Ahlers had discovered, says Lee, that Otto's herb and food preservative business had supplied the Wehrmacht throughout the war and that, she suggests, would have been enough to see Otto branded a collaborator. Although Joop van Wijks book follows the course of his mothers life, the suspense swirls around his late aunt Nelly, Voskuijls sister. Ad Choices, Katie Falkenberg/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images. And then they heard the footsteps leave again. "But whenever you actually dig into all the evidence, you find out that he wasn't antisemitic. It has been translated into around 67 languages and has sold over 31 million copies. See an Original 1941 Transcript of FDR's Pearl Harbor Speech, What America's Richest Ski Town's Handling of COVID-19 Shows. They didn't flee quite far enough: the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands began in May 1940 and eventually forced the Franks (and many other Jews) into hiding. We had all stopped breathing audibly by then, 8 hearts were pounding, footsteps on our stairs, then a rattling on the bookcase door.' Meilan Solly (Amsterdam: NIOD, 2003). "His own mother said he had a bad character from birth and that he was always parading his Nazi connections," the author told the Guardian yesterday. But Pankoke said Van Maaren did not hold up as a suspect once investigators examined all the information they found. The Netherlands Institute for War Documentation, the researchers who published the authoritative version the diary and the caretaker of the Frank papers, said Ahlers had not been a suspect until Lee started probing his background for her book, "The Hidden Life of Otto Frank," published in March. Trending News In 2022, The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation which details the findings of Pankoke's investigationcited Arnold van den Bergh, a Jewish businessman and member of the. Records discovered in the Dutch national archives by journalist Pieter van Twisk, co-founder of the research project, seemingly corroborated the claim, suggesting that a member of Amsterdams Jewish Council turned over lists of addresses where Jews were hiding. But the most innovative aspect of the investigation is its use of big data analysisa technology that has only emerged within the past decadeto comb through reams of documents relevant to the case. #inline-recirc-item--id-a4ef05fe-8c88-11e2-b06b-024c619f5c3d ~ .item:nth-child(5) { He only stuck to the logic of assumptions of which he did not know the validity, nor did he need to know the validity in order to give a reasoned answer. War diary of life in hiding became world bestseller The Diary of Anne Frank, first published in English in 1952 as The Diary of a Young Girl, is one of the most widely read books in the world. Another book posited that the suspect might be a Jewish woman. On August 4, 1944, police in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam raided a warehouse and arrested eight Jews who were hiding in an annex disguised behind a bookcase. This theory continues on an assumption that in itself is insufficiently proven, that is that betrayal by telephone led to the raid. Historians have proposed competing hypotheses without definitive proof . The trove of information is so large that a human in their lifetime might not be able to review it, Pankoke tells Stephanie van den Berg andAnthony Deutsch of Reuters. He stole goods and was generally considered dishonest. Cookie Settings, NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Five Places Where You Can Still Find Gold in the United States, Scientists Taught Pet Parrots to Video Call Each Otherand the Birds Loved It, Balto's DNA Provides a New Look at the Intrepid Sled Dog, The Science of California's 'Super Bloom,' Visible From Space, What We're Still Learning About Rosalind Franklins Unheralded Brilliance. Pankoke and his colleagues, including an investigative psychologist, a war crimes investigator, historians, criminologists and archivists, approached the historical mystery like a criminal cold case. On 17 January 2022 the cold case teampresentedtheir findings. Ahlers was among the suspects Pankoke and his team investigated and ultimately ruled out. When did the Franks decided to move to the Netherlands due to increasing tensions in Germany? However, because Anne wrote about Nellys collaboration with the Nazis in the original version of her her diary, the authors proved that Nelly returned to Amsterdam in 1943. He vehemently denied any involvement and said that Victor Kugler had known about the pieces of wood and other things. The eight people in hiding did not trust him, and often felt suspicious of him. Willem van Maaren was the traitor. They will also scrutinise the letters of Anne's father, Otto, for clues and examine police transcripts of interviews dating back to the 1940s. And the people in hiding had to be very careful as well. Incorrect password. The video above was produced by Brit McCandless Farmer and Will Croxton. 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. In the years since Anne Franks diary was published, investigators and historians have proposed several other potential informants. Lee "has no proof, but I can imagine this was the case. Two Dutch police inquiries and countless historians have come up with theories, but no firm conclusion. In other words: If a call was actually made that morning, and the response was immediate, then one may conclude that the informant was known and reliable, according to Lages. In addition to Johan Voskuijls involvement, another of the Voskuijl sisters sewed clothes for the Jews in hiding, making the effort a family affair. And if what we could do would be to offer anonymous addresses, I dont know that I know many people who could resist it.. "We are interested, that's for sure," said David Barnouw, a researcher and spokesman of the government-financed historical institute. Stockroom manager Willem van Maaren was another suspect, and since several possible culprits knew each other, there is also the possibility that more than one person betrayed the Frank. Potential informants ruled out by the group ranged from Willem van Maaren, an oft-cited suspect who worked in the warehouse where the Franks were hiding, to Nelly Voskuijl, a Nazi sympathizer and the sister of Secret Annex helper Bep Vokuijl, to Ans van Dijk, a Jewish collaborator whose actions led to the arrest of some 145 people. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Although he published his mothers most intimate secrets, Van Wijk believes his book would eventually have gained her approval, because she greatly upheld the truth, he said. Instead, the groups arrest could have been a tragic accident. 