ABSTRACT
This chapter extends discussions on the “afterlives” of Anne Frank, arguably one of the best-known life writers, a historical figure who has taken on the status of a “contemporary cultural icon”, and who is the subject of multiple representations, reimaginings, controversies, adoptions, and appropriations that signal the intense and enduring nature of public investment in her. In 2007, Harmony Books published the English translation of the diary of Dang Thuy Tram, a Vietnamese surgeon who cared for civilians and soldiers from a rudimentary medical clinic in the jungle. The two most recent Anne Franks, Gaza’s Farah Baker and Aleppo’s Bana al-Abed, confirm and challenge the pattern of inscription seen in other Anne Franks. Baker shows the steely determination of the real Anne Frank to be taken seriously, in the face of persistent refusals to acknowledge her legitimacy as speaker and witness.
