Omitted: Anne Frank Was Same-Sex Attracted

screenshot Lesbian history Anne Frank 2 years before she went into hiding






Anne Frank was born on June, 12, 1929. If she were alive today, she’d be 92 years old. Her diary is one of the most widely read pieces of literature in the world.

At the time of publication, certain passages of her diary were removed. Among those passages, anything that acknowledged she was same-sex attracted. And let’s face it, if her sexual orientation hadn’t been erased, the diaries wouldn’t have been widely published and translated into 70 languages. Same-sex attraction was, after all, considered a “sexual perversion.” In some places it still is.

Because of the omissions, most people don’t know that every time Anne Frank would see a nude female body she’d “go into ecstasy.” Such ecstasy, in fact, that she would struggle to hold back tears.

“Once when I was spending the night at Jacque’s, I could no longer restrain my curiosity about her body, which she’d always hidden from me and which I’d never seen. I asked her whether, as proof of our friendship, we could touch each other’s breasts. Jacque refused. I also had a terrible desire to kiss her, which I did. Every time I see a female nude, such as the Venus in my art history book, I go into ecstasy. Sometimes I find them so exquisite, I have to struggle to hold back my tears. If only I had a girlfriend!” Anne Frank

Eventually a complete, unabridged edition was published. It’s been available for a couple of decades now, but it’s not the version most readers will come across and read.

In the summer of 1942, Anne Frank was forced into hiding during the Nazi regime and lived in Amsterdam with her father Otto, her mother Edith, and her sister Margot, in the house behind her father’s office on the second floor. The Achterhuis (“back house”) was shared with Fritz Pfeffer, as well as the van Pels family, Hermann and Auguste and their son Peter, who lived on the third floor. The house was hidden from view by houses on all four sides. A movable bookcase blocked the entryway where four of Otto’s employees risked their lives to bring the families food and supplies.

In 1944, the families were reported to Nazi authorities and transported to concentration camps. Only Otto Frank survived.

For all the horrors Anne Frank saw, leaving her story as she wrote it, without omissions or additions, would’ve been a greater way to honor her legacy… But realistically speaking, without the omissions, her story might’ve been buried. It certainly wouldn’t have become required reading in so many schools.

On January 6th, 1944, Anne Frank writes, “Yesterday I read an article on blushing by Sister Heyster. It was as if she’s addressed it directly to me… I’d just turned thirteen when I came here, so I started thinking about myself and realized that I’ve become an ‘independent person’ sooner than most girls. Sometimes when I lie in bed at night I feel a terrible urge to touch my breasts and listen to the quiet, steady beating of my heart. Unconsciously, I had these feelings even before I came here. Once when I was spending the night at Jacque’s, I could no longer restrain my curiosity about her body, which she’d always hidden from me and which I’d never seen. I asked her whether, as proof of our friendship, we could touch each other’s breasts. Jacque refused. I also had a terrible desire to kiss her, which I did. Every time I see a female nude, such as the Venus in my art history book, I go into ecstasy. Sometimes I find them so exquisite, I have to struggle to hold back my tears. If only I had a girlfriend!”

On Anne Frank’s website, Jacque (Jacqueline van Maarsen) recalls, “We had a close relationship and I liked being with her; but she laid a claim on me and I didn’t know how to handle that. I always had to prove to her that we were ‘best friends’. Her passionate declarations of friendship were too much for me sometimes. Then I met up with other friends and she was jealous and unhappy. Years later I read that she had written about this in her diary. But before she went into hiding I had been able to tell her where the limits were. She accepted this…”

Thousands of gay men and lesbians were sent to concentration camps during the Holocaust. Germany’s Nazi-amended criminal code, which made homosexuality a felony, wasn’t officially changed until 1994.

At the concentration camps, gay men had to wear pink triangles on their uniform. Lesbians were categorized “Asocial” and had to wear black triangles. Lesbian history is often downplayed or erased in the retelling.

“The Nazis used the brothels to ‘convert’ lesbians back to heterosexuality – but the women’s lives came with a ‘use by’ date, after which most of them were killed.” Gay StarNews

Henny Schermann, Jewish lesbian, deported to a concentration camp, killed in 1942.

In a separate entry, made January 6, 1944, Frank writes, “My longing for someone to talk to has become so unbearable that I somehow took it into my head to select Peter for this role. You mustn’t think I’m in love with Peter because I’m not. If the van Daan’s had had a daughter instead of a son, I’d have tried to make friends with her.”

Another entry about Peter van Pels, made March 6, 1944, reads as a conquest born of boredom and isolation. Frank writes, “I’m glad after all that the Van Daan’s have a son and not a daughter; my conquest could never have been so difficult, so beautiful, so good, if I had not happened to hit on someone of the opposite sex.”

Frank was fifteen when she died of typhus at Bergen-Belsen camp in Germany, where she was sent with her sister, Margot, to work as slave labor. Margot died of typhus before her. The camp was liberated only weeks after they died.

Frank’s peer, Nannette Blitz, recalls the terrible condition of her dying friend — “Anne never gave up hope. She was absolutely convinced she would survive.”

Anne Frank’s diary is still one of the most widely read books in the world, but were her sexuality revealed, her story would’ve likely been kept off the shelf. The reality is that same-sex attraction, these stories, were considered a “perversion” at the time. Even now, in 2021, novels with lesbian protagonists are harder to get published. As far as TV goes, same-sex attracted female couples, generally only appear in mainstream media once sufficiently warped into a vision, a twisted concept of “lesbian,” that satisfies the male gaze… Something more palatable to heterosexual viewers.

Perhaps someday, there will be more interest in the version of Anne Frank’s diary that doesn’t omit her sexual orientation. Perhaps someday, we won’t have to dig quite so much to find our history, and we won’t have to work quite so hard to correct revisions. Until then, we’ll plug along, piecing our history together, doing our best to make sure that the stories of those who came before us are told, and preserved with integrity.

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