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This week's question: What is the dispute over the authorship of Anne Frank's "The Diary of a Young Girl"?

For millions of readers, Anne Frank's story is 

Frank, a German Jew, hid with her family for two years in a secret annex in Amsterdam while millions of Jews were sent to concentration camps across Europe. She spent her early teenage years in hiding, writing about everything from political developments to the pains of adolescence in her diary.

In August of 1944, the family was betrayed by an anonymous source and arrested. Anne died that winter at the age of 15 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. 

In the chaotic aftermath of the family's arrest, Miep Gies collected Anne's papers. Her writings filled not only her iconic red-and-white checked diary, but several other notebooks. Gies, who had helped hide the family, later returned them over to the only member of the Frank family to survive the war: Anne's father Otto.

Otto arranged to have his daughter's diary published in the Netherlands in 1947. French and German editions followed. The first American edition was published in 1952. 

"Diary of a Young Girl" became an international phenomenon. Today, more than 30 million copies have been sold in 67 different languages, according to the Anne Frank House.

The copyright of the book is managed by a Swiss foundation that Otto set up to receive the royalties and permission payments. The foundation, 

, uses the money to fund charities worldwide, including UNICEF and educational organizations. It also covers medical bills for 50 individuals who helped hide Jews doing the war.

But that copyright is about to expire — unless the foundation can establish Otto as a co-author.

In most of Europe, the copyright on a book lasts for 70 years after the author's death. With Anne as the sole author of the diary, that copyright is set to expire come Jan. 1. If this happens, other organizations are free to publish the diary or use excerpts without payment to or permission from the Swiss foundation. 


If the foundation claims Otto as co-author, 

, the copyright will last until 2050 — 70 years after Otto's 1980 death. (In the U.S., the diary's copyright is valid until 2047.)


Otto did arguably play a creative role in the publication of the book — he helped stitch together two different versions that Anne had written. The first was her daily diary, which she'd written in the form of letters to imaginary friends. The second version was her own rewrite. She'd decided she wanted to publish a book about her experiences after the war, and had already begun revising it when she was arrested. But is that enough to consider him a co-author?

 an intellectual property lawyer in Paris who remarked, "If you follow their arguments, it means that they have lied for years about the fact that it was only written by Anne Frank."


The copyright extension could also delay the Anne Frank House museum, which is not affiliated with the foundation, from releasing the online annotated version of the diary they've spent five years compiling.

The ultimate decision will have to come from the courts. Simply by listing Otto Frank as a co-author, the foundation has extended the copyright. But if someone decides to challenge that extension, the controversy over Anne's diary will continue.

 up the situation perfectly in a quote from Anne herself: "Why do grown-ups quarrel so easily?"

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The foundation in Switzerland just added Anne Frank's father Otto as a co-author to the iconic "Diary of a Young Girl."

The Swiss foundation that controls the copyright for "Diary of a Young Girl" has added Anne's father as a co-author.

Why Anne Frank's diary just got a 'co-author'

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