Anne Frank’s father, Otto Frank, in 1968. Otto became the curator of his daughter’s diary — and one of Meyer Levin’s many enemies. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

2,924 words

Part 3 of 3 (Part 1 here, Part 2 here)

It was as though he was so filled with hatred that he no longer knew where to direct his bitterness.

That was familiar. It was the hatred of oneself included in a blind fury at a senseless world. It was our Jewish hatred.[1]

The Compulsion is Levin’s second autobiographical work and was, I suspect, written to repair the damage to his reputation that his embroilment in the Anne Frank project had caused. I have no way of determining whether his story is true or not, so I’ll just summarize his version of events.