Out of all the warehouse staff, only Johan Voskuijl was aware of the presence of the people in hiding. Apparently, the police were called next, because a little while later, they came inside to take a look around. Ad Choices, Katie Falkenberg/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images. While admitting that the case is circumstantial and some reasonable doubt remains, Pankoke et al. 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.. 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. They were successful, and the burglars ran off. If so, please join The Times of Israel Community. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. After the war, Frank removed content from Annes diary regarding Nellys collaboration. One year before his death in 1980, Frank told an interviewer he believed a woman made the call to the Gestapo. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. Clearly, the museums report concludes, the last word about that fateful summer day in 1944 has not yet been said.. Wootson Jr. of the Post reports that the teams work will be chronicled in a podcast and, possibly, a documentary. As Pankoke tells 60 Minutes, the team managed to track down a copy of the note after reaching out to the son of one of the 1963 investigators. However, the investigation did not prove his guilt. In both cases, the findings were inconclusive. Who betrayed the Frank family and why? The helpers did not trust warehouse worker Willem van Maaren. For decades, historians have debated who betrayed Anne Frank and her family. The encounter ended with Nelly shouting, Just go to your Jews!. And then they heard the footsteps leave again. 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. 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. Preview: Michael J. More than three decades after Elisabeth Bep Voskuijls death, her son co-authored a biography of the least-known among the Dutch resisters who hid Anne Frank and other Jews during the Holocaust. After spending two years eluding Nazi capture while in hiding in Amsterdam, the Frank family was discovered on. It has been proven beyond doubt, says Ms Lee, that Ahlers knew where the Franks were hiding and even his own family believe that he is the traitor. Fox on Parkinson's and how he finds "optimism is sustainable" Investigating who betrayed Anne Frank and her family to the Nazis This is not the first time that hopes of unlocking the mystery have been raised. A New Study Suggests Nobody Did. Who betrayed Anne Frank? Canadian author details surprising findings of The German-born Frank, who moved to Holland in 1933, ran a spice-trading company that sold goods to the Wehrmacht, the German army. Registering also lets you comment on articles and helps us improve your experience. The people in hiding shared their suspicion, without knowing him or even having seen him. But then we'll want to be. 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). Per BBC, he wasn't deported and had lost his Jewish identity during the war. Was Anne Frank betrayed? | Anne Frank House There are no indications that Willem, or the other warehouse workers, knew that there were people in hiding in the building. Previously, Voskuijl and others had placed suspicion on a disgruntled male warehouse employee, Willem van Maaren. The warehouse | Anne Frank House The team hopes to reveal the results of its investigation on August 4, 2019the 75th anniversary of Anne Franks arrest. Anne Franks father Ottothe only member of the family to survive their subsequent deportation to the concentration campswas among the first to assert that a betrayal had led to their capture. Only one of the people in hiding, Franks father, Otto, survived World War II. Magazines, Digital The first police investigation: Was WILLEM VAN MAAREN the betrayer? Then, in 2016, a team of investigators, led by a veteran FBI agent, decided to bring modern. 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. Later, when father Johan Voskuijl and sister Bep were involved in hiding Jews on the Prinsengracht, Nelly was working for the Nazis across town. 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. In the years following Nelly Voskuijls death in 2001, Van Wijk attempted to learn more about the relationship between his mother and his aunt from members of the large family. Investigators Are Turning to Big Data to Find Who Betrayed Anne Frank. In 1963, the SS officer who conducted the annex raid told investigators a young woman made the betrayal call. 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 a 2002 biography of Anne Frank's father, Otto, author Carol Ann Lee suggested the betrayer might be Tonny Ahlers, a Dutch National Socialist. 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. Lee said Ahlers probably decided to tip off the authorities after his own company slid into bankruptcy and he no longer needed to do business with Frank's company. Who Betrayed Anne Frank? Part One : r/UnresolvedMysteries - Reddit This should be part of her biography.. The people in hiding did not sleep a wink for the rest of the night. More than 100,000 Dutch Jews - 70 percent of the community - were deported to concentration camps in Germany. 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. The case. 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. 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. On Aug. 4, 1944, they went to investigate 263 Prinsengrachtthe same building where Anne and her family were hidingafter receiving tips of fraudulent food-ration cards and illegal employment happening there. Potential informants ruled out by the group ranged from Willem van Maaren, an oft-cited suspect who worked in the warehouse where the Franks were hiding, to Nelly Voskuijl, a Nazi sympathizer and the sister of Secret Annex helper Bep Vokuijl, to Ans van Dijk, a Jewish collaborator whose actions led to the arrest of some 145 people. In a 2018 book,The Backyard of the Secret Annex,Gerard Kremer, the son of a member of the Dutch resistance of the same name, argues that a Jewish woman,Ans van Dijk, was responsible for the Franks' capture. Specifically, the author believes Nelly was involved in the betrayal of the so-called Secret Annex Jews, including the iconic teenage diarist. When Frank returned from Auschwitz in 1945, having lost his wife and two daughters, he may have feared his company would be confiscated if his prewar business with Germany became known. Victor Kugler believed he placed small pieces of wood and other items in the warehouse, in such a way that in the morning he could see if anyone had been there. Did Willem van Maaren betray Anne Frank? The people in hiding decided not to wait but to take action. #inline-recirc-item--id-a4ef05fe-8c88-11e2-b06b-024c619f5c3d ~ .item:nth-child(5) { Barnouw, the historian, said the blackmail supposition is thin. They had to act as if everything was normal. Bruce Springsteen on "Nebraska," and the emergence of Springsteen the poet One of the reasons his aunt has been overlooked by past investigators, believes Van Wijk, involves his familys darkest secret. Who betrayed Anne Frank? In 1947, Otto Frank and the helpers filed a complaint against him with the political police on suspicion of betrayal. The burglars had ripped a panel out of the warehouses street door in order to get in.