ABSTRACT
At the end of the twentieth century, Anne Frank is ubiquitous. She is simultaneously 'the Holocaust's most famous victim', 'the most famous child of the twentieth century', and 'her face with the sad shy smile is one of the icons of the century, a present-day Mona Lisa'. It is easy to assume that The Diary of Anne Frank was in some ways destined to worldwide popularity, because of the remarkable maturity of Anne's writing. From 1957 onwards, the popularity of the diary increased rapidly in the Netherlands: three editions were published in 1955, three more in 1956, a further nine in 1957 and five in 1958. Anne became the patron saint of liberalism. Thus a diary in which the Holocaust provided the context rather than the central theme was made into a play and a film which reflected the concerns of 1950s America much more than it reflected the Holocaust.
