Evidence of his involvement was never found. This theory continues on an assumption that in itself is insufficiently proven, that is that betrayal by telephone led to the raid. Miep Gies :: The betrayal While admitting that the case is circumstantial and some reasonable doubt remains, Pankoke et al. Was Anne Frank betrayed? | Anne Frank House We question several elements of the investigation: read our statement. ), Anne Frank HouseWestermarkt 201016 DK Amsterdam. "He may have got money for it. How did Fritz Pfeffer know the Franks? - Atheists for human rights Who betrayed the Frank family and why? 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. Footsteps on the stairways, people shaking the bookcase. Investigators began taking a fresh look at the case in 2016, hoping to provide new answers. Specifically, the author believes Nelly was involved in the betrayal of the so-called Secret Annex Jews, including the iconic teenage diarist. "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. 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. I take both of these theories seriously enough to put them on paper but that is different from actually saying what happened. Ahlers was among the suspects Pankoke and his team investigated and ultimately ruled out. In addition to Johan Voskuijls involvement, another of the Voskuijl sisters sewed clothes for the Jews in hiding, making the effort a family affair. Meilan Solly is Smithsonian magazine's associate digital editor, history. "There was a lot of information that pointed to Tonny Ahlers as being a potential suspect," Pankoke said. "I think he actually made the call. Wilhelm van Maaren Wikipedia Republished // WIKI 2 It takes just a few seconds. Despite two investigations into his . You have reached your limit of free articles. warehouse employee named Willem van Maaren, who had sparked concerns among the Franks and the people who helped them hide . Per BBC, he wasn't deported and had lost his Jewish identity during the war. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. This theory holds that the officers just happened to stumble upon the Jewish families hiding in the attic. Jewish Councils were set up in Nazi-controlled cities and pitted members of the Jewish community against one another. The helpers and people in hiding did not trust him. "I think that people that are looking at this feel, 'Ah, maybe we can learn something if this case is solved,'" Pankoke said. 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. He referred them to the first floor, where the office staff was. Who betrayed Anne Frank? A new book tracks history's most - MSN Experts have discovered, for instance, the identity of a person who betrayed at least one other family to the Nazis. A 20-person team for theAnne Frank House was led, in part, by two retired FBI officials; former special agent Vince Pankoke, and behavioral scientist Roger Depue. Cookie Policy Kugler was a married man, and he never shared the secret of the hidden Jews with his wife, wrote Van Wijk. Otto, for his part, never publicly named van den Bergh, who died in 1950, as the informant. Ahlers himself was jailed for collaboration after the war and bizarrely Otto wrote letters to the authorities pleading for his release. Anne received the famous diary on June 12, 1942, for her 13th birthday, around the time the Gestapo began deporting Jews in Amsterdam. A New Study Suggests Nobody Did. Just three days later, German police led by SS officers stormed the Annex, arresting the Franks and the Van Pels family and transferring them to the Westerbork transit camp after interrogation. Only one of the people in hiding, Franks father, Otto, survived World War II. All rights reserved. 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. [Otto Frank] might have done this out of loyalty for my mother, wrote Van Wijk. When they came to raid the building, they unexpectedly discovered Anne and the others. Who Betrayed Anne Frank? - CBS News The house where she and her family hid in a sealed-off room at Prinsengracht 263 in central Amsterdam was turned into a museum in 1960 and receives almost a million visits a year, mainly from the US. "We are interested, that's for sure," said David Barnouw, a researcher and spokesman of the government-financed historical institute. Suddenly, a passer-by used a flashlight to take a look inside. Lee says Ahlers not only turned in the Frank family, but may have blackmailed Otto Frank for years after the war, receiving payment for his silence about Frank's business with Nazi Germany at the beginning of World War II. Bep Voskuijl was only 18 when she started working for the spice and jam company owned by Otto Frank. The eight people in hiding did not trust him, and often felt suspicious of him. 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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. "And maybe to the Holocaust survivors that are still out there, they understand that somebody still cares that these mysteries are solved. ", 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. We are saved, go on saving us!That is all we can say. (Anne Frank, 11 April 1944. That was quite a feat. If Frank had known that Van Dijk had also betrayed his family, Pankoke reasoned, he would have had no incentive to keep the information quiet. 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. They had come very close to being discovered! Around the time of the investigation into the SS officer, Voskuijl ceased granting interviews, wrote Van Wijk. Among other theories the Anne Frank House investigated was a 2016reportthat suggests no one was, in fact, responsible for leaking to the Nazis. Willem van Maaren was the traitor. Most were gassed with brutal assembly-line efficiency. Although Miep Gies is the best-remembered of the Dutch helpers, Voskuijl was the closest to Anne in age and temperament. "We can never be just Dutch, or just English, or whatever, we will always be Jews as well. 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. During his research for the book, Van Wijk learned that Nelly did far more than engage in flirtations with German soldiers. 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. "Otto Frank was of no more use to him in that sense, so he betrayed them," Lee said in the television interview. Wilhelm van Maaren One of the people who has. #inline-recirc-item--id-a4ef05fe-8c88-11e2-b06b-024c619f5c3d, #right-rail-recirc-item--id-a4ef05fe-8c88-11e2-b06b-024c619f5c3d { All Rights Reserved. Reconstruction: the arrest of the people in hiding | Anne Frank House Stockroom manager Willem van Maaren was suspected of the betrayal for many years, although he never sided with the Nazis. Willem van Maaren was one of the warehouse staff. We had all stopped breathing audibly by then, 8 hearts were pounding, footsteps on our stairs, then a rattling on the bookcase door.' "They were friends. Beginning in 2016, Pankoke led a team of expert investigators equipped with modern crime-solving techniques to try to crack the case. And if what we could do would be to offer anonymous addresses, I dont know that I know many people who could resist it.. 