Het Achterhuis
Anne Frank’s diary is first published as “Het Achterhuis”
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗The first printing was 3,036 copies. Otto Frank recorded the day in his own diary with two words: “I Boek.”
Amsterdam, 25 June 1947
On 25 June 1947 the Amsterdam publishing house Contact released the first Dutch edition of Anne Frank's diary, under the title she had chosen herself: 'Het Achterhuis: Dagboekbrieven van 14 juni 1942–1 augustus 1944.'
The English title readers know — 'The Diary of a Young Girl' — belongs to the 1952 edition, not to this one.
The print run was 3,036 copies. It sold well enough that Contact issued a second edition of 6,830 in December that year.
Two manuscripts, one book
The published text was Otto Frank's compilation of Anne's original diary, the version she had begun rewriting for publication, and several of her short stories — not a single untouched notebook.
Anne had started that rewrite after hearing a 1944 radio appeal to preserve wartime documents, and had already recorded her ambition to become a writer.
Otto was the compiler and editor of her writings, not a co-author.
How the manuscript reached a publisher
Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl recovered Anne's scattered papers after the arrest; Miep kept them until she could give them to Otto.
Publisher interest followed a front-page article by the historian Jan Romein in Het Parool on 3 April 1946, titled 'Kinderstem' — 'A Child's Voice.' Annie Romein-Verschoor helped bring the manuscript to attention and wrote the first edition's foreword.
Sources conflict over whether the 1947 subtitle began with 12 or 14 June; contemporary title records and the Anne Frank House's 2012 anniversary account support 14 June.
Sources
Researched 24 Aug 2026 9 sources not yet audited
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What the sources leave uncertain
- The publication date is firmly documented.
- Sources conflict over whether the first-edition subtitle began with June 12 or June 14. Contemporary title records, the reproduced 1947 title, and the Anne Frank House’s 2012 anniversary account support June 14; some current Anne Frank House catalog pages say June 12, the date covered by later expanded editions.
- Anne’s exact death date is unknown. Anne Frank House research concludes that Anne and Margot probably died in February 1945, rather than on the formerly assigned date of March 31.