David Miliband revealed a family connection to Anne Frank in an emotional speech to the Holocaust Memorial Day lunch of the anti-prejudice organisation set up in her name.

The former foreign secretary told Anne Frank Trust supporters that his aunt had met Otto Frank, Anne's father, in the early 1950s.

He had recently spoken to his aunt, who "had a lovely lilt when she talked about this kindl

Visitors to Amsterdam next month will be given a unique chance to see where Anne Frank and her family lived before their lives were torn apart by the Nazis.

More than a million tourists every year go to the Anne Frank House, where the family hid for two years. But a handful can now also visit her former home on Merwedeplein, a street in southern Amsterdam.

There was a serious side to the performance of Iranian-born comedienne Shappi Khorsandi at the Anne Frank Trust's 20th anniversary dinner at the Business Design Centre in Islington on Monday.

A huge admirer of Anne Frank, Khorsandi's routine included some poignant references to the discrimination she had felt as an immigrant child - and to the death threats issued by Ayatollah Khomeini against

George Osborne paid tribute to the enduring emotional appeal of Anne Frank's story as the Anne Frank Trust UK celebrated its 20th anniversary with a reception at 11 Downing Street.

Chatting to key figures from the trust, the Chancellor revealed that he had visited Anne Frank House in Amsterdam three times, most recently last year.

The chinese have become unlikely fans of the Anne Frank story: a London theatre company is to take its production of And Then They Came for Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank on a second tour of the country this autumn, only months after its first, sell-out run.

The Nazi officer who seized Anne Frank from her hiding place in an Amsterdam attic and deported her to a concentration camp later served in the West German intelligence agency BND, according to a new book.

A childhood friend of Anne Frank's sister made a surprise appearance at a Jewish Book Week talk by the young diarist's cousin, Buddy Elias.

Inge Parish, 87, of north west London, said she had been moved to speak about her friendship with ten-year-old Margot Frank, after hearing Mr Elias describe his childhood with his cousins.

A teenager whose offensive comments about Jews were published online has been given a particularly fitting punishment.

The Dutch 18-year-old, referred to as Omar E in court, has been sentenced to community service at the Holocaust hiding place of Jewish diarist Anne Frank.

He had told the website GeenStijl that he believed Jewish people should be exterminated.

Despite a claim by Omar E’s lawyer that the case should not even have come to court because of the negative publicity his client had faced, a judge ruled that the teenager should do16 hours of community service.

The two years during which Anne Frank and her family hid from the Nazis in an Amsterdam attic would not have been possible without the group of people who risked their lives to help.

Miep Gies, who was 100 when she died, was also the one who made the astounding discovery of Anne’s diary.

After the war, when she discovered Anne had died of typhus in Bergen Belsen concentration camp, she kept it safe until Anne’s father Otto could be tracked down.

Mrs Gies went on to help Otto publish Anne’s diary, of which millions of copies in an array on languages have been sold.

The chestnut tree which comforted Anne Frank while she was in hiding from the Nazis may survive despite being toppled by a storm.

The teenage diarist could see the tree from her family’s Amsterdam hiding place, and in her two years she spent there before being sent to Bergen-Belsen she wrote of admiring it “nearly every morning”.

Anne wrote: “As long as this exists...I cannot be unhappy."

The chestnut tree that Anne Frank wrote about in her diary has fallen over in a storm.

The 150-year-old tree, which had already been damaged by fungus and moth infestation, snapped about one metre above its roots and crashed across surrounding gardens.

The tree, which has inspired replicas around the world, was rooted just beside the Amsterdam attic in which the Frank family hid from the Nazis for more than two years.

The teenage diarist, who died in 1945 after contracting typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, wrote that she admired it nearly every morning.

A new graphic novel depicting a cartoon biography of Anne Frank is being released by the Anne Frank House Museum.

It will be a comic-book version of the diary written by 15-year-old Anne, who died in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp after she and her family were discovered hiding in their secret Amsterdam annex, and aims to appeal to other teenagers.

The work is a collaboration by American author Sid Jacobson and artist Ernest Colon, and translations are planned in German, French and Italian.

It will be released in the UK this autumn.

Jewish Holocaust charities and Anne Frank's only living relative have criticised a new novel which suggests that Anne had a sexual relationship with the boy who was in hiding with her.

But the book's publisher, Klaus Flugge, hit back at critics of Sharon Dogar's Annexed, an imaginary diary by Peter van Pels which relates some of Anne's reflections, but from the boy's point of view.

The executive director of the Anne Frank Trust has slammed a new teen novel which suggests Anne and a teenager hidden with her in wartime Amsterdam, Peter van Pels, had a sexual relationship.

Gillian Walnes said that the book "Annexed", which is a fictionalised diary by Peter, was “cashing in” on the diarist.

The book, published by Andersen Press, is a new novel from British author Sharon Dogar, who has written two other "coming-of-age" books for teenagers.

The surviving manuscript of Anne Frank’s diary has been returned to the once secret annexe in Amsterdam where she and her family hid from Nazi occupation for two years.

The 15-year-old diarist died of typhus at Belsen concentration camp, but her diaries became a worldwide sensation.

Now the manuscript will form part of a permanent display, opened by Holland’s Queen Beatrix, to celebrate 50 years of the Anne Frank House as a museum, and to mark 65 years after Anne’s death.

Anne Frank has been voted “Most Inspiring Woman” in a survey to mark International Women’s Day.

Despite dying, aged just 15, at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, Anne’s diary inspired Daily Mirror readers to place her at the top of the poll, beating Princess Diana, Rosa Parks, Mother Teresa and Marie Curie.

Anne garnered 12 per cent of the vote.

The Diary of Anne Frank, which she wrote in hiding in Amsterdam, has been translated into more than 70 languages.

Tributes have been paid to Miep Gies, the helper of Anne Frank's family, who has died aged 100.

Israeli president Shimon Peres wrote a letter to Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands to express his admiration for Ms Gies.

In the letter he wrote: "I bow my head in mourning and deep respect for Miep Gies.

Miep Gies, the last survivor of the group which hid Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis, has died aged 100.

Mrs Gies was the first to discover 15-year-old Anne’s diary of her life in hiding for two years in Amsterdam. Anne died of typhus in concentration camp Bergen-Belsen, just two weeks before liberation.

Miep Gies kept the diary safe until after the war, when she returned it to Anne’s father Otto Frank.

She helped Otto publish the diary in 1947. It was eventually published in dozens of languages worldwide and sold, and continues to sell, millions of copies.