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Imprint: Arcadia
Format: B Format
ISBN: 978-1-905147-42-7
Price: £ 8.99
Pages: 216 pp
Date: March 2008
‘Anne Frank described her as her best friend in her famous diary. Now 78, the former bookbinder Jacqueline van Maarsen recalls being a teenager in Holland during German occupation, and how her cherished friendship with Anne came to an abrupt and tragic end’ – Sunday Times magazine
‘For years after Anne Frank’s diary was published, the identity of her “best friend” was secret. Then van Maarsen owned up. Now she has written about the Anne she knew’ – Sunday Telegraph
‘In this memoir, Jacqueline van Maarsen fills in the gaps, telling her side of the story of her friendship with one of the world’s most famous diarists’ – Daily Mail
‘Van Maarsen gives a moving first-hand account of her friendship with Anne Frank, whose life and death has become emblematic of the horrors of Nazism’ – The Times
‘Called "Jopie" in Anne's published diary, a childhood friend recalls her family's history as it intersected with the Franks' before, during and after the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. One of the strongest moments here is her description of a visit to the Franks' house immediately after their "departure" … Van Maarsen saw Anne's unmade bed, her new shoes lying on the floor, the entire house uncharacteristically unkempt, the breakfast dishes not yet washed’ – Kirkus Review
‘A poignant and, in places, heart-rending read’ – The Good Book Guide
"This startling new edition of Dutch Jewish teenager Anne Frank's classic diary . . . contains approximately 30% more material than the original 1947 edition. It completely revises our understanding of one of the most moving and eloquent documents of the Holocaust. The Anne we meet here is much more sarcastic, rebellious and vulnerable than the sensitive diarist beloved by millions. Expanded entries provide a fuller picture of the tensions and quarrels among the eight people in hiding. Anne . . . candidly discusses her awakening sexuality in entries that were omitted from the 1947 edition by her father. This crisp, stunning translation provides an unvarnished picture of life in the "secret annex." —Publishers Weekly
"In her Diary, Anne Frank gave her best friend the nickname Jopie, and that has allowed van Maarsen to keep her identity secret so long: I didn't want to be special because my friend had died in the camps, she says. It is that simple self-effacement that makes this memoir, translated from the Dutch, special. Yes, memoir. Unlike the many fictionalized Diary spin-offs, this is a true story with a candid, intimate view of Anne: ebullient, idealistic, very demanding, jealous, curious about sex, secular: she did always love being the center of attention. The girls met in the Jewish school in Amsterdam. They felt the Nazi menace but never dreamed of what would come. Just as gripping is the detail of what happened to van Maarsen's half-Jewish family, including her conversion to Judaism and then the desperate undoing of that conversion that allowed her to survive. After the war, Otto Frank shared the Diary with her, and they talked about what Anne had said. The girls parallel lives then and the history we know now raise the heartbreaking question, What if?" —Booklist
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My Name Is Anne, She Said, Anne Frank
Jacqueline van Maarsen (About this author)
Hester Velmans
A fascinating and very moving account of a remarkable friendship.
Jacqueline van Maarsen's father was Dutch, her mother French; he was Jewish, she a Catholic. In 1938, after unremitting effort, he succeeded in registering his wife with the Jewish Council in Amsterdam. From that moment on, his two daughters were also considered to be Jewish. Jacqueline was forced to go to a special school for Jewish children - it was there that she met Anne Frank and they immediately became friends. Unlike Anne Frank, Jacqueline van Maarsen escaped deportation thanks to her strong willed mother who persuaded the German Registration Board to undo her listing as a Jew. She left the school a few months after Anne Frank went into hiding (or 'went to Switzerland', as Jacqueline believed.) It was only after the war when Otto Frank told her what happened that she found out the truth about Anne's fate.
More Books by this Author:
Inheriting Anne Frank
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