
"You've known for a long time that my greatest wish is to be a journalist, and later on, a famous writer. We'll have to wait and see if these grand illusions (or delusions!) will ever come true, but up to now I've had no lack of topics. In any case, after the war I'd like to publish a book called The Secret Annex [Het Achterhuis]. It remains to be seen whether I'll succeed, but my diary can serve as the basis."
Citation: Anne Frank, pp. 294-295
So it's Saturday night, and if you're an SNLC regular, you know what to do below. If you're a newbie, you can figure it out pretty quickly.....