Anne Frank diary translated to Afrikaans

By · June 26, 2008

The Afrikaans translation of “The Diary of Anne Frank” had its launch at the Cape Town Holocaust Centre.

Richard Freedman, the center’s director, described the translated diary at its launch on Youth Day, June 16 – four days after Frank’s birthday – as an important addition to the resources available to teachers of the Holocaust.

Translator Lina Spies, a poet, writer, teacher and professor of Afrikaans and Nederlands, describing the disparaging reference to Afrikaans -considered the language of the oppressor under apartheid - expressed the wish that the translation of the diary would “help people not think of Afrikaans in that way.”

“Anne Frank wrote the diary never dreaming it would become world famous and that she’d become an international icon,” she said. “Yet there is still glaring ignorance about the author and the diary, particularly in South Africa and especially in the Afrikaans community.”

“I trust that my translation 60 years after its first publication will contribute to counteracting this ignorance.”

The new translation will take its place alongside 60 existing translations.