Diaries of W. War II

The lost diaries of war

Ilvy Njiokiktjien for The New York Times

Anne Frank’s famous diary was one of thousands written by Dutch people during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. After the war, many were collected at a national archive, but most accounts never surfaced again.

Now, the Dutch have started an effort to transcribe the handwritten or typed pages into digital documents, to post on the archive’s website. The voices of the forgotten diarists, filled with anxiety, isolation and uncertainty, resonate powerfully today.