display: block; Among those captured was Anne Frank, a 15-year-old schoolgirl who had spent over two years living in the cramped safehouse with her parents and older sister. Anne and her family hid for 25 months in a canal-side warehouse in central Amsterdam, where the teen-ager wrote her thoughts, yearnings and descriptions of life in the cramped annex into notebooks. 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. 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. According to Pankoke, Van Dijk had betrayed the family of Otto Frank's second wife. But Barnouw said Lee's case sounded credible enough for the institute to reopen its investigation into the betrayal. Around the time of Nellys return, her relations with the family strongly deteriorated, wrote Van Wijk, including Johan Voskuijl physically beating his daughter. (11 April 1944.) (Amsterdam: NIOD, 2003). If so, please join The Times of Israel Community. My sister and my oldest brother are still angry with me about the content of the book, Van Wijk told The Times of Israel. When did the Franks decided to move to the Netherlands due to increasing tensions in Germany? The helpers did not trust warehouse worker Willem van Maaren. It is believed, however, that documents pertaining to Anne Frank and other residents of the annex were destroyed in a 1940s bombing. A long-held theory proposed that a new employee at her fathers business, Willem van Maaren, tipped off the Nazis. As for opportunity, the team examined whether the suspect was in Amsterdam at the time of the August 1944 raid or might have any opportunity to betray the hiding place. "We can never be just Dutch, or just English, or whatever, we will always be Jews as well. Nevertheless, researchers do not rule out the potential that Frank and the others were the victims of a betrayal. He vehemently denied any involvement and said that Victor Kugler had known about the pieces of wood and other things. Magazines, Or create a free account to access more articles, Who Betrayed Anne Frank? Summer of 1933. . 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. Willem Gerardus van Maaren (August 10, 1895- November 28, 1971) was the person most often suggested as the betrayer of Anne Frank. [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. All the more so because betrayal was never established beyond a doubt. 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. That was a major setback, because Van Maaren was curious, and he noticed that people had been in the building after closing time. To discover the traitor, Pankoke assembled his own crack team of dogged investigators. Her writing created a trail to judicial documents from other parts of the Netherlands, resulting in the latest theory. Michael J. Wootson Jr. of the Post reports that the teams work will be chronicled in a podcast and, possibly, a documentary. The diary was given to Anne on her 13th birthday, just weeks before she and her family went into hiding in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. His name was Anton Ahlers. So the team has enlisted the Amsterdam-based data company Xomnia to develop algorithms that will analyze the documents, andperhapsreveal connections that have never been noticed before. In his 2018 book The Backyard of the Secret Annex author Gerard Kremer claimed that Ans van Dijk betrayed those hiding in the annex. Anne Frank is a symbol of the youth and what the people who were in hiding went through, Pankoke said. She was 15 at the time of her death. During the day we always have to walk quietly and speak softly, the people in the warehouse mustnt hear us, Anne wrote in her diary (11 July 1942). Nelly knew that Bep and her father were helping Jews. Another book posited that the suspect might be a Jewish woman. As the scarcity increased during the war, so did the number of burglaries. Who betrayed Anne Frank? Artificial intelligence could finally solve The burglars had ripped a panel out of the warehouses street door in order to get in. 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. The Subdistrict Court dismissed the . "There's no smoking gun, and the theory has too many loose ends," he said. The encounter ended with Nelly shouting, Just go to your Jews!. Advertising Notice The Subdistrict Court dismissed the . Additionally, believes Van Wijk, Otto Frank either suspected or knew of Nelly Voskuijls role in the betrayal. In 1963, the National Police Internal Investigation Department investigated the raid. . 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. Retired FBI agent has new theory about who betrayed Anne Frank's family 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. For instance, Melissa Muller's 1998 biography of Anne Frank concluded that a woman named Lena Hartog, wife of the company's assistant warehouse manager, betrayed the family. } "She was out of town working not close to Amsterdam. Anne wrote about it in her diary and attributed negative qualifications to him. Anne chronicled their lives in the Annex in her diary for the next two years, making her final entry on August 1, 1944. Nelly didnt just engage in an adolescent relationship with a soldier it went far beyond that, wrote Van Wijk. Explanations for the discovery are mainly based on testimonies, because no documents about the raid on the Secret Annex have been preserved. 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. Fox on Parkinson's and how he finds "optimism is sustainable" 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. Your California Privacy Rights | Do Not Sell My Personal Information 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. The helpers and people in hiding did not trust him. "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. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. Sign me up , CNMN Collection SD big shot Willy Lages knew that the callerwas a well-known informant. Photo collection: Nationaal Archief/ Anefo, access number 2.24.01.04, item number 919-6449. ", Patricia Bosboom, of the Anne Frank Foundation which maintains the house where Anne hid, said Lee's theory was plausible, "but it's still only a theory. Apparently, the police were called next, because a little while later, they came inside to take a look around. According to Gerald Kremer's The Backyard of the Secret Annex, the Guardian reports, the Franks were betrayed by Anna "Ans" van Dijk, a Jewish woman executed in 1948 for her collaboration in. 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. Ahlers said he believed his father received money from Frank, because the flow of funds stopped when Frank died in 1980. Victor Kugler, Johannes Kleiman, Miep Gies, and Bep Voskuijl were the only employees who knew where the Franks (and later, the Van Pels family) were hiding. He had previously asked questions about the Annex and tried in many ways to see if there was anyone who had entered the building after closing hours. He stole goods and was generally considered dishonest. This is not the first time that hopes of unlocking the mystery have been raised. "On face value, you would think, okay, we found the guy," Pankoke said. The burglars managed to take two cash boxes containing forty guilders, blank giro and bank cheques, and coupons for 150 kilograms of sugar. Argumentative Essay: Who Betrayed The Franks | ipl.org "Everyone, including his own family, condemned him as distinctly anti-Jewish and a thoroughly unpleasant character.". But two police investigations - one immediately after the war and another in the 1960s - turned up nothing and Van Maaren died in 1971 professing his innocence. On 17 January 2022 the cold case teampresentedtheir findings. In this book, he's much more flesh and blood. When did the Van Pels (Van . } Jewish Councils were set up in Nazi-controlled cities and pitted members of the Jewish community against one another. And if what we could do would be to offer anonymous addresses, I dont know that I know many people who could resist it.. Annes relationship with her sister Margot was standoffish, and Voskuijl helped fill some of the gap between them. This theory holds that the officers just happened to stumble upon the Jewish families hiding in the attic. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine All rights reserved. When the people in hiding put it back, it was brutally kicked in again. "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. Anne received the famous diary on June 12, 1942, for her 13th birthday, around the time the Gestapo began deporting Jews in Amsterdam. It's been such a long time, and most of the people who knew are dead.". Evidence of his involvement was never found. In the middle of war, Nelly moved to Austria with a Nazi officer, only to have the relationship fall apart. For example, it is certain that two representatives from whom the helpers bought illegal coupons were arrested for black marketeering. Voskuijls father, Johan, was also in on the secret of the Jews in hiding. 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." 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. Now, reports Jon Wertheim for CBS News 60 Minutes, a six-year investigation spearheaded by retired FBI agent Vince Pankoke has pinpointed the likely informant: Arnold van den Bergh, a Jewish notary who may have revealed the Franks hiding place to the Nazis to protect his own family from deportation.
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