why did willem van maaren betray the franks

Brigit Katz He stole goods and was generally considered dishonest. Jewish Councils were set up in Nazi-controlled cities and pitted members of the Jewish community against one another. The note came to authorities' attention during a 1963 investigation into the. Pankoke and his team eliminated her as a suspect for a few reasons. The Anne Frank House undertook its own investigation and arrived at a surprising new theory in 2017, thanks to the efforts of a historian named Gertjan Brock. Years later, after Anne Frank became famous for her diary, readers wondered what had gone wrong. For more than 20 years, employee Van Maaren was the main suspect. Writer Rosemary Sullivan chronicled the painstaking process in a new book, The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation. 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. "However, after Otto Frank went into hiding, Tonny Ahlers was out doing other things in different parts of the city. 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? The Anne Frank House has opened its archives to Pankoke and his team, and, according to Boffey of the Guardian, welcomes the new research initiative. 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. 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. But, the Anne Frank House museum and research center were unable to confirm Van Dijk's involvement after its own investigation. My aunt Willy [Nellys sister] was furious until she died in 2015, just before the publication, he said. Lages answered that the credibility of the tip-off would have been checked first, unless it came from an informant who had proved to be reliable before. Both theories are being given equal weight by David Barnouw, the historian charged with establishing the truth. I think that nobody can judge van den Bergh who has not been in his position, Sullivan tells the Globe and Mail. 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. Fox on Parkinson's, and maintaining optimism, Bruce Springsteen on "Nebraska," and the emergence of Springsteen the poet, Michael J. Many experts believe that someone alerted Nazi authorities to the hiding place of Frank and her family, but the culprit has never been determined. It was edited by Will Croxton. A petty thief and unsavory braggart, Van Maaren was investigated shortly after the war, but nothing was proved. He needed the money and he needed the authorities' protection because his own business had gone bankrupt. Unlike other news outlets, we havent put up a paywall. 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. | Ars may earn compensation on sales from links on this site. 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. 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. 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. It was clear that Tonny Ahlers had no knowledge that Otto Frank and the others were hiding in the annex.". Fifteen-year-old Anne, her sister Margot and her mother Edith died in Nazi concentration camps. Kugler and Kleiman were also arrested and held at a penal camp for "enemies of the regime.". 2023 Smithsonian Magazine 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.". In the immediate aftermath of the war Otto, Anne's father, had trouble finding a publisher for the diary and was told that nobody wanted to read about the Holocaust. 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. 2002 The Associated Press. The research is based on Franks diary entries from March 1944entries that researchers say have not been used as a source until now. Meanwhile, in 2018, a book claimed to offer evidence that Anne Frankand her family were betrayed by a Jewish woman who was executed after World War II for collaborating with the Nazis. Specifically, the author believes Nelly was involved in the betrayal of the so-called Secret Annex Jews, including the iconic teenage diarist. Only one of the people in hiding, Franks father, Otto, survived World War II. Nobody knows for sure who betrayed the Franks, but after doing research, I believe that Tony Ahlers is guilty. 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. He found Voskuijl in a desperate state with a mouthful of sleeping pills. She made him keep the episode their secret, he wrote. [T]he list of people who were accused of being involved in the case is too long to include in its entirety, notes the Anne Frank House on its website. In both cases, the findings were inconclusive. The case was reopened in 1963 after Austrian Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal located Silberbauer in the Vienna police force. Millions of people have read The Diary of Anne Frank since it was first published posthumously in 1947. That was quite a feat. 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? - CBS News Now, about 72 years later, the world may have an answer to the mystery: Maybe nobody betrayed them at all. Two Dutch police inquiries and countless historians have come up with theories, but no firm conclusion. Another book posited that the suspect might be a Jewish woman. Michael J. It is my contribution to peace, understanding, respect, and above all loyalty to every human being.. "And we went into the city archive and found proof that actually he was 'Aryanized,' so he lost his Jewish identity during the war. They had come very close to being discovered! Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Advertising Notice Who betrayed the Franks and why? - Sage-Advices The case against Ahlers fell apart, Pankoke told Wertheim, when it came to knowledge. On August 4, 1944, police in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam raided a warehouse and arrested eight Jews who were hiding in an annex disguised behind a bookcase. "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. Anne wrote about it in her diary and attributed negative qualifications to him. Advertising Notice 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. Certainly, Maarten Kuiper received money for the betrayals he made.". [Otto Frank] might have done this out of loyalty for my mother, wrote Van Wijk. See an Original 1941 Transcript of FDR's Pearl Harbor Speech, What America's Richest Ski Town's Handling of COVID-19 Shows. A long-held theory proposed that a new employee at her father's business, Willem van Maaren, tipped off the Nazis. After the war, Frank removed content from Annes diary regarding Nellys collaboration. Who Betrayed Anne Frank? Part One : r/UnresolvedMysteries - Reddit And if what we could do would be to offer anonymous addresses, I dont know that I know many people who could resist it.. The key to the mystery proved to be a note sent to Otto Frank shortly after his return to Amsterdam in June 1945. 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. Miep Gies :: The betrayal Dutch police launched two separate investigations focusing on van Maaren, but did not uncover any conclusive evidence. display: block; Her father, Otto Frank, survived, and spent the rest of his life trying to discover who had betrayed his family. Not only did he build the famous swinging bookcase to conceal the hiding place, but he served as an unofficial watchman over the annex through his employment in the warehouse below. In his 2018 book The Backyard of the Secret Annex author Gerard Kremer claimed that Ans van Dijk betrayed those hiding in the annex. For decades, historians have debated who betrayed Anne Frank and her family. When did the Franks decided to move to the Netherlands due to increasing tensions in Germany? 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. Did a Jewish Collaborator Betray Anne Frank to the Nazis? - History | READ MORE. We strive for accuracy and fairness. 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. Investigators Are Turning to Big Data to Find Who Betrayed Anne Frank. Investigating who betrayed Anne Frank and her family to the Nazis The people in hiding decided not to wait but to take action. Clearly, the museums report concludes, the last word about that fateful summer day in 1944 has not yet been said.. One year before his death in 1980, Frank told an interviewer he believed a woman made the call to the Gestapo. Ahlers was a member of the Dutch Nazi NSB movement, appeared in Nazi propaganda films and was thrown out of his lodgings after his landlady discovered a swastika flag on the wall and a uniform bearing SS insignia hanging in his wardrobe. Kugler was a married man, and he never shared the secret of the hidden Jews with his wife, wrote Van Wijk. The people in hiding slept through the first one, in July 1943. Anne Frank Study Guide: Deaths, Dates, Betrayal, and History - Quizlet That evening, Peter heard sounds from the warehouse. The warehouse | Anne Frank House Brigit Katz is a freelance writer based in Toronto. 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. The helpers and people in hiding did not trust him. My sister and my oldest brother are still angry with me about the content of the book, Van Wijk told The Times of Israel. 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. 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. Among other investigative strategies, they used artificial intelligence to sift through reams of data and original documents. Fox on Parkinson's: "Every day it gets tougher". When did the Van Pels (Van . It is believed, however, that documents pertaining to Anne Frank and other residents of the annex were destroyed in a 1940s bombing. The Subdistrict Court dismissed the . For almost 60 years, the identity of that informant, whose call had such tragic consequences, has remained a mystery to historians and the most dogged Nazi hunters. When the people in hiding put it back, it was brutally kicked in again. First published on January 16, 2022 / 8:09 PM. More recent research by the Anne Frank House highlights and substantiates the possibility that the reasons for the raid may have been completely different. The people in hiding did not sleep a wink for the rest of the night. Voskuijls father, Johan, was also in on the secret of the Jews in hiding. The people in hiding in the Secret Annex were terrified when someone broke into the business premises. 