At the height of the diary’s popularity-as The Diary of a Young Girl film arrived in theaters-Holocaust deniers came out in opposition, going as far as to dispute its very authenticity. In 1959, Otto Frank had to defend himself against two Germans, Lothar Stielau and Heinrich Buddeberg, who accused him of forging his daughter’s words. It was only after a court ordered the writings be examined by experts-who deemed them genuine–that the two men finally dropped their baseless case. Still, in 1976, another anti-Semite, Robert Faurisson, reared his head and began distributing pamphlets claiming the diary was fake. Once again, Otto went to court over the matter and won, and Faurisson was banned from further publishing.
