A diary written by a teen-age girl during World War II has entered its 60th year of publication.Anne Frank began her diary at age 13. It ends abruptly two years later when the SS finds her and her family hiding in Amsterdam. Cherri Jones, director of Curriculum Resource Center, with Missouri State University in Springfield says Anne’s very direct writing about her feelings and thoughts still retains its power. In fact, Jones says it’s the direct, personal style that has held teen-agers fascinated for years making it a fixture in the classroom.The diary, of course, tells us a lot about World War II and the Holocaust. Anne writes about the war and the politics swirling around her. Jones, though, says what ultimately Anne holds the interests of middle and high school students, because she shares her very personal thoughts and feelings.Ultimately, the story is poignant. All but Anne’s father die in concentration camps. Anne and her sister, Margot, died of typhus at Bergen-Belsen in March of 1945 shortly before the British liberated the camp. Their mother died at Auschwitz. Otto Frank makes the painful decision to publish his daughter’s diary in 1947. It is translated into English a few years later. It has now sold more than 25 million copies and has been translated into 55 languages. http://www.annefrank.org  

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