SD big shot Willy Lages knew that the callerwas a well-known informant. In April 1944 Anne wrote: "One day this terrible war will be over. 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. All rights reserved. In 1963, the SS officer. It was edited by Will Croxton. For decades, historians have debated who betrayed Anne Frank and her family. This is highly significant and even if they don't find who the traitor was, the scope to find out exactly what did happen is enormous.". Investigating who betrayed Anne Frank and her family to the Nazis 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. Nelly didnt just engage in an adolescent relationship with a soldier it went far beyond that, wrote Van Wijk. First published in English in 1952 as "The Diary of a Young Girl" and later as a stage play and film, her story made her a symbol both of the Holocaust and of Dutch bravery. All Rights Reserved. Please try again or choose an option below. Evidence of his involvement was never found. But Barnouw said Lee's case sounded credible enough for the institute to reopen its investigation into the betrayal. It was clear that Tonny Ahlers had no knowledge that Otto Frank and the others were hiding in the annex.". These include Lena Hartog, the wife of one of the warehouse employees; and Nelly Voskuijl, the sister of one of the Franks helpers. However, the two new theories, painstakingly researched by a British and an Austrian author, and presented in separate books, have raised hopes once again and the NIWD is about to discover whether either of the scenarios stands up to close scrutiny. Who Betrayed Anne Frank? Part One : r/UnresolvedMysteries - Reddit Then, in 2016, a team of investigators, led by a veteran FBI agent, decided to bring modern. During the next six months a team of experts from the Netherlands' Institute for War Documentation (NIWD) will pore over government records drawn up at the end of the war which detail the extent of Dutch collaboration with the Nazis. These are two of the most frequently asked questions when it comes to Anne Frank. 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). That same week, the Franks were arrestedwhile Van Dijk was away in the Hague. And who among us, if our families were on the line and heading to extermination camps, wouldnt do what we could? In the end, the list of people who were accused of being involved in the case is too long to include in its entirety. "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. ", By Arthur Max Magazines, Or create a free account to access more articles, Who Betrayed Anne Frank? 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. The case was reopened in 1963 after Austrian Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal located Silberbauer in the Vienna police force. Experts have discovered, for instance, the identity of a person who betrayed at least one other family to the Nazis. The case against Ahlers fell apart, Pankoke told Wertheim, when it came to knowledge. The enduring mystery of the Anne Frank story is, who betrayed her to the Nazis? 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. 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. Certainly, Maarten Kuiper received money for the betrayals he made.". He strongly suspected a warehouse employee named Willem van Maaren, who had sparked concerns among the Franks and the people who helped them hide. He stole goods and was generally considered dishonest. Join the Ars Orbital Transmission mailing list to get weekly updates delivered to your inbox. Did willem van maaren betray the franks? - delasd.vhfdental.com More recent research by the Anne Frank House highlights and substantiates the possibility that the reasons for the raid may have been completely different. Did they do it for money? 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. Was Anne Frank betrayed? | Anne Frank House Argumentative Essay: Who Betrayed The Franks | ipl.org Only one of the people in hiding, Franks father, Otto, survived World War II. | READ MORE. The people in hiding shared their suspicion, without knowing him or even having seen him. 2023 TIME USA, LLC. In 1947, Otto Frank and the helpers filed a complaint against him with the political police on suspicion of betrayal. "But whenever you actually dig into all the evidence, you find out that he wasn't antisemitic. Wilhelm van Maaren One of the people who has. In a 2002 biography of Anne Frank's father, Otto, author Carol Ann Lee suggested the betrayer might be Tonny Ahlers, a Dutch National Socialist. Last year, the Anne Frank House museum in Amsterdam floated a new theory: Nazi officers who were investigating illegal work and ration fraud at the warehouse accidentally stumbled upon the Jews hiding in the annex. Vince Pankoke, who tracked Colombian drug traffickers in recentyears atthe FBI, will lead a multidisciplinary team of experts, among them historians, psychological profilers and police detectives. If so, please join The Times of Israel Community. Immediately after the war, Willem van Maaren was the only suspect in the investigation into the raid of the Secret Annex by the Sicherheitsdienst. Do you rely on The Times of Israel for accurate and insightful news on Israel and the Jewish world? More than 100,000 Dutch Jews - 70 percent of the community - were deported to concentration camps in Germany. