Objects

There is a page torn from the book in the Szwarc archives with a photograph of a young, smiling girl. The girl in the photo is Anna Frank, born in Frankfurt am Main in 1929, who died in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in February 1945. Her diary, written between 6 July 1942 and 4 August 1944, while the family was in hiding in an attic in Amsterdam, was first published in 1947 by Anna's father, Otto Frank. The manuscript, miraculously saved, was translated into many languages, and Anna, growing up in the shadow of death and her tragic fate, became a symbol of the Holocaust. It is probably why Gina and Marek Szwarc offered this book to their daughter Tereska with dedication: A notre petite | et grand fille de sa vieuille maman | et son vieux papa. Marek et Gina | 3 September 1950 [To our little | and big daughter from old mum | and old dad. Marek and Gina | 3 September 1950]. Translated from the Dutch by Tylia Caren and Suzanne Lombard, the Journal de Anne Frank was published in France in 1950 with the speech by Henri Daniel-Rops (Italian: Henri Petiot), a historian, writer and the French Academy member.

Renata Piątkowska