The Diary of Anne Frank has been added to the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. The UN organisation for education, science and culture has now listed 193 documents as significant for the history of humanity.

The English Magna Carta and the German Song of the Nibelungs (Nibelungenlied) are among the other works added to the register on Thursday. King John's signature of the Magna Carta in 1215 guaranteed his subjects much greater political freedom. The Song of the Nibelungs is the most important German heroic epic poem of the Middle Ages.
 

Anne Frank's diary is one of the top ten most read books in the world. UNESCO says it gives a true impression of daily life in the Netherlands during World War II and shows the impact of Nazi occupation on an individual life. Anne Frank died at the age of 15 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, shortly before it was liberated in 1945.
 

The Catesismo Cortico has also been added to the UNESCO register. It was the first book published in Papiamentu, the language spoken by nearly a quarter of a million people in the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. UNESCO says the translations of the Roman Catholic Catechism in 1826 and 1837 had a huge impact on the subsequent history of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. It is described as a landmark in the evolution of Papiamentu from a local spoken Creole to the official national language of the Antilles.
 

Click here for the UNESCO website.