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. The men went down with whatever they could use as weapons and Hermann van Pels shouted Police. In the middle of war, Nelly moved to Austria with a Nazi officer, only to have the relationship fall apart. Gies and Voskuijl were questioned but not detained. ", Dutch historians investigate new claims to identity of person who revealed hiding place of Jewish family, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. Thats obvious, said Bertus Hulsman, who was the wartime boyfriend of Voskuijl and sometimes mentioned in the diary. For more than 20 years, employee Van Maaren was the main suspect. The diary was given to Anne on her 13th birthday, just weeks before she and her family went into hiding in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. 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. And then they heard the footsteps leave again. "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. There's no evidence to indicate that he knew who was hiding at any of these addresses, Pankoke tells 60 Minutes. [But] when van den Bergh lost all his series of protections exempting him from having to go to the camps, he had to provide something valuable to the Nazis that he's had contact with to let him and his wife at that time stay safe.. Around the time of the investigation into the SS officer, Voskuijl ceased granting interviews, wrote Van Wijk. Did a Jewish Notary Betray Anne Frank to the Nazis? Who betrayed Anne Frank? A new book tracks history's most - MSN Three days after Frank wrote these wordsthe final entry in her beloved diarySS officers raided her Amsterdam hiding place and arrested its eight inhabitants. 'My aunt might have betrayed Anne Frank,' writes son of Secret Annex It was very dangerous for the people in hiding, because what could they do if they were discovered? 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. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our, Digital It has been translated into around 67 languages and has sold over 31 million copies. The diary Frank kept during her confinement is now considered one of the most important accounts of the Holocaust, but the circumstances of her arrest have always been cloaked in mystery. Clearly, the museums report concludes, the last word about that fateful summer day in 1944 has not yet been said.. On 17 January 2022 the cold case teampresentedtheir findings. The helpers did not trust warehouse worker Willem van Maaren. (11 April 1944.) Jewish Councils were set up in Nazi-controlled cities and pitted members of the Jewish community against one another. Brigit Katz Despite two investigations into his . The Subdistrict Court dismissed the . Frank and her older sister, Margot, died of typhus at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp less than a year later, in February 1945. This theory continues on an assumption that in itself is insufficiently proven, that is that betrayal by telephone led to the raid. In this book, he's much more flesh and blood. For more than 20 years, employee Van Maaren was the main suspect. In her diary, Anne Frank wrote about Nelly on several occasions. The subject is still being researched. The second theory, put forward by Austrian writer Melissa Mller, has a cleaning lady in the warehouse, Lena Hartog, as the traitor. The Amsterdam home where she and her family hid is today a museum known as the Anne Frank House. Ad Choices, Katie Falkenberg/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images. 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. And probably wasn't capable of betrayal, because had he betrayed the annex, he knew that he would end up losing his job.". 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? Nevertheless, researchers do not rule out the potential that Frank and the others were the victims of a betrayal. 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.). 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. They had to act as if everything was normal. Investigators Are Turning to Big Data to Find Who Betrayed Anne Frank Privacy Statement 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. Among other theories the Anne Frank House investigated was a 2016reportthat suggests no one was, in fact, responsible for leaking to the Nazis. Who betrayed Anne Frank? Artificial intelligence could finally solve The German-born Frank, who moved to Holland in 1933, ran a spice-trading company that sold goods to the Wehrmacht, the German army. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Those hiding in the annex were wary of Van Maaren, and Anne Frank documented their suspicion in her diary. They could, for example, not flush the toilet too often, because the water discharge from the Secret Annex ran along the storeroom. 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." Left unsigned, the message named van den Bergh as the person who'd reported the Franks' hiding place to the Nazis. "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. 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. 