AMSTERDAM (EJP)--- The Swiss relatives of famous Jewish diarist Anne Frank, killed in World War II, will transfer their private archives to the Anne Frank Foundation in Amsterdam, they announced on Monday.

The transfer will take place at the Prinsengracht canal house where Anne Frank and her family hid from the Nazis and marks the merger of the Swiss Frank-Elias family archives with those of the Amsterdam-based Anne Frank Foundation AFS.

The family archives are owned by the Anne Frank Fund, established in 1966 by the Jewish girl’s father Otto Frank. The Anne Frank Foundation runs the museum at the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam.

The family archives originate from the house in Basle, Switzerland, where many members of the Frank family lived since the 1930s. Anne Frank‘s cousin Buddy Elias, president of the Anne Frank Fund, still lives in the house.

During the past two years, the unique archives, that have a length of almost 12 metres, have been categorised for the first time. They contain letters, documents and pictures of Otto, Edith, Margot and Anne Frank, many of whom have never been published before.

60th anniversary

The archive merger takes place on the 60th anniversary of the publication of Anne Frank‘s diary The Secret Annex. Two separate symposia will take place in Holland to commemorate the historic day.

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

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.

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

New generation

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

Bosboom said: "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 Jewish 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.