Het Achterhuis
by Anne Frank
Hidden with her family in a concealed Amsterdam annex during the Nazi occupation, a teenage girl records her fears, petty quarrels, first love, and dreams of becoming a writer. Her candid voice turns a wartime hiding place into an unforgettable portrait of humanity. Read the full description
Best for: Readers of history and memoir, and anyone studying or teaching the Second World War
Het Achterhuis is #66 on BookWard's Top 100 books for September 2026, with a BookWard Score of 60 out of 100.
Het Achterhuis: reading interest over the past 12 months
Sources: Open Library’s public reading-log and ratings data (dump of 2026-08-31), Wikipedia page views and Wikidata. Monthly counts are exact; they show relative interest among readers of these public sources, not total readership.
Ranked against the other books on this list, Het Achterhuis’s reading interest has run from #64 to #99 over these 12 months. Interest rank blends shelf adds, Wikipedia page views and rating activity, each compared with the other 99 books that month.
Shelf adds by month
Het Achterhuis was added to Open Library readers’ shelves 396 times in the past 12 months, peaking in September 2025 with 50 (52% above its monthly average of 33). Over the latest three months (Jun 2026 to Aug 2026) shelf adds were down 34% on the three months before. 82% of the adds were “want to read”, 9% “currently reading” and 9% “already read”.
Want to read Currently reading Already read
What the data says about Het Achterhuis
- Moderate swings. Monthly shelf adds averaged 33 with some ups and downs.
- Busiest and quietest months. September 2025 was its busiest month (50 adds), about 2.8 times its quietest, June 2026 (18).
- Against its genre. It had 49% fewer shelf adds than the average Biography book on this list.
- Share of the list. It accounts for 0.4% of all shelf adds recorded for the Top 100 over these 12 months, #85 of 100.
- Its age. First published in 1944 (82 years ago), it is older than 86% of the books on the list.
Each finding is computed from the public data above and shown only when the numbers support it.
Het Achterhuis on the Top 100: rank history
First charted in September 2026. The chart gains a point with every monthly update, so its peak, climbs and falls will show here as they happen.
| Month | Rank | Score |
|---|---|---|
| September 2026 | #66 | 60 |
Is Het Achterhuis rising or falling?
Cooling It ranks lower this week than over the past year, so interest is softening from its recent level.
On Open Library, Het Achterhuis ranks #92 this week, #134 this month, and #149 over the past year. A longer bar means a higher position. Comparing the three windows shows whether readers are arriving faster than the book's long-term pace. Readings as of 2026-09-30.
Why Het Achterhuis made the Top 100
Het Achterhuis made the list mainly on momentum (+21 points) and reader love (+15.3 points). Its smallest contribution is rising (+0.5). The BookWard Score blends five public signals, each scored from 0 to 100 and weighted as shown.
The reading-now, rating and rank signals come from Open Library’s public data, not from BookWard’s own readers. The score measures reading interest, not quality or sales. How the score works.
Open Library reader stats for Het Achterhuis
Source: Open Library public reading logs, as of 2026-09-30. BookWard’s own monthly snapshots are added to the picture, and anonymous BookWard reader data will be layered in as the community grows.
More readers have Het Achterhuis open right now than 27% of the other books on this list. These counts come from one public source, so they show relative interest rather than total readership.
Where it sits among Biography books
It is #2 of the 3 Biography books on this month’s list.
About Het Achterhuis
Hidden with her family in a concealed Amsterdam annex during the Nazi occupation, a teenage girl records her fears, petty quarrels, first love, and dreams of becoming a writer. Her candid voice turns a wartime hiding place into an unforgettable portrait of humanity.
Why it’s here: A firsthand, deeply human account of hiding during the Holocaust that readers keep returning to and passing on.
Best for: Readers of history and memoir, and anyone studying or teaching the Second World War
At a glance
- First published
- 1944
- Genre
- Biography
- Length
- about 285 pages (the median across its editions)
- Languages
- editions in 21 languages listed on Open Library
- Editions
- 294 on Open Library
- Places covered
- Netherlands, Amsterdam, De guo
From Open Library and Wikidata public records. Missing rows mean the records do not list that fact.
Themes
- Hiding in wartime
- Growing up
- Hope
What reading it is like
Intimate, honest diary entries from a teenager.
At about 285 pages it is a medium-length read: roughly 6 hours at an average reading pace (about 250 words a minute, 300 words a page). Audiobook and edition lengths vary.
Good to know
Written from 1942 to 1944 in Amsterdam and first published in Dutch. Editions vary.
The premise
A teenage girl writes candidly about daily life while her family and several others hide in a concealed set of rooms in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation. Her diary captures both the fear of confinement and the ordinary concerns of growing up.
What you’ll get
- An intimate firsthand view of wartime hiding
- A vivid, honest teenage voice
- A lasting human perspective on history
You might skip it if you want a fast, plot-driven story rather than a personal, reflective account that you know ends in tragedy.
Pairs well with: The Book Thief · Man's Search for Meaning
Keep exploring the chart
Also on the chart at #65 and #67
More Biography on the Top 100
Questions about Het Achterhuis
What rank is Het Achterhuis on the Top 100 books?
Het Achterhuis is #66 on BookWard's Top 100 books for September 2026, with a BookWard Score of 60 out of 100.
Is Het Achterhuis rising or falling?
Cooling. It ranks lower this week than over the past year, so interest is softening from its recent level. On Open Library, Het Achterhuis ranks #92 this week, #134 this month, and #149 over the past year.
Why is Het Achterhuis on the Top 100?
Het Achterhuis made the list mainly on momentum (+21 points) and reader love (+15.3 points). Its smallest contribution is rising (+0.5).
How many people are reading Het Achterhuis right now?
Open Library's reading logs show 187 readers currently reading Het Achterhuis, 2,362 who want to read it and 228 who have logged it as read (as of 2026-09-30). These are counts from one public source, not all readers.
How much interest has Het Achterhuis had over the past year?
396 Open Library shelf adds in the past 12 months (peak September 2025, 50); latest three months down 34% on the prior three. Figures come from Open Library and Wikipedia public data.
Who is Het Achterhuis best for?
Readers of history and memoir, and anyone studying or teaching the Second World War.
Ask a question about Het Achterhuis
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How we know
This page is built from public data: Open Library’s dated reading-log and ratings dumps, Wikipedia page views, Wikidata, and BookWard’s own monthly Top 100 snapshots. The interest rank blends shelf adds (45%), Wikipedia page views (30%), rating activity (10%) and, for months where a snapshot exists, BookWard’s own score (15%), each as a percentile among the Top 100 books. Every month shown is real data; nothing is estimated. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Last updated September 2026. Read the full methodology.
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