Charity shop staff find first edition of Anne Frank’s diary

A valuable first edition of Anne Frank’s diary Het Achterhuis (The Secret Annex) found by staff at a charity shop in Eemnes in Utrecht earlier this week will be auctioned in May.

Koen Samson, of auction house Van Spengen, said he couldn’t believe his eyes when charity shop volunteers showed him the find. “This is very special indeed. The first edition of Anne Frank’s diary dates from 1947 and consisted of 3,000 copies, so every time you find one in very good condition is a red-letter day. And this one is in excellent condition!,” he told NH Nieuws.

The back of the book shows a slight discoloration, and the dust jacket is missing but it is otherwise perfect, Samson said.

He praised the member of staff who spotted the book. “He didn’t just see that the book was in good condition but also realised that 1947 was the year in which it was first published. You have to have a good eye to be able to do that,” he said.

Potential buyers can view the book between May 7 and May 10, ahead of the auction, which will take place between May 11 and May 13.

The book is expected to fetch between €3,000 and €16,000, which will be spent on charitable projects.

This is not the first time a first edition of Anne Frank’s diary was discovered in a charity shop. In 2025, a charity shop find was sold for €16,500 to an undisclosed buyer by auction house Vendu in Rotterdam. In the same year, volunteers at charity shops in Friesland spotted two first editions, one of which was sold on online auction website Marktplaats for €3,550.

Anne Frank and her family were discovered in the secret annex of a house on Prinsengracht in Amsterdam where they had been hiding for over two years and transported to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on August 4, 1944. She died there in 1945.

Anne’s friend Miep Gies found the diary, kept it, and gave it to Anne’s father Otto, the only one of the family to survive the war. He published the book in 1947.

Since then it has been translated into over 60 languages and has sold over 30 million copies worldwide.