Croatian version of Diary of Anne Frank staged in Zagreb

Theater play "Anne Frank", based on one of the most popular books "Diary of Anne Frank" written by a Jewish girl victim of the Nazi Holocaust, was premiered here on Friday.

"People all over the world is marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War this year. With the play, we join the memory of all the victims of the Holocaust, including the most well-known victim -- Jewish girl Anne Frank who lost her life in March 1945 in concentration camp Bergen-Belsen in Germany," director Jakov Sedlar said.

In the 55-minute play, a young actress evoked parts from Anna Frank's diary, while a documentary film told stories of Anne Frank and her family.

"This is a wonderful play," Branko Lustig, the producer of the Oscar-winning movie "Schindler's List" and also a Holocaust survivor, told Xinhua after the premiere.

He also expressed the hope that all Croats, especially school boys and girls who would watch the play, "remember the awful history and fight the evils." "We can make the world better," he added.

"It is a sad story, Anne suffered from the war almost at my age and was killed at 15. I knew the story before but the documentary film shocked me," said Pia Madic, a 12-year-old girl.

Anne Frank wrote her diary during the time when she and her family were hiding in an attic in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, from June 1942 to August1944 before being sent to a Nazi concentration camp.

Her father Otto Frank, the only family member who survived the Holocaust, managed to publish her dairy in 1947. It has since been translated into 67 languages and had 31 million copies published. Enditem