SOURCE: "The Diary of Anne Frank," in Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory, The Free Press, 1993, pp. 229-35.

In the following essay, Lipstadt reviews the controversy concerning the authenticity of Anne Frank's diary.

Anne Frank's diary has become one of the deniers' most popular targets. For more than thirty years they have tried to prove that it was written after the war. It would seem to be a dubious allocation of the deniers' energies that they try to prove that a small book by a young girl full of musings about her life, relationship with her parents, emerging sexuality, and movie stars was not really written by her. But they have chosen their target purposefully.

Since its publication shortly after the war, the diary has sold more than twenty million copies in more than forty countries. For many readers it is their introduction to...