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. A long-held theory proposed that a new employee at her father's business, Willem van Maaren, tipped off the Nazis. All Rights Reserved. "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. That, Ms Lee suggests, is more likely to have been a man called Maarten Kuiper, who made a living from the betrayal of Jews and who moved into Ahlers' flat with him the day before the raid. Titled Anne Frank: A Cold Case Diary, the investigative project was initiated by filmmaker Thijs Bayens and supported through crowd funding. Nevertheless, researchers do not rule out the potential that Frank and the others were the victims of a betrayal. Many experts believe that someone alerted Nazi authorities to the hiding place of Frank and her family, but the culprit has never been determined. Wertheim spoke with Vince Pankoke, a retired FBI agent. In the middle of war, Nelly moved to Austria with a Nazi officer, only to have the relationship fall apart. However, Pankoke told 60 Minutes he trusts the evidence shows those hiding in the annex were betrayed and that the Nazi discovery and arrest wasn't merely a coincidence. 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. Two Dutch investigations, in 1947-48 and 1963-64, targeted the warehouse manager, Willem van Maaren, but were inconclusive. (11 April 1944.) He long suspected his family was turned in by Willem van Maaren, a recently hired employee who was not in on the secret behind the bookcase. Van Maaren pointed up the stairs, but the police already seemed to know exactly where to go. Suspicion for being the betrayer In several investigations after the war, Van Maaren was the prime suspect for the betrayal of Anne Frank; however Van Maaren publicly denied he was responsible. Johan was important to them because he could keep an eye on the other warehouse workers to see if they noticed anything. But despite suspicions, there was no conclusive evidence van Maaren betrayed the family. They could, for example, not flush the toilet too often, because the water discharge from the Secret Annex ran along the storeroom. A long-held theory proposed that a new employee at her fathers business, Willem van Maaren, tipped off the Nazis. 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. They also believe their work in solving this decades-old cold case resonates today. Left unsigned, the message named van den Bergh as the person whod reported the Franks hiding place to the Nazis. A petty thief and unsavory braggart, Van Maaren was investigated shortly after the war, but nothing was proved. It claims that Ahlers - then a 26-year- old petty thief - had fallen on hard times by 1944 and desperately needed the bounty paid to Dutch civilians who exposed Jews in their midst. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. 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. The second major burglary in the night of 9 to 10 April 1944 was much more serious. Willem van Maaren began working as the warehouse manager in 1943, one year before the secret annex was raided by police. Lee said Ahlers probably decided to tip off the authorities after his own company slid into bankruptcy and he no longer needed to do business with Frank's company. (public domain), Author Joop van Wijk with the biography of his mother, Bep Voskuijl (courtesy), Bep Voskuijl, lower right, with Otto Frank (middle) and the other Dutch helpers in October, 1945 (public domain), Nelly Voskuijl during World War II (courtesy: Joop van Wijk), View of the secret annex with its blacked out windows at the renovated Anne Frank House Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Nov. 21, 2018 (AP Photo/Peter Dejong), The Secret Annex in which Anne Frank wrote her diary, Amsterdam, January 2017 (Matt Lebovic/The Times of Israel), Otto Frank and Bep Voskuijl in 1978 (courtesy: Joop van Wijk), Anne Franks hiding place bedroom during the 1950s (left) and her restored bedroom at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam today (Matt Lebovic/The Times of Israel), Exterior of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, November 2014 (Matt Lebovic/The Times of Israel). Terms of Use These are two of the most frequently asked questions when it comes to Anne Frank. Now, about 72 years later, the world may have an answer to the mystery: Maybe nobody betrayed them at all. Gies and Voskuijl were questioned but not detained. WIRED Media Group 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. [T]he list of people who were accused of being involved in the case is too long to include in its entirety, notes the Anne Frank House on its website. If Frank had known that Van Dijk had also betrayed his family, Pankoke reasoned, he would have had no incentive to keep the information quiet. "Van den Bergh wasn't deported," said Pieter van Twisk, a veteran Dutch journalist who co-founded the investigative project and led the research team. The enduring mystery of the Anne Frank story is, who betrayed her to the Nazis? As the scarcity increased during the war, so did the number of burglaries. 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. This should be part of her biography.. We dont have 100 percent certainty. Still, experts remain focused on the fate of the teenage diarist whose life was cut tragically short. Though the Nazis dissolved the council in September 1943, sending most of its members to concentration and death camps, van den Bergh and his family managed to escape deportationan exemption indicating that the notary had some kind of leverage, according to Pankoke. Those hiding in the annex were wary of Van Maaren, and Anne Frank documented their suspicion in her diary. She was 15 at the time of her death. Clearly, the museums report concludes, the last word about that fateful summer day in 1944 has not yet been said.. In 1963, the SS officer. It is believed that an anonymous tip helped guide the Nazis to the secret annex, yet despite decades of investigations, the identity of the informant has never been proven. Out of all the warehouse staff, only Johan Voskuijl was aware of the presence of the people in hiding. "She was out of town working not close to Amsterdam. First published on January 16, 2022 / 8:09 PM. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated 1/1/20) and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement (updated 1/1/20) and Ars Technica Addendum (effective 8/21/2018).
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