AMSTERDAM, Jan. 12 (JTA) — A record number of visitors toured the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam last year. More than 822,000 people visited the house where the teen-age diarist and her family hid from the Nazis, a 16 percent increase over 1997, according to officials at the Anne Frank Foundation. The officials attributed the increase to publicity surrounding the recent publication of newly discovered pages from her diary, as well as a general rise in tourism to Amsterdam. In addition, the foundation’s new Internet site received over 200,000 “hits” in 1998. The house where the Frank family hid is being revamped to give an even better reconstruction of Anne Frank’s environment. The renovation, plus a larger exhibition in the house next door, are due to be completed this fall. The diary recording Anne Frank’s experiences in hiding during World War II has been translated into over 55 languages and has sold more than 25 million copies since it appeared. An exhibition on her life has toured 16 countries, including Bosnia, Spain, Portugal, Venezuela and the United States, attracting half a million viewers. In 1944, Frank and her family were arrested by the Germans after they were betrayed to the police. She died in Bergen-Belsen in 1945.
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