Out of all the warehouse staff, only Johan Voskuijl was aware of the presence of the people in hiding. When did the Van Pels (Van . This week on 60 Minutes, correspondent Jon Wertheim reported on a new look into the decades-old question that has dogged many readers of Anne Frank's diary: Who betrayed the Frank family and led a search team to their secret annex hidden behind a bookcase? During his research for the book, Van Wijk learned that Nelly did far more than engage in flirtations with German soldiers. 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. Stockroom manager Willem van Maaren was suspected of the betrayal for many years, although he never sided with the Nazis. In the end, the list of people who were accused of being involved in the case is too long to include in its entirety. He was the warehouse manager as well as the father of Bep, who worked in the office and was one of the helpers. Additionally, believes Van Wijk, Otto Frank either suspected or knew of Nelly Voskuijls role in the betrayal. One of the reasons his aunt has been overlooked by past investigators, believes Van Wijk, involves his familys darkest secret. Do you rely on The Times of Israel for accurate and insightful news on Israel and the Jewish world? Still, experts remain focused on the fate of the teenage diarist whose life was cut tragically short. Trending News This went well until Johan fell ill in 1943 and was replaced by Willem van Maaren. He stole goods and was generally considered dishonest. 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. Now, a biographer of Anne Frank has published a new theory which has intrigued the nation and revived a dark chapter in Dutch history - the failure to protect Jewish citizens from the genocidal Nazis. . Lena had already lost her son in the war, the theory goes, and her husband worked for Otto's food preservatives firm. Van Maaren fought the accusations and rejected a settlement. Still, Ronald Leopold, executive director of the museum, notesthat the new investigation did not refute the possibility that the people in hiding were betrayed, but instead illustrated that other scenarios should also be considered.. My aunt Willy [Nellys sister] was furious until she died in 2015, just before the publication, he said. He worked in the same building where the Franks were hiding.. But despite suspicions, there was no conclusive evidence van Maaren betrayed the family. 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. Cookie Settings, 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. In both cases, the findings were inconclusive. Former FBI special agent Vincent Pankoke was looking forward to a relaxing retirement hanging out at the beach when he left the agency. As the scarcity increased during the war, so did the number of burglaries. When the people in hiding put it back, it was brutally kicked in again. In 1947, Otto Frank and the helpers filed a complaint against him with the political police on suspicion of betrayal. At the time of Bep Voskuijls death in 1983, she was the least known of the four Dutch resisters who helped hide Anne Frank. Van Maaren pointed up the stairs, but the police already seemed to know exactly where to go. Who betrayed the Franks and why? 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. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community. "But whenever you actually dig into all the evidence, you find out that he wasn't antisemitic. 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. 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. The note came to authorities' attention during a 1963 investigation into the. Kremer's father was an acquaintance ofVan Dijk in Amsterdam and Kremer writes that in early August 1944, his father overheardVan Dijkspeaking about Prinsengracht, where the Franks were hiding, in Nazi offices. My sister and my oldest brother are still angry with me about the content of the book, Van Wijk told The Times of Israel. Anne Frank HouseWestermarkt 201016 DK Amsterdam, Ronald Leopold, Executive Director of the Anne Frank House. 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. | 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 her diary, Anne reported various attempted burglaries and actual burglaries. A petty thief and unsavory braggart, Van Maaren was investigated shortly after the war, but nothing was proved. If so, please join The Times of Israel Community. However, the investigation did not prove his guilt. But Anne was not yet famous and staff were overworked. 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. But two police investigations - one immediately after the. Updated: March 29, 2023 | Original: November 1, 2017. He places books and bits of paper on the very edges of things in the warehouse so that if anyone walks by they fall off, Anne wrote in her diary in April of 1944. The initial police investigation occurred in 1947, when Otto and the Helpers' repeated complaints to the political police accusing Van Maaren finally prompted an investigation. Netherlands State Institute for War Documentation, The Diary of Anne Frank: the critical edition (New York, NY: Doubleday, 1989)., A-version 21 April 1944; B-version, 5 August 1943. The people in hiding shared their suspicion, without knowing him or even having seen him. Summer of 1933. . Suddenly, a passer-by used a flashlight to take a look inside. As the whole world now knows, 15-year-old Anne Frank died (likely of typhoid fever) a day after her older sister, Margot, at the Bergen-Belsen death camp between February and April 1945. In 2003, Carol Ann Lee came to a different conclusion in her biography of Otto Frank: the culprit was a man named Anton "Tonny" Ahlers, a member of the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands. Willy Lages, head of the Amsterdam Sicherheitsdienst. Meanwhile, in 2018, a book claimed to offer evidence that Anne Frankand her family were betrayed by a Jewish woman who was executed after World War II for collaborating with the Nazis. