Monday will mark the 60th anniversary of the publication of Anne
Frank's diary The Secret Annex, with two separate symposia to commemorate the historic day.

On Monday, more than 300 people - two thirds of whom are professionally involved with Anne Frank or Holocaust research - are due to attend a symposium organized by the Anne Frank Foundation and the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD).

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Dutch and international scholars are to discuss the various aspects of the book as well as the development of academic research - historical and literary - on the famous diary.

On Tuesday evening, the NIOD and the Goethe Institute in Amsterdam will discuss problems in translating the diary, which has been published in a number of languages from English to Hindi and Arabic to Swedish.

Patricia Bosboom, spokeswoman for the Anne Frank Foundation in Amsterdam, said that the diary of the teenage Jewish girl who died in the
concentration camp Bergen-Belsen remained "popular for each new generation of young people."

Bosboom said that "Anne Frank writes about scenes and problems all teenagers deal with, such as relationships with parents and siblings, but also about her will to make the world a better place."

"In between the lines, she tells the story of World War II. Most young people learn about the Second World War for the first time by reading her diary.

"The academic world has broadened its focus concerning the diaries.Previously, the diary was studied primarily as a historical document. Today, its literary qualities are acknowledged too," Bosboom said.

"Literary scholars but also the media have come to see the writings have significant literary qualities. That is very important," she added.

The Secret Annex, which has sold tens of millions of copies since its publication 60 years ago and been translated into almost 100 languages, is the diary of Annelies Marie Frank, written between June 12, 1942 and August 1, 1944.

Born in Frankfurt on June 12, 1929, Anne was a Jewish girl who fled with her family from Germany to the Netherlands after the Nazis' rise to power in 1933. In the summer of 1942 the Frank family went into hiding with four other Jews in the annex of a house at Prinsengracht 263.

On August 4, 1944 the Jews hiding in the secret annex were betrayed and deported to Westerbork, the concentration camp in the north-east of the Netherlands before being deported to different camps in Poland and Germany.

Only Otto Frank, Anne's father, survived. In 1947 he published his daughter's diary, which had been saved by members of the resistance. The diary became an instant success.