Amsterdam (AFP)
75 years ago, Anne Frank died in a German concentration camp, after hiding for two years from the Nazis, leaving behind a newspaper that is today world famous, and still as relevant.
Born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Anne Frank left her country at the age of three with her family to escape the rise of anti-Semitism.
Settled in Amsterdam, they hide in 1942 in an apartment fitted out behind a false library to escape the Gestapo, before being discovered in 1944 and deported to concentration camps.
The diary of the Jewish teenager, published by her father Otto after the war, recalls the horrors of the Holocaust and remains more relevant than ever, estimates the museum dedicated to him.
"The most important part of the newspaper is that it provides an overview of what it means to be human," Ronald Leopold, executive director of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, told AFP.
"This is exactly why it remained relevant for 75 years after the Second World War and why it will remain relevant, I am absolutely convinced, for generations to come," he explains.
Anne Frank's diary is one of the most widely read books in the world: it has sold some 30 million copies and has been translated into more than 70 languages.
The 15-year-old girl died of typhus in early 1945 in Bergen-Belsen, Germany, a few months before the Allies liberated the camp on April 15.
- "Mirror" of a youth -
In her diary, Anne Frank describes her thoughts and feelings about forced isolation with her father, mother and sister, as well as four other Jewish refugees in the Secret Annex at Prinsengracht, opposite one of the canals. most iconic of the Dutch capital.
She recounts with raw honesty her impressions of the other occupants, evoking the difficult relationship she has with her mother. She also talks about her ambition to become a writer, and to write her own book on her experiences during the war.
Behind these lines, shines the voice of a schoolgirl seeking her place in the world, which resonates with the new generation, analyzes Ronald Leopold.
Young people "can identify with her. They recognize her voice, what she thought of, what she did when she had problems with her mother," he said.
According to the director, the latter show a strong interest in the history of Anne Frank, with some 1.3 million people visiting the museum each year, half of whom are under the age of 30.
"There are so many things in this book and in this house" that young people can hang on to, notes Leopold.
"It's a mirror" of our society, he says.
- "Lessons from the past" -
The last entry in Anne Frank's diary dates from August 1, 1944, three days before the residents of the Annex were arrested by the Gestapo.
Otto Frank, the family's only survivor, recovers his daughter's diary after the war, discovered by a Dutch woman who helped them to hide.
Only 38,000 of the 140,000 Jews who lived in the Netherlands survived the Holocaust - one of the highest death tolls in Europe, and a black spot in the history of the country, which the government has presented for the first time apologizing this year.
The past decades, however, have not deprived the newspaper of its relevance, remarks Ronald Leopold, in particular in the face of "the rise of nationalism and the extreme right".
"What was done to Anne Frank was the work of human beings," says Leopold.
His journal "gives us the opportunity to learn from the past, in these difficult times we are living in 2020," he explains.
For Anne Frank House - currently closed to the public due to the coronavirus - the main challenge for the next 75 years is how to communicate this heritage, while future generations will have grandparents born after the war, and memories of the Holocaust gradually fade.
© 2020 AFP