Another book posited that the suspect might be a Jewish woman. In April 1944 Anne wrote: "One day this terrible war will be over. Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window), Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window), Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window), Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window), Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window), The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation, https://www.history.com/news/who-betrayed-anne-frank. Millions of people have read The Diary of Anne Frank since it was first published posthumously in 1947. As he tells Anthony Deutsch and Stephanie van den Berg of Reuters, van den Bergh was a very influential man who couldve avoided deportation for any number of reasons. And if what we could do would be to offer anonymous addresses, I dont know that I know many people who could resist it.. Fox on Parkinson's and how he finds "optimism is sustainable", Ed Sheeran plays guitar in court in bid to show he didn't steal Marvin Gaye song, Preview: Michael J. It was an anonymous phone call in the hot summer of 1944 which led the Gestapo and Dutch security police to the concealed annexe in a canalside house where Anne Frank and her family had hidden for almost two years. Magazines, Or create a free account to access more articles, Who Betrayed Anne Frank? For example, it is certain that two representatives from whom the helpers bought illegal coupons were arrested for black marketeering. But Pankoke said Van Maaren did not hold up as a suspect once investigators examined all the information they found. Your Privacy Rights The people in hiding shared their suspicion, without knowing him or even having seen him. A long-held theory proposed that a new employee at her fathers business, Willem van Maaren, tipped off the Nazis. According to Pankoke, Van Dijk had betrayed the family of Otto Frank's second wife. After the war, Frank removed content from Annes diary regarding Nellys collaboration. Downstairs they think it is too risky. Additionally, believes Van Wijk, Otto Frank either suspected or knew of Nelly Voskuijls role in the betrayal. Bep Voskuijl was only 18 when she started working for the spice and jam company owned by Otto Frank. Speaking with Marsha Lederman of the Globe and Mail, Sullivan says the researchers characterize the notary as a tragic figure, not as some kind of villain. Bayens tells the AP that [w]e went looking for a perpetrator and we found a victim., Van den Bergh gave that list as a way of keeping him and his family out of the extermination camps, Sullivan says. They also believe their work in solving this decades-old cold case resonates today. Click the link in that email to complete registration so you can comment. It takes just a few seconds. Her writing created a trail to judicial documents from other parts of the Netherlands, resulting in the latest theory. For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members. Sign me up , CNMN Collection He was the warehouse manager as well as the father of Bep, who worked in the office and was one of the helpers. God truly protected us ,Anne wrote in her diary, much relieved. Van Wijk had always been told Nelly did not return to the Netherlands until the end of 1944 or early in 1945 after the betrayal of the annex. 2023 TIME USA, LLC. Specifically, Anne referred to the troubles brought upon the Voskuijl family by Nelly, and that the young woman was often away from home.. The Germans were paying a bounty of 40 guilders per head, which was "a large amount in those days," she said. Join the Ars Orbital Transmission mailing list to get weekly updates delivered to your inbox. More recent research by the Anne Frank House highlights and substantiates the possibility that the reasons for the raid may have been completely different. Were they betrayed? We had all stopped breathing audibly by then, 8 hearts were pounding, footsteps on our stairs, then a rattling on the bookcase door.' ", By Arthur Max For a long time, betrayal was considered to be the reason for the arrest of the people in hiding, but the focus is shifting, as there are several other options. The encounter ended with Nelly shouting, Just go to your Jews!. (modern). Do you rely on The Times of Israel for accurate and insightful news on Israel and the Jewish world? The groups hideout was located inside a warehouse he had once owned, and they were aided by several of his employees as well as other Dutch sympathizers. It made sense that two people who were constantly in each others vicinity and shared the role of helper of Jews, grew closer, he wrote. And it really matters to me, and I think it mattered to the group, that that was an anonymous list of addressesthere were no names. Preview: Michael J. But two police investigations - one immediately after the. Scholars and the public alike have long debated the identity of the individual (or individuals) who betrayed Frank, her family and the other residents of the so-called Secret Annex. A petty thief and unsavory braggart, Van Maaren was investigated shortly after the war, but nothing was proved. Clearly, the museums report concludes, the last word about that fateful summer day in 1944 has not yet been said.. Anne wrote about it in her diary and attributed negative qualifications to him. Brigit Katz is a freelance writer based in Toronto. That report, written by senior historian Gertjan Broek, argued that the German Security Service might have simply stumbled upon the eight Jews while raiding the premises to search for fraudulent food-ration cards. The people in hiding slept through the first one, in July 1943. Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter, Despite decades of research, betrayal as a point of departure has delivered nothing conclusive, Ronald Leopold, Executive Director of the Anne Frank House museum, said in statement. To discover the traitor, Pankoke assembled his own crack team of dogged investigators. "I think that people that are looking at this feel, 'Ah, maybe we can learn something if this case is solved,'" Pankoke said. Since 2017, Van Wijk has been interviewed several times by members of an international forensics team looking into the cold case of the betrayal, he told The Times of Israel. After all, one of her sisters and her father joined the high-risk effort of hiding, feeding, and sustaining eight Jewish fugitives. A family's darkest secret sheds light on an enduring mystery, Were really pleased that youve read, Please use the following structure: example@domain.com, Send me The Times of Israel Daily Edition. Immediately after the war, Willem van Maaren was the only suspect in the investigation into the raid of the Secret Annex by the Sicherheitsdienst. Fox on Parkinson's: "Every day it gets tougher". But soon, it proved she was unable to resolve things that way.. . Summer of 1933. . Van Maaren fought the accusations and rejected a settlement. Thats why we started the Times of Israel eleven years ago - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world. . It was edited by Will Croxton. Pankoke also showed Wertheim a note, which investigators say Otto Frank received after the war, that specifically names Van den Bergh as the betrayer. Over the years, some 30 different suspects have been suggested as the possible culprit, from the wife of a warehouse employee, to the sister of Otto Franks typist, to Anton Ahlers, a business associate of Otto Frank who was active in the Dutch Nazi party. Beginning in 2016, Pankoke led a team of expert investigators equipped with modern crime-solving techniques to try to crack the case. Pankoke and his team are compiling a huge database of other documents that may contain information relevant to the Frank case: lists of Nazi informants, lists of Jews who were turned over to the authorities, names of Gestapo agents who lived in Amsterdam, police records and so on. [My mother] often lived in the past after the war and mulled over the split she found herself in: the loss of her Jewish loved ones from the Annex on the one hand, and her loyalty to her sister [Nelly] who had proven her services to the occupier on the other hand, wrote Van Wijk. Meilan Solly is Smithsonian magazine's associate digital editor, history. #inline-recirc-item--id-a4ef05fe-8c88-11e2-b06b-024c619f5c3d, #right-rail-recirc-item--id-a4ef05fe-8c88-11e2-b06b-024c619f5c3d { This deterioration took place around the period in which a call was made to Gestapo headquarters by a young woman it was later claimed to inform on the Frank familys hiding place. For more than 20 years, employee Van Maaren was the main suspect. Brigit Katz Per BBC, he wasn't deported and had lost his Jewish identity during the war. But isn't it even riskier to leave things as they are?. There was another important reason Pankoke crossed Van Dijk off the list of suspects. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. It has been translated into 70 languages and inspired a theatrical play and subsequent Oscar-winning 1959 film, featuring Millie Perkins in the title role. Meilan Solly The time will come when we will be people again and not just Jews! (Amsterdam: NIOD, 2003). Fox on Parkinson's: "Every day it gets tougher" The Amsterdam home where she and her family hid is today a museum known as the Anne Frank House. Pankoke and his team also spent hours looking for clues in the concealed rooms behind an Amsterdam warehouse, where the Frank family and four other Jews lived hidden away for more than two years. "She was out of town working not close to Amsterdam. Please enter valid email address to continue. Hermann van Pels hit the ground with an axe, which finally drove them away. For more than seven decades, investigators, researchers and journalists have been trying to shed light on the mysterious circumstances surrounding the arrest of Anne Frank, who famously captured the rise of Nazism in her poignant, posthumously published diary. Previously, Voskuijl and others had placed suspicion on a disgruntled male warehouse employee, Willem van Maaren. The burglars managed to take two cash boxes containing forty guilders, blank giro and bank cheques, and coupons for 150 kilograms of sugar. The warehouse workers were not to know that there were people hiding in the Secret Annex. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday. A 20-person team for theAnne Frank House was led, in part, by two retired FBI officials; former special agent Vince Pankoke, and behavioral scientist Roger Depue. In the immediate aftermath of the war Otto, Anne's father, had trouble finding a publisher for the diary and was told that nobody wanted to read about the Holocaust. Although he heard about Nellys romantic liaisons with Germans while growing up, Van Wijk was never told about his aunts role as a Nazi collaborator. Anne died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen in the spring of 1945, just weeks before the camp was liberated. Titled Anne Frank: A Cold Case Diary, the investigative project was initiated by filmmaker Thijs Bayens and supported through crowd funding. The note came to authorities' attention during a 1963 investigation into the. ", Photo of Ans van Dijk courtesy of Ben van Meerendonk/IISH. On this page we distinguish the facts from the unproven theories and the absolute falsehoods. However, the investigation did not prove his guilt. But all ofthe other people who were in hiding, and their collaborators, theyre just as important; theyre just not as famous.. It was very dangerous for the people in hiding, because what could they do if they were discovered? Photo collection: Nationaal Archief/ Anefo, access number 2.24.01.04, item number 919-6449. Advertising Notice He needed the money and he needed the authorities' protection because his own business had gone bankrupt. "He was a Dutch Nazi, a well-known traitor and an anti-semite and was very anti-Jewish. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Frank wist wie hem weghaalde, De Telegraaf, 22 November 1963. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. "There's no smoking gun but we are going to make a comparison of the two theories and see what we can rule out and in. When they came to raid the building, they unexpectedly discovered Anne and the others. Throughout the course of the hiding, Bep and Kugler had fallen in love, as Bep later confessed to her sister Diny with red cheeks, wrote Van Wijk. Anne received the famous diary on June 12, 1942, for her 13th birthday, around the time the Gestapo began deporting Jews in Amsterdam. } Sign in to stop seeing this, Netanyahu calls for national unity at Independence Day ceremony, Five wounded in terror car-ramming near busy Jerusalem market, Godfather meets Shtisel: New Netflix thriller delves into Haredi diamond dealers, 15,000 attend controversial joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day event. ", Ms Lee is also cautious but believes the secret of who shopped Anne Frank is there to be unearthed. Only when he began research for the book in 2010 was the long-time marketing professional able to locate documents that contradict the family backstory on Nelly. Victor Kugler believed he placed small pieces of wood and other items in the warehouse, in such a way that in the morning he could see if anyone had been there. And, during a 1994 lecture, Secret Annex helper Miep Gies let slip that the informant died prior to 1960. But Dutch government historians disclosed yesterday that two new theories about who betrayed 15-year-old Jewish schoolgirl Anne Frank to the Nazis in occupied Amsterdam are so compelling that they are reopening their investigations. Then, the team considered the motive. The case was reopened in 1963 after Austrian Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal located Silberbauer in the Vienna police force. Pankoke's team discovered that Van den Bergh, a prominent Jewish businessman in Amsterdam with a wife and kids, lived an open life in the middle of Nazi-occupied Holland at a time when Jews were being deported to concentration camps. Although Joop van Wijks book follows the course of his mothers life, the suspense swirls around his late aunt Nelly, Voskuijls sister. 2023 Cond Nast. display: none; In the end, the list of people who were accused of being involved in the case is too long to include in its entirety. Writer Rosemary Sullivan chronicled the painstaking process in a new book, The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation. Nelly knew that Bep and her father were helping Jews. Years later, after Anne Frank became famous for her diary, readers wondered what had gone wrong. They will also scrutinise the letters of Anne's father, Otto, for clues and examine police transcripts of interviews dating back to the 1940s. The case against Ahlers fell apart, Pankoke told Wertheim, when it came to knowledge. Your California Privacy Rights | Do Not Sell My Personal Information For as little as $6/month, you will: Were really pleased that youve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month. Unlike other news outlets, we havent put up a paywall. He was not betraying Otto Frank., Ronald Leopold, director of the Anne Frank House, points out that many missing pieces of the puzzle remain, telling the AP, I dont think we can say that [the] mystery has been solved now.. In her diary, Anne reported various attempted burglaries and actual burglaries. After discovering some of the family's long-held secrets, Van Wijk now believes there is an unsettling reason behind his mother's relative "anonymity" among the helpers. Within five years, she was illegally buying bread and milk for her Jewish friends in hiding and just as important giving them her sought-after company. Lages answered that the credibility of the tip-off would have been checked first, unless it came from an informant who had proved to be reliable before. When did the Franks decided to move to the Netherlands due to increasing tensions in Germany? Specifically, the author believes Nelly was involved in the betrayal of the so-called Secret Annex Jews, including the iconic teenage diarist. However, the investigation did not prove his guilt. In the years following Nelly Voskuijls death in 2001, Van Wijk attempted to learn more about the relationship between his mother and his aunt from members of the large family. Among Voskuijls other secrets that her son came to know, the clandestine affection shared by his mother and Victor Kugler, one of the other Secret Annex helpers, fills a page of the book. When the people in hiding put it back, it was brutally kicked in again. This theory holds that Nellywho returned to Amsterdam in 1943 when her romance souredmay have been the anonymous female caller who (allegedly) tipped off the SS about the Secret Annex, per the testimony of SS officer Karl Josef Silberbauer, who made the arrests. At one point, Kugler was prepared to end his marriage in order to move to South America with Voskuijl, but she did not want to wreck their marriage. In analyzing the person who might have tipped off police to the location, the investigators adapted a standard law enforcement axiom in assessing suspects and looked for "knowledge, motive, opportunity." The helpers worked in the office above the warehouse. Her father, Otto Frank, survived, and spent the rest of his life trying to discover who had betrayed his family. The involvement of Van Dijk, who was executed in 1948 after admitting to collaborating in the capture of 145 people, had been previously claimed. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. The first police investigation: Was WILLEM VAN MAAREN the betrayer? In 1963, the SS officer who conducted the annex raid told investigators a young woman made the betrayal call. Ms Lee also claims that Ahlers was blackmailing Otto, first in 1941 by threatening to release a letter which would have led to his deportation, and astonishingly after the war too and even as recently as 1980 when Otto died. Voskuijls father, Johan, was also in on the secret of the Jews in hiding. Her work has appeared in a number of publications, including NYmag.com, Flavorwire and Tina Brown Media's Women in the World. Gies and Voskuijl were questioned but not detained. They had come very close to being discovered! "I looked at his files in The Hague because after the war he was convicted of betraying people and he was jailed," Lee said in an interview for a Dutch television documentary. A Dutch newspaper, Het Parool, printed a story about Anne's diary which aroused the interest of a publishing house. But Barnouw said Lee's case sounded credible enough for the institute to reopen its investigation into the betrayal.
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