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 probably wasn't capable of betrayal, because had he betrayed the annex, he knew that he would end up losing his job.". These are two of the most frequently asked questions when it comes to Anne Frank. "After the play and the book, Otto Frank was kind of like a saint. "Otto Frank was of no more use to him in that sense, so he betrayed them," Lee said in the television interview. Thats obvious, said Bertus Hulsman, who was the wartime boyfriend of Voskuijl and sometimes mentioned in the diary. Later, when father Johan Voskuijl and sister Bep were involved in hiding Jews on the Prinsengracht, Nelly was working for the Nazis across town. The burglars managed to take two cash boxes containing forty guilders, blank giro and bank cheques, and coupons for 150 kilograms of sugar. A New Study Suggests Nobody Did. 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. See: Barnouw, David & Stroom, Gerrold van der, Who betrayed Anne Frank? 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. As The New York Timesreported, they hoped to bring new technology, including forensic accounting, computer modeling and even crowd sourcing research, to examine existing evidence such as Anne Franks diary and the Amsterdam building where the Franks hid. The trove of information is so large that a human in their lifetime might not be able to review it, Pankoke tells Stephanie van den Berg andAnthony Deutsch of Reuters. 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. Van Maaren fought the accusations and rejected a settlement. They asked SD chief Willy Lages whether it was common for his former service to jump to action upon receiving a telephone tip-off about people in hiding. Fox on Parkinson's and how he finds "optimism is sustainable" According to Pankoke, for Van den Bergh to have that level of protection, he must have had some leverage with the Nazis. Two other plausible suspects emerged over the years: Lena van Bladeren-Hartog (died 1963) and Tonny Ahlers (1917 - 2000). 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. 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. All Rights Reserved. In this book, he's much more flesh and blood. They had to act as if everything was normal. Van Maaren was suspicious and would set "traps" to . However, the investigation did not prove his guilt. 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. In addition to Johan Voskuijls involvement, another of the Voskuijl sisters sewed clothes for the Jews in hiding, making the effort a family affair. Two other plausible suspects emerged over the years: Lena van Bladeren-Hartog (died 1963) and Tonny Ahlers (1917 - 2000). They could, for example, not flush the toilet too often, because the water discharge from the Secret Annex ran along the storeroom. Two Dutch investigations, in 1947-48 and 1963-64, targeted the warehouse manager, Willem van Maaren, but were inconclusive. 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. Frank and her older sister, Margot, died of typhus at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp less than a year later, in February 1945. So now we have a request. 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. Bruce Springsteen on "Nebraska," and the emergence of Springsteen the poet We question several elements of the investigation: read our statement. Not only was she carousing with German soldiers, but Nellys rowdy behavior earned her a stint in police custody. 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. Although he published his mothers most intimate secrets, Van Wijk believes his book would eventually have gained her approval, because she greatly upheld the truth, he said. Join the Ars Orbital Transmission mailing list to get weekly updates delivered to your inbox. One day during his youth, Van Wijk heard his mother sobbing in the bathroom. "Number one, that during the time period of the betrayal, she wasn't in town," Pankoke explained. They will also scrutinise the letters of Anne's father, Otto, for clues and examine police transcripts of interviews dating back to the 1940s. Who Betrayed Anne Frank? - History And, during a 1994 lecture, Secret Annex helper Miep Gies let slip that the informant died prior to 1960. / CBS News. It was only accessible via a door on the landing, kept hidden by a bookcase. Per the New York Times Alexandra Jacobs, the team drew on a combination of big data and artificial intelligence analysis, old-fashioned shoe-leather reporting, interviews, and archival research to narrow down the pool of suspects. Who betrayed the Franks and why? "There's no doubt he did it," Anton Ahlers Jr. told the Volkskrant newspaper. "On face value, you would think, okay, we found the guy," Pankoke said. Anne was especially sorry about the latter, because it would be difficult to replace that many coupons. All rights reserved. Anne, who is famous for documenting her time in the Secret Annex in her renowned diary, died of typhus in the spring of 1945 at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. "I think that people that are looking at this feel, 'Ah, maybe we can learn something if this case is solved,'" Pankoke said. Please try again or choose an option below. Reconstruction: the arrest of the people in hiding | Anne Frank House It was very dangerous for the people in hiding, because what could they do if they were discovered? Anne often wrote about good-natured Bep in her diary, including happenings in the large Voskuijl family of eight siblings. 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. 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.

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