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. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday. Willem Gerardus van Maaren (August 10, 1895- November 28, 1971) was the person most often suggested as the betrayer of Anne Frank. Within several years the book had been translated into German, French and English, and was made into a film in 1959. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Over the years, some 30 different suspects have been suggested as the possible culprit, from the wife of a warehouse employee, to the sister of Otto Franks typist, to Anton Ahlers, a business associate of Otto Frank who was active in the Dutch Nazi party. All rights reserved. When did the Franks decided to move to the Netherlands due to increasing tensions in Germany? Her father, Otto Frank, survived, and spent the rest of his life trying to discover who had betrayed his family. It was only accessible via a door on the landing, kept hidden by a bookcase. | READ MORE. Nelly knew that Bep and her father were helping Jews. Already a member? One of the reasons his aunt has been overlooked by past investigators, believes Van Wijk, involves his familys darkest secret. Around the time of the investigation into the SS officer, Voskuijl ceased granting interviews, wrote Van Wijk. Was Anne Frank's family betrayed? After 72 years, historians have a new While admitting that the case is circumstantial and some reasonable doubt remains, Pankoke et al. 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. ), Anne Frank HouseWestermarkt 201016 DK Amsterdam. She added that the people who were helping to hide the Frank family had been looking into the question of how to get this fellow out of the place from every possible angle. [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. 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). 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. Experts have discovered, for instance, the identity of a person who betrayed at least one other family to the Nazis. Van Maaren fought the accusations and rejected a settlement. 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. "And maybe to the Holocaust survivors that are still out there, they understand that somebody still cares that these mysteries are solved. This theory holds that the officers just happened to stumble upon the Jewish families hiding in the attic. It takes just a few seconds. Van Maaren pointed up the stairs, but the police already seemed to know exactly where to go. It has been widely believed that Willem van Maaren, a warehouse employee who worked for Otto Frank, outed the Frank family. . 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.. "On face value, you would think, okay, we found the guy," Pankoke said. Willem van Maaren was the traitor. It is my contribution to peace, understanding, respect, and above all loyalty to every human being.. After spending two years eluding Nazi capture while in hiding in Amsterdam, the Frank family was discovered on. - Jan 22, 2022 10:54 pm UTC. 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 was later the subject of multiple investigations related to the betrayalincluding one by famed Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthalbut he always maintained his innocence, and none of the cases ever produced any evidence against him. 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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. Read our affiliate link policy. ", 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. For more than 20 years, employee Van Maaren was the main suspect. It's possible, Brock suggested, that there was no betrayal, and the SS raid was really part of ongoing attempts to track down purveyors of illegal goods. 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. Unlike other news outlets, we havent put up a paywall. 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. Reconstruction: the arrest of the people in hiding | Anne Frank House In this book, he's much more flesh and blood. Cookie Policy They were successful, and the burglars ran off. For decades, historians have debated who betrayed Anne Frank and her family. Incorrect password. A 2015 biography of Bep Voskuijl (co-authored by her son Joop) suggested that one of Bep's sisters, Nelly, may have snitched on the Franks. Join the Ars Orbital Transmission mailing list to get weekly updates delivered to your inbox. 2002 The Associated Press. Who really turned Anne Frank over to the Nazis? To discover the traitor, Pankoke assembled his own crack team of dogged investigators. 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. It probably never will be. And who among us, if our families were on the line and heading to extermination camps, wouldnt do what we could? Her motive for betrayal, according to Mller, was that she did not want to lose her husband too and he would have been deported for aiding the Franks if they were discovered, which she believed was only a matter of time. #inline-recirc-item--id-a4ef05fe-8c88-11e2-b06b-024c619f5c3d, #right-rail-recirc-item--id-a4ef05fe-8c88-11e2-b06b-024c619f5c3d { Van Maaren fought the accusations and rejected a settlement. Certainly, Maarten Kuiper received money for the betrayals he made.". This should be part of her biography.. Kugler and Kleiman were also arrested and held at a penal camp for "enemies of the regime.". Left unsigned, the message named van den Bergh as the person who'd reported the Franks' hiding place to the Nazis. And, during a 1994 lecture, Secret Annex helper Miep Gies let slip that the informant died prior to 1960. Privacy Statement You couldn't just do that.". Voskuijls father, Johan, was also in on the secret of the Jews in hiding. Searching for Anne Frank's betrayer, 80 years on. 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. Bep Voskuijl was only 18 when she started working for the spice and jam company owned by Otto Frank. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our, Digital 'My aunt might have betrayed Anne Frank,' writes son of Secret Annex 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. Stockroom manager Willem van Maaren was suspected of the betrayal for many years, although he never sided with the Nazis. For two years, Anne Frank's family hid in secret rooms in Amsterdam, knowing that a curtain left open by mistake, a wayward noise or a nervous conspirator's phone call to the Nazis could land. And if what we could do would be to offer anonymous addresses, I dont know that I know many people who could resist it.. ", Ms Lee is also cautious but believes the secret of who shopped Anne Frank is there to be unearthed. 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. Fox on Parkinson's, and maintaining optimism That same week, the Franks were arrestedwhile Van Dijk was away in the Hague. The video above was produced by Brit McCandless Farmer and Will Croxton. "I think he actually made the call. The enduring mystery of the Anne Frank story is, who betrayed her to the Nazis? But Anne was not yet famous and staff were overworked. That was quite a feat. Wootson Jr. of the Post reports that the teams work will be chronicled in a podcast and, possibly, a documentary. #inline-recirc-item--id-a4ef05fe-8c88-11e2-b06b-024c619f5c3d ~ .item:nth-child(5) { 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. That was a major setback, because Van Maaren was curious, and he noticed that people had been in the building after closing time. 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.". It was edited by Will Croxton. Years later, after Anne Frank became famous for her diary, readers wondered what had gone wrong. Left unsigned, the message named van den Bergh as the person whod reported the Franks hiding place to the Nazis. You have reached your limit of free articles. "Everyone, including his own family, condemned him as distinctly anti-Jewish and a thoroughly unpleasant character.". And it really matters to me, and I think it mattered to the group, that that was an anonymous list of addressesthere were no names. "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. Her political leanings had estranged her so much from her family that she left their house. Meilan Solly is Smithsonian magazine's associate digital editor, history. display: none; Associate of Anne Frank's Father Suspected of Betrayal They will also scrutinise the letters of Anne's father, Otto, for clues and examine police transcripts of interviews dating back to the 1940s. Brigit Katz is a freelance writer based in Toronto. Years later, after Anne Frank became famous for her diary, readers wondered what had gone wrong. 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. In his 2018 book The Backyard of the Secret Annex author Gerard Kremer claimed that Ans van Dijk betrayed those hiding in the annex. Frank and her older sister, Margot, died of typhus at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp less than a year later, in February 1945. 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. In the end, the list of people who were accused of being involved in the case is too long to include in its entirety. Who Betrayed Anne Frank? A New Study Suggests Nobody Did We are saved, go on saving us!That is all we can say. (Anne Frank, 11 April 1944. 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. My sister and my oldest brother are still angry with me about the content of the book, Van Wijk told The Times of Israel. The book by Carol Ann Lee, a British author living in Amsterdam, says the likely informant was a former business associate of Otto Frank, Anne's father. Anne Frank May Not Have Been Betrayed - Smithsonian Magazine Pankoke's team wondered: Did the suspected betrayer know the location of the secret annex? Anne Frank HouseWestermarkt 201016 DK Amsterdam, Ronald Leopold, Executive Director of the Anne Frank House. 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.