Thursday, 11 December 2025

In conversation about Anne Frank’s literary talent

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank is the most widely read Dutch-language book in the world. But this publication is not quite what Anne Frank herself had in mind: she edited her diary into a novel that was never finished and never published for a wide audience.

New research has provided a richer picture of Anne Frank as a writer and the literary qualities of her stories. This programme focuses on her literary ambitions: the speakers delve into her writing and editing process.

Image: collection Anne Frank Stichting/Allard Bovenberg.

Learning opportunities for education

The programme also discusses how these new insights offer opportunities for primary and secondary education. Teachers can use these findings to bring Anne Frank’s story into the classroom in new ways to show pupils how literature is created.

With Peter de Bruijn, Elli Bleeker and Marc van Zoggel from the Huygens Institute. Other speakers include Juliette Schrauwen, education officer at the Anne Frank Foundation, Daphne Nieuwenhuijse, researcher and project leader at the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and Marc van Oostendorp, linguist and professor of Dutch at Radboud University Nijmegen.

Registration

For more information, visit the Spui25 website. A webcast is available. You can register via this link.