Frail, bone-cold and surrounded by death, Jewish teenager Anne Frank did her best to distract younger children from the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp by telling them fairy tales, a Holocaust survivor says.
The account by Berthe Meijer, now 71, of being a 6-year-old inmate of Bergen Belsen offers a rare glimpse of Anne in the final weeks of her life in the German camp, struggling to keep up her own spirits even as she tried to lift the morale of the smaller children.
That Anne had a gift for storytelling was evident from the diary she kept during two years in hiding with her family in Amsterdam. The scattered pages were collected and published after the war in what became the most widely read book to emerge from the Holocaust.
But Meijer's memoir, being published in Dutch later this month, is the first to mention Anne's talent for spinning tales even in the despair of the camp.
The memoir deals with Meijer's acquaintance with Anne Frank in only a few pages, but she said she titled it "Life After Anne Frank" because it continues the tale of Holocaust victims where the famous diary leaves off.
"The dividing line is where the diary of Anne Frank ends. Because then you fall into a big black hole," Meijer told The Associated Press at her Amsterdam home.
Honor for Perry postponed
A resolution honoring entertainment mogul Tyler Perry, scheduled to be proclaimed Wednesday by the Georgia Senate, has been postponed.
Perry was to be honored for his achievements as an entertainer and humanitarian. The 40-year-old New Orleans native and Atlanta resident would be the first celebrity to be honored in the chamber this session.
The resolution cites his sharp-tongued "Madea" character, his creation of Tyler Perry Studios as the first independent movie studio of its size in the state and his donations to area food banks and various charities.
Adams, Lange bios garner prizes
Biographies of Abigail Adams and Depression-era photographer Dorothea Lange are among the winners of the prestigious Bancroft Prize for history.
Columbia University announced Wednesday that three authors will each receive $10,000 for the Bancroft.
The prize goes to Linda Gordon for "Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits"; Woody Holton for "Abigail Adams"; and Margaret D. Jacobs for "White Mother to a Dark Race: Settler Colonialism, Maternalism, and the Removal of Indigenous Children in the American West and Australia, 1880-1940."
The Bancroft Prize was founded in 1948.
-- From Our Press Services
Today's birthdays
Composer John Kander ("Chicago"), 83; country singer Charley Pride, 72; actor Brad Dourif ("Lord of the Rings," "Chucky" movies), 60; singer Irene Cara, 51; singer-actress Vanessa Williams, 47; guitarist Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains, 44; rapper-actress Queen Latifah, 40; comedian Dane Cook, 38.
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