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. For decades suspicion centred on a man called Willem Van Maaren, who worked in the warehouse attached to the Franks' hiding place. Willy Lages, head of the Amsterdam Sicherheitsdienst. The people in hiding did not sleep a wink for the rest of the night. Photo collection: Anne Frank Stichting, Amsterdam / photographer: Allard Bovenberg, All 8 of us were just pleased that we had slept so well that night and not heard a thing., We had all stopped breathing audibly by then., Reconstruction: the arrest of the people in hiding. Did a Jewish Collaborator Betray Anne Frank to the Nazis? - History This should be part of her biography.. Her political leanings had estranged her so much from her family that she left their house. The four supplied the families with food and other necessities, knowing full well that they could be condemned to death by the Nazis for aiding Jews. In the authors opinion, his mother had an internal conflict that led her to opt for as little attention as possible, practically complete radio silence, from the beginning of the Sixties, he wrote. He was the warehouse manager as well as the father of Bep, who worked in the office and was one of the helpers. 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. }. Anne Frank is a symbol of the youth and what the people who were in hiding went through, Pankoke said. ", Ms Lee is also cautious but believes the secret of who shopped Anne Frank is there to be unearthed. The book, released in English yesterday, points the finger of blame at a man called Anton Ahlers, a business associate of Otto's and a committed Nazi. The eight people in hiding did not trust him, and often felt suspicious of him. They will also scrutinise the letters of Anne's father, Otto, for clues and examine police transcripts of interviews dating back to the 1940s. Summer of 1933. . It takes just a few seconds. The team looked at dozens of potential suspects before arriving at the person they believe likely gave up the Franks' location: Arnold van den Bergh. How did Fritz Pfeffer know the Franks? - Atheists for human rights 2023 Smithsonian Magazine [Otto Frank] might have done this out of loyalty for my mother, wrote Van Wijk. The second thing was there was nothing that actually tied her to information that would have led her to know that people were in the annex.". Miep Gies :: The betrayal In order to protect his own family, van den Bergh may have handed over lists of addresses where fellow Jews were hiding to the Nazis. Willem van Maaren was one of the warehouse staff. 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 note came to authorities attention during a 1963 investigation into the betrayal but received little notice, with police instead focusing their efforts on suspects such as van Maaren. Magazines, Digital 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. I think he is the one who gave away the Franks' whereabouts to the caller although I don't think he physically made the call himself.". 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. After the war, Otto Frank, the only member of his family who survived the Holocaust, made statements indicating he knew who his betrayer was. Wootson Jr. of the Post reports that the teams work will be chronicled in a podcast and, possibly, a documentary. 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. The authors suspicions were deepened during interviews he conducted for the biography. Footsteps on the stairways, people shaking the bookcase. However, the investigation did not prove his guilt. In 2022,The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigationwhich details the findings of Pankoke's investigationcited Arnold van den Bergh, a Jewish businessman and member of the Jewish Council in Holland, as the culprit. It was only accessible via a door on the landing, kept hidden by a bookcase. Anne received the famous diary on June 12, 1942, for her 13th birthday, around the time the Gestapo began deporting Jews in Amsterdam. Anne often wrote about good-natured Bep in her diary, including happenings in the large Voskuijl family of eight siblings. Anne Frank's betrayal: Investigating other suspects And if what we could do would be to offer anonymous addresses, I dont know that I know many people who could resist it.. 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. . Stockroom manager Willem van Maaren was suspected of the betrayal for many years, although he never sided with the Nazis. For example, it is certain that two representatives from whom the helpers bought illegal coupons were arrested for black marketeering. He referred them to the first floor, where the office staff was. "We can never be just Dutch, or just English, or whatever, we will always be Jews as well. Advertising Notice Willem Gerardus van Maaren (August 10, 1895- November 28, 1971) was the person most often suggested as the betrayer of Anne Frank. When the arrest of Anne Frank and the people who hid with her took place, Van Maaren worked as the manager of the warehouse of Opekta and Gies & Co, in whose buildings the Secret Annex was situated. 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. Hours earlier, Karl Josef Silberbauer, the Austrian commander of the squad, received a phone call from the head of the Amsterdam security police who said eight Jews were hiding in the warehouse.