Amsterdam  - Pupils of an Amsterdam elementary school on Thursday received the first copy of a so-called transfer diary marking the start of the memorial year of Anne Frank's 80 birthday on June 12.

The diary of the Jewish teenager, published as "The Secret Annex" in 1947, is one of the most famous documents recounting the Nazi persecution of the Jews during World War II.

To commemorate Anne Frank upcoming 80th birthday, the Dutch Anne Frank Foundation launched a national diary writing competition among Dutch elementary schools.

At least half of all Dutch elementary schools are participating in the competition. School classes will fill the diary by turn, each pupil adding thoughts and feelings in writing, photos or pictures.

Eighty-year-old Jacqueline van Maarsen, a school friend of Anne Frank, handed the first copy of the transfer diary to a school class.

She said she hoped the project would "make the children think about racism and apartheid" and about the famous diary of her late friend.

On Anne's birthday, June 12, the Dutch Anne Frank Foundation is due to announce which school class has produced the best diary. The winning class receives an invitation to visit the Anne Frank House.

Born in Frankfurt on June 12, 1929, Annelies Marie Frank was a Jewish girl who fled with her family from Germany to the Netherlands after the Nazis' rise to power in 1933.

On June 12, 1942 the Frank family went into hiding with four other Jews in the annex of a house at Prinsengracht 263.

There, she wrote her diary until all Jews in the secret annex were betrayed early August 1944 and deported to Westerbork, the Jewish concentration camp in the north-east of the Netherlands.

From there, the Nazis sent them 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 publishing success.

The Secret Annex has sold tens of millions of copies since its publication 60 years ago and been translated into almost 100 languages. (dpa)