AMSTERDAM — The Frankfurt Mayor and the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam have paid tribute to the German-born diarist, who would have turned 75 if she and her family had not been betrayed to the Nazis in World War II.

The famed Jewish diarist was born in Frankfurt on 12 June 1929, but fled with her parents to Amsterdam in the 1930s to escape religious persecution in Germany.

Frankfurt Mayor Petra Roth said on Sunday that Frank reminded the world community that the 6 million Jews who died during the Holocaust were all individuals and the importance of honouring the tragedies that took place during the war.

Had she survived, Roth said Frank would now be a 75-year-old lady who probably would have played an important role in the cultural life of Frankfurt. He also praised her famed diary, written while in hiding in Amsterdam in the 1940s.

The house that Frank family and friends hid in during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands is now a museum and attracts 900,000 visitors every year. The Anne Frank Foundation organises activities every year to honour her birth date.

On Saturday, museum visitors heard readings from The Diary of Anne Frank and sections of the house that are normally closed were open for visitors. A special debate about the conceptualisation of Frank was staged later that night.

After the Germans invaded the Netherlands in 1940, the Frank family went into hiding in July 1942. They were later joined by another family and a man. After more than two years the group was betrayed and deported. Anne died in Bergen-Belsen in March 1945.

[Copyright Expatica News 2004]

Subject: Dutch news