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. The Germans were paying a bounty of 40 guilders per head, which was "a large amount in those days," she said. 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. 'My aunt might have betrayed Anne Frank,' writes son of Secret Annex Then, in 2016, a team of investigators, led by a veteran FBI agent, decided to bring modern. Apparently, the burglars were still about. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. believe the most likely culprit is a local Jewish leader named Arnold van den Bergh. And who among us, if our families were on the line and heading to extermination camps, wouldnt do what we could? 2022 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. The helpers did not trust warehouse worker Willem van Maaren. Please enter valid email address to continue. "However, after Otto Frank went into hiding, Tonny Ahlers was out doing other things in different parts of the city. The Subdistrict Court dismissed the . ", 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. Willem Gerardus van Maaren (August 10, 1895- November 28, 1971) was the person most often suggested as the betrayer of Anne Frank. I think he got the information from Ahlers," Lee said. For decades, historians have debated who betrayed Anne Frank and her family. Do you rely on The Times of Israel for accurate and insightful news on Israel and the Jewish world? ", Ms Lee is also cautious but believes the secret of who shopped Anne Frank is there to be unearthed. Join the Ars Orbital Transmission mailing list to get weekly updates delivered to your inbox. The researchers also investigated the theory, first raised by scholars at the Anne Frank House in 2016, that the SS discovered the hiding place by chance while searching the warehouse for evidence of illegal work and ration coupon fraud. And then they heard the footsteps leave again. It probably never will be. Was Anne Frank's family betrayed? After 72 years, historians have a new And, during a 1994 lecture, Secret Annex helper Miep Gies let slip that the informant died prior to 1960. 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. 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. As a member of the local Jewish Counciladministrative bodies established by the Nazis to govern Jewish communities in German-occupied Europevan den Bergh had access to lists of addresses where Jews were known to be in hiding. For more than 20 years, employee Van Maaren was the main suspect. . Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday. Within several years the book had been translated into German, French and English, and was made into a film in 1959. They didn't flee quite far enough: the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands began in May 1940 and eventually forced the Franks (and many other Jews) into hiding. When they returned to the Annex, they found the pages of Anne's diary strewn across the floor, and the duo decided to preserve it for posterity. That evening, Peter heard sounds from the warehouse. The burglars had ripped a panel out of the warehouses street door in order to get in. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. - Jan 22, 2022 10:54 pm UTC. A long-held theory proposed that a new employee at her fathers business, Willem van Maaren, tipped off the Nazis. Willy Lages, head of the Amsterdam Sicherheitsdienst. 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. The first police investigation: Was WILLEM VAN MAAREN the betrayer? A petty thief and unsavory braggart, Van Maaren was investigated shortly after the war, but nothing was proved. It is believed, however, that documents pertaining to Anne Frank and other residents of the annex were destroyed in a 1940s bombing. Nobody knows for sure who betrayed the Franks, but after doing research, I believe that Tony Ahlers is guilty. But a few years after the war, reports Hanneloes Pen for Dutch newspaper Het Parool, he told a journalist that his family had been betrayed by a member of the Jewish community. "Van den Bergh wasn't deported," said Pieter van Twisk, a veteran Dutch journalist who co-founded the investigative project and led the research team. 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. He strongly suspected a warehouse employee named Willem van Maaren, who had sparked concerns among the Franks and the people who helped them hide. War diary of life in hiding became world bestseller The Diary of Anne Frank, first published in English in 1952 as The Diary of a Young Girl, is one of the most widely read books in the world. Since then, several independent investigations have identified different possible suspects. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Fox on Parkinson's: "Every day it gets tougher" Willem van Maaren was the traitor. But then we'll want to be. The case against Ahlers fell apart, Pankoke told Wertheim, when it came to knowledge. But Pankoke said Van Maaren did not hold up as a suspect once investigators examined all the information they found. display: none; Retired FBI agent has new theory about who betrayed Anne Frank's family Additionally, believes Van Wijk, Otto Frank either suspected or knew of Nelly Voskuijls role in the betrayal. For decades suspicion centred on a man called Willem Van Maaren, who worked in the warehouse attached to the Franks' hiding place. In 1947, Otto Frank and the helpers filed a complaint against him with the political police on suspicion of betrayal. Then, the team considered the motive. It was edited by Will Croxton. (public domain), Author Joop van Wijk with the biography of his mother, Bep Voskuijl (courtesy), Bep Voskuijl, lower right, with Otto Frank (middle) and the other Dutch helpers in October, 1945 (public domain), Nelly Voskuijl during World War II (courtesy: Joop van Wijk), View of the secret annex with its blacked out windows at the renovated Anne Frank House Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Nov. 21, 2018 (AP Photo/Peter Dejong), The Secret Annex in which Anne Frank wrote her diary, Amsterdam, January 2017 (Matt Lebovic/The Times of Israel), Otto Frank and Bep Voskuijl in 1978 (courtesy: Joop van Wijk), Anne Franks hiding place bedroom during the 1950s (left) and her restored bedroom at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam today (Matt Lebovic/The Times of Israel), Exterior of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, November 2014 (Matt Lebovic/The Times of Israel). For decades, historians have debated who betrayed Anne Frank and her family. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our, Digital Ahlers own son endorsed the theory that his father was the culprit, but a subsequent investigation by Dutch authorities found no hard evidence of his involvement.