Anne Frank Fund Blasts German TV Adaptation

With the 70th anniversary of Anne Frank's death fast approaching, there are no less than three biographical productions in the work—and the Anne Frank Fund is furious about one of them. German broadcaster ZDF has announce a live-action TV miniseries that will weave Frank's life into a fictionalized modern narrative designed to appeal to young viewers. But ZDF doesn't have the blessing of the Fund, which owns the rights to Frank's diary and the Frank family archive, the Hollywood Reporter reports.

The Fund isn't happy, releasing a statement saying that ZDF, and the series' producers, are violating "all standards of convention, fairness and decency" and "disrespecting the Frank family." "This is not about money for us," a member of the Fund's board says. "This is about Anne Frank's legacy. She has become incredibly commercialized." But ZDF notes that it does have the blessing of the Anne Frank Foundation, a bitter rival of the Fund that runs the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. (More Anne Frank stories.)