WIRED Media Group In his 2018 book The Backyard of the Secret Annex author Gerard Kremer claimed that Ans van Dijk betrayed those hiding in the annex. His name was Anton Ahlers. 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. Investigating who betrayed Anne Frank and her family to the Nazis "We are interested, that's for sure," said David Barnouw, a researcher and spokesman of the government-financed historical institute. 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. I think he got the information from Ahlers," Lee said. But Pankoke said Van Maaren did not hold up as a suspect once investigators examined all the information they found. Last week, the Anne Frank House museum in Amsterdam released a study that suggests that Anne Frank and the seven others hiding with her were discovered by chance. 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. That was quite a feat. How were the people in hiding discovered? It is still early days for the investigation, but Pankoke told Wootson Jr. of the Post that the team has already produced some interesting information. Unlike other news outlets, we havent put up a paywall. Terms of Use display: none; This is not the first time that hopes of unlocking the mystery have been raised. Who Betrayed Anne Frank? - CBS News This should be part of her biography.. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. All the more so because betrayal was never established beyond a doubt. Not only did he build the famous swinging bookcase to conceal the hiding place, but he served as an unofficial watchman over the annex through his employment in the warehouse below. There is no smoking gun because betrayal is circumstantial.. 'My aunt might have betrayed Anne Frank,' writes son of Secret Annex My aunt Willy [Nellys sister] was furious until she died in 2015, just before the publication, he said. For instance, the Anne Frank House in 2016 reinvestigated the raid, and in 2017 a former FBI officer announced that he would be looking for the possible traitor of the people in hiding with the help of an international cold case team and new technology. The Subdistrict Court dismissed the . "Sometimes you can go through the same material with fresh eyes. Now, about 72 years later, the world may have an answer to the mystery: Maybe nobody betrayed them at all. Summer of 1933. . 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. When the people in hiding put it back, it was brutally kicked in again. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. The case. One year before his death in 1980, Frank told an interviewer he believed a woman made the call to the Gestapo. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! It is my contribution to peace, understanding, respect, and above all loyalty to every human being.. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. For decades, historians have debated who betrayed Anne Frank and her family. }. God truly protected us ,Anne wrote in her diary, much relieved. 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. Additionally, believes Van Wijk, Otto Frank either suspected or knew of Nelly Voskuijls role in the betrayal. Anne Frank HouseWestermarkt 201016 DK Amsterdam, Ronald Leopold, Executive Director of the Anne Frank House. After Lee's book was published, Ahlers' son was quoted as saying he was convinced her theory is true. We question several elements of the investigation: read our statement. 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. These are two of the most frequently asked questions when it comes to Anne Frank. Anne, who is famous for documenting her time in the Secret Annex in her renowned diary, died of typhus in the spring of 1945 at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine 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. [Otto Frank] might have done this out of loyalty for my mother, wrote Van Wijk. That was a major setback, because Van Maaren was curious, and he noticed that people had been in the building after closing time. As The New York Timesreported, they hoped to bring new technology, including forensic accounting, computer modeling and even crowd sourcing research, to examine existing evidence such as Anne Franks diary and the Amsterdam building where the Franks hid. My sister and my oldest brother are still angry with me about the content of the book, Van Wijk told The Times of Israel. Nelly knew that Bep and her father were helping Jews. Suddenly, a passer-by used a flashlight to take a look inside. I think that nobody can judge van den Bergh who has not been in his position, Sullivan tells the Globe and Mail. Wootson Jr. of the Post reports that the teams work will be chronicled in a podcast and, possibly, a documentary. Did Willem van Maaren betray Anne Frank? In theory, as Cleve R. Wootson Jr. notes in the Washington Post, the betrayer of the Frank family shouldnt be hard to find; Nazis kept detailed records of all arrests and informants. Two other plausible suspects emerged over the years: Lena van Bladeren-Hartog (died 1963) and Tonny Ahlers (1917 - 2000). The Amsterdam home where she and her family hid is today a museum known as the Anne Frank House. The German-born Frank, who moved to Holland in 1933, ran a spice-trading company that sold goods to the Wehrmacht, the German army. On a warm August morning in 1944, SS officers stormed into an Amsterdam warehouse and arrested Anne Frank, her parents, her sister and four other Jews who had been hiding in a secret annex at the back of the building. Your Privacy Rights Who really turned Anne Frank over to the Nazis? In Joop van Wijks psychological diagnosis of his late mother Bep Voskuijl, she spent her post-war life being her own therapist in a kind of conversation with her alter ego. Daniel Finkelstein reflects on the tragedy of the Frank family as a new book, published this week, delves into the riddle of who revealed their . Ahlers was among the suspects Pankoke and his team investigated and ultimately ruled out. We are saved, go on saving us!That is all we can say. (Anne Frank, 11 April 1944. Anne Frank is a symbol of the youth and what the people who were in hiding went through, Pankoke said. "The NIWD has never tried to find out who betrayed the Franks but they have contacts which I don't have and know how archives in the Netherlands work. And who among us, if our families were on the line and heading to extermination camps, wouldnt do what we could? Anne Frank May Not Have Been Betrayed - Smithsonian Magazine
Rosicrucian Wedding Ceremony, Calala Island Helicopter Transfer, Articles W