Memories of Anne Frank
Anne Frank died at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp 70 years ago. New films and special readings are commemorating the young author of a famous diary.
She is perhaps the most famous fifteen-year-old in the world: Anne Frank. This teenager's diary is one of the most widely read books in the world and has been translated into more than 70 languages. 40 million copies have been printed in the meantime, and the diary has been part of the UNESCO Memory of the World Register since 2009. The author, born in 1929 in Frankfurt-am-Main, fled from the Nazis to Amsterdam with her Jewish family. After the Germans occupied the Netherlands, she went into hiding in the rear wing of a building on Prinsengracht Canal for over two years, until she was finally betrayed and abducted. Anne Frank died at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in early 1945, shortly before the camp was liberated. No one knows the exact date of her death, but everyone knows the “Diary of Anne Frank”. It had been found by a girl friend and was eventually published by her father, Otto Frank.
New film adaptations in Germany
Following theatre plays, a musical in the Netherlands and film adaptations in both the USA and the UK, film makers in Germany have now taken up the theme of Anne Frank's life and her moving diary. “My Daughter Anne Frank”, directed by Raymond Ley, is a docudrama with acted scenes, historical footage and reports from contemporary witnesses. The film, which was produced by the public television channel ARD and is being broadcast at the end of February 2015, tells the story of the teenager's life of primarily in relation to her father. The critics have praised the TV production (“factually accurate, yet tender”) as a cinematic memorial to an immortal life. Shooting for a feature film entitled “The Diary of Anne Frank” began almost simultaneously in Cologne in early 2015. The script was written by Fred Breinersdorfer, who also worked on the movie “Sophie Scholl – The Final Days”. The film is expected to première in the cinemas in 2016. And Anne Frank's home town will be commemorating the young author and her family with a reading festival called “Frankfurt Reads A Book”, from 13 to 26 April 2015. For two weeks, the citizens of the city will be reading the book “Greetings and Kisses to All. The Story of Anne Frank's Family” at different locations. It was written by expert and translator Mirjam Pressler, who is convinced that: “Anne would have become a great writer.”
Anne Frank died just a few weeks before the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March 1945
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