Mamet to Write, Direct Anne Frank Film for Disney

Story is possible, but 'unverifiable,' experts say

(NEWSER) - The author of a new book called Life After Anne Frank is defending her account of meeting Frank at Bergen-Belsen, despite skepticism from historians and friends of the famous diarist. In the memoir, to be published in Dutch this month, Berthe Meijer, 71, recalls Anne telling children fairy tales in the barracks. Holocaust experts and fellow survivors say Anne was far too ill to tell stories. But Meijer is sticking with her story. "How do they think they can look into my memory?" she said in an interview with the AP . More»

Told fairy tales to smaller children at Bergen Belsen

(NEWSER) - Anne Frank spent the final weeks of her life distracting younger children from the horrors of the Nazi concentration camp in which she ultimately died by telling them fairy tales, says a Dutch woman who as a six-year-old was interned with her at the Bergen Belsen camp. In a new memoir, Berthe Meijer recalls the 15-year-old Anne as a gifted storyteller who told fairy tales "in which nasty things happened, and that was of course very much related to the war," Meijer said. More»

Miep Gies kept girl's papers, helped father assemble diary

(NEWSER) - The last surviving member of the Dutch group that protected famed diarist Anne Frank and her family in Amsterdam during World War II died today at 100. Miep Gies assembled Anne’s papers after she and her family were discovered by the Nazis in 1944 and, because they were Jewish, taken to concentration camps; though Anne died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen, her father, Otto, survived, and, with Gies, assembled Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl, published in 1947. More»

Film of neighbor's wedding in 1941 was given to Holocaust victim's family in the 50s

(NEWSER) - The Anne Frank House has posted the only surviving video of the young diarist and Holocaust victim on YouTube. “The footage is very moving and very unique because these are the only moving images of Anne Frank,” a museum representative tells the Guardian. The film, of an Amsterdam neighbor’s wedding, shows Anne peering down at the scene from an upstairs window. The couple gave it to Frank’s father in the 1950s after the publication of her diary. More»

(NEWSER) - Banning a book is a move laden with ironies that can make the banner seem dull-witted in the long run. For National Banned Books Week, 11Points.com lists "the most hypocritical, ignorant, and, based on the content of the books, ironic" bans:

• Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury: The sci-fi classic is about a future government that bans and burns books. 'Nuff said?