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. Out of the seven others who hid with her, her father, Otto Frank, was the only one who survived the Holocaust. Fifteen-year-old Anne, her sister Margot and her mother Edith died in Nazi concentration camps. We dont have 100 percent certainty. } 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. Maarten Kuiper was one of the major betrayers of Jews in hiding during that time.". For more than 20 years, employee Van Maaren was the main suspect. It was clear that Tonny Ahlers had no knowledge that Otto Frank and the others were hiding in the annex.". Meilan Solly is Smithsonian magazine's associate digital editor, history. 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. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. January 16, 2022 / 8:09 PM Lee says among the four men who raided the Prinsengracht warehouse on Aug. 4, 1944, was Maarten Kuiper, a Dutch policeman who was a friend of Ahlers. 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. Incorrect password. Pankoke and his team eliminated her as a suspect for a few reasons. Did they do it for money? 2023 TIME USA, LLC. 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. Instead, he was drawn into solving a famous cold case: the question of who betrayed Anne Frank and her family to the Nazis, leading to the Franks' arrest and deportation to a concentration camp. (Amsterdam: NIOD, 2003). Her political leanings had estranged her so much from her family that she left their house. He needed the money and he needed the authorities' protection because his own business had gone bankrupt. But Pankoke said Van Maaren did not hold up as a suspect once investigators examined all the information they found. Frank wist wie hem weghaalde, De Telegraaf, 22 November 1963. Wilhelm van Maaren One of the people who has. A six-year investigation posits that Arnold van den Bergh disclosed the diarists hiding place to protect his family from deportation, On August 1, 1944, 15-year-old Anne Frank penned a journal entry describing herself as a bundle of contradictions. Reflecting on the warring sides of her personality, the Jewish diarist wrote, Im guided by the pure Anne within, but on the outside Im nothing but a frolicsome little goat tugging at its tether. She concluded with a pledge to keep trying to find a way to become what Id like to be and what I could be if if only there were no other people in the world.. The eight people in hiding did not trust him, and often felt suspicious of him. The Pankoke team's story was featured in a segment on 60 Minutes earlier this week (see the video at end of this post) and is covered in detail in a new book by Rosemary Sullivan: The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation. 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. Meilan Solly ", By Arthur Max Kugler was a married man, and he never shared the secret of the hidden Jews with his wife, wrote Van Wijk. But soon, it proved she was unable to resolve things that way.. "And we went into the city archive and found proof that actually he was 'Aryanized,' so he lost his Jewish identity during the war. 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. 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. "I think he actually made the call. 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. After the war, Otto Frank, the only member of his family who survived the Holocaust, made statements indicating he knew who his betrayer was. 2022 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. I take both of these theories seriously enough to put them on paper but that is different from actually saying what happened. Those hiding in the annex were wary of Van Maaren, and Anne Frank documented their suspicion in her diary. Downstairs they think it is too risky. [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. In 2002, author Carol Ann Lee argued the informant was Tonny Ahlers, a Dutch Nazi sympathizer who had previously been a business associate of Otto Frank. 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. In April 1944 Anne wrote: "One day this terrible war will be over. Explanations for the discovery are mainly based on testimonies, because no documents about the raid on the Secret Annex have been preserved. Please enter valid email address to continue. Nobody knows for sure who betrayed the Franks, but after doing research, I believe that Tony Ahlers is guilty. Years later, after Anne Frank became famous for her diary, readers wondered what had gone wrong. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine Co-authored by Belgian journalist Jeroen De Bruyn, Van Wijks book is called, Anne Frank: The Untold Story, with the subtitle, The hidden truth about Elli Vossen, the youngest helper of the Secret Annex. (As 15-year old Anne refined her diary with an eye toward eventual publication, Elli Vossen was the pseudonym she gave to Bep.). They had come very close to being discovered! Johan was important to them because he could keep an eye on the other warehouse workers to see if they noticed anything. All Rights Reserved. Was the betrayer antisemitic? Ahlers was a member of the Dutch Nazi NSB movement, appeared in Nazi propaganda films and was thrown out of his lodgings after his landlady discovered a swastika flag on the wall and a uniform bearing SS insignia hanging in his wardrobe. Ahlers said he believed his father received money from Frank, because the flow of funds stopped when Frank died in 1980. He and his team spent five years poring over every bit of pertinent material, setting up an extensive online database, and developing an AI program to help them sift through it all and find new connections. There was another important reason Pankoke crossed Van Dijk off the list of suspects. 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 several years the book had been translated into German, French and English, and was made into a film in 1959. 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