BERLIN, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Germany's state railway Deutsche Bahn (DB) has recently been decried over its plan to name a high-speed train after Holocaust victim Anne Frank, who died at 15 years old and left a diary that revealed the Nazis' persecution of Jews during World War II.
Her name was among a shortlist of 25 famous Germans chosen from 19,400 suggestions that DB collected from the public to name its fourth generation of high-speed trains. Other names on the list include political philosopher Karl Marx, composer Ludwig van Beethoven and scientist Albert Einstein.
The Nazis used trains to transport Jews to concentration camps. Deutsche Reichsbahn, a predecessor of DB, transported millions of Jews between camps and even to their death.
In 1944, the Frank family were arrested by the German secret police at a secret hiding place nicknamed "the Secret Annex," where Anne recorded the rise of the Nazi party and its brutalities in "Diary of a Young Girl."
The Anne Frank Foundation held that the naming would be "a painful connection for the people who have suffered the deportations."
A statement from the Anne Frank House, the museum that preserves the "the Secret Annex" in Amsterdam, said that the connection of the name with a train was "painful for people who have experienced these deportations and causes fresh pain for those who still bear the consequences of those times within them."
In response, DB apologized for any offense caused.
"Aware of its responsibility toward the past, DB made this decision in order to keep the memory of Anne Frank alive. DB will of course take seriously the concerns that have been raised publicly and act on them in subsequent internal discussions."
