Frankly I thought it was a myth?
According to the BBC today, a postcard sent by Anne Frank, the world famous hide and seek champion of the second world war, has been found in an antique shop in Amsterdam.
This has genuinely puzzled me, as ever since I was at secondary school I always thought ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’, while not exactly a complete work of fiction, was just a very clever piece of storytelling written by her father, Otto Frank, who made millions of dollars out of the book after it was first published in 1952. 
The problem with Anne Frank’s story is that anyone who dare question the diary’s authenticity quickly finds themselves branded as an anti-semite. Yet when one researches the story of Anne Frank it is easy to see why doubts can be raised about it.
How come all the surviving artefacts found in the hiding place are so ‘Hollywood’? Take the picture on the right which was supposedly found in the small box her family had been hiding in - why did she just happen to have a studio style photograph in her refuge when it would have made more sense to stock up on Mars Bars? It all seems too good to be true. I could believe it a bit more if she had been American - after all dreams do come true in the US of A don’t they? No doubt she would have been rescued and become a foreign ambassador. Why wasn’t anything likely to have been useful to a fugitive been found if the Franks had been holed up there for two years? I have never read about a small Jewish antique dealer suddenly discovering one of Anne’s fossilised stools or a bucket of genuine Anne Frank urine!
What’s the betting that this newly found postcard finds itself as a lot in an auction house near you soon? Unfortunately the truth of the Anne Frank story will probably never be known, as people who have already dared to question events of World War Two, like revisionist historian David Irving, find themselves locked up for the crime of questioning something which is a taboo subject.
In the interests of historical accuracy it is surely about time that the truth about this was finally revealed. There have been many lawsuits in the past filed against people who have accused her late father of deception and fraud and there has always been a reliable Jewish ‘expert’ available to determine the authenticity of the diary. I remain unconvinced. I hope it is real though, otherwise millions of children across the world have spent the last 60 years being conned by the biggest piece of Jewish propaganda in history.
See you soon…
April 24th, 2008 at 08:26 pm
Back then, everyone had studio photo’s done….Soldiers often carried pictures of their loved ones that had been shot in studios…its more than feasible that Anne carried a studio postcard of herself. People in concentration camps managed to cling to the odd studio photo of their families - so I’m sure that this post card surviving is likely. Ask many a person today what they’d rescue if their house was burning down and after the rellies and pets were safe, photo’s rank quite highly!
Exaggerated truths or not (and actually, I don’t question the story at all especially given Nazi’s are involved), I feel it’s very important that kids don’t forget about the persecution of Jews in WWII.
Christian tales are far worse…The Bible - keeps the Catholic Church nice and rich for one. Jesus - birth of largely represented these days courtesy of Coca Cola with the chap in the red with the white beard (Father Christmas designed solely for the purpose of advertising the dark doctor!)…
Sorry Rust - I think you are picking on the wrong faith if you are questioning historical accuracy…
April 25th, 2008 at 12:11 am
I’m not picking on a faith Linz. Especially not a faith that controls the worlds media
April 25th, 2008 at 09:38 am
Elaborate? World’s media - do you truly believe that one faith can be attributed to controling the world’s media?
Yes, there are conmen who like to fake old masters, pass off reconstructed furniture as antiques and such…
But how much money do you reckon is in a post card? Not that much really in the grand scheme of things…No matter who wrote it. Your idea of the authentic turd would possibly bring in more at auction…
It wouldn’t be worth anyone faking a postcard would it? Hope it turns up on the antiques road show if you’re right…just so I can see the reaction when it’s only worth 300 quid tops…but it will be described as a fascinating piece of history as a consolation!
April 25th, 2008 at 11:30 am
You’re on dodgy and sensitive ground Rust, and I agree with Linz.
April 27th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
I don’t know about Anne Frank, I assume it is as true as any story published, i.e. accentuate the negative and eliminate the positive.
This much I know:
My dad was an airman in WWII, he was in Normandy in June 44 and worked his way up the Low Country’s and into Germany.
One day an appeal was displayed asking for people to help to sort out the human misery in a liberated camp. Only two volunteered. Not my dad. They were back less than two weeks later, one was depressed and the other a complete wreck. He cried all the time and eventually had a breakdown.
Not long after that the company moved on and they ended up very near that or another camp. Dad recalls going with many others to see what it was like although by then there were no corpses to be seen. He says the camp was wide open of course but the surviving inmates were still there. Partly because care was there and partly because they were so weak and malnourished there was nowhere else to go. Every day a few dozen of the “healthy” ones would sit on the grass banks and verges outside the camp and thank the troops that were going to see the place. He vividly recalls gently shaking the hands of three women, one of whom spoke English, who were a “bag of bones” but delighted to meet more of the men who had come to the rescue.
It happened again in Russia and Bosnia, it is probably happening in North Korea and Darfur right now.
Anne Frank is a soft target in a very big picture Steven.