Treasures from the Attic: The Extraordinary Story of Anne Frank's Family

In 2001, a cache of several thousand letters, photographs, and other documents was found in the attic of the house in Basel belonging to Buddy Elias, Ann Frank's cousin. It was soon realized that these documents were of major significance for the history of the Frank family, and cast a new and clearer light on Anne frank herself. These papers, organized and edited By Buddy Elias's wife, Gerti Elias-including both previously published letters and documents and some that have never been published-form the basis of the following family history. Mirjam Pressler, who wrote the chronicle that contains them, is the German translator of the Definitive Edition of Anne Frank's diary and a winner of the German Book Prize in 2006 for her literary life's work. In the German edition, letters are quoted exactly as written, without modernizing the German orthography, correcting spelling mistakes, or filling in abbreviations; punctuation is added for clarity in a few places, and obvious typos in typewritten letters are corrected, but the edition aims to preserve the authentic feel of the personal documents. These features have been carried over as much as possible into the English translation.