why did willem van maaren betray the franks

It was edited by Will Croxton. Stockroom manager Willem van Maaren was suspected of the betrayal for many years, although he never sided with the Nazis. 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. Frank and her older sister, Margot, died of typhus at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp less than a year later, in February 1945. 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. Magazines, Digital They had come very close to being discovered! The first theory, forwarded by British author and Anne Frank expert Carol Anne Lee, in her book The Hidden Life of Otto Frank, seems to have aroused the most interest. 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. Ahlers was among the suspects Pankoke and his team investigated and ultimately ruled out. Van Dijk was executed after the war for collaborating with the Nazis and betraying dozens of fellow Jews. Many experts believe that someone alerted Nazi authorities to the hiding place, but the identity of the culprit has never been conclusively determined. Footsteps on the stairways, people shaking the bookcase. Throughout the course of the hiding, Bep and Kugler had fallen in love, as Bep later confessed to her sister Diny with red cheeks, wrote Van Wijk. You must not mark someone down in history as the betrayer of Anne Frank if you dont have conclusive evidence for this., the Anne Frank House in 2016 reinvestigated the raid, People in hiding in the occupied Netherlands. 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. While his mother referred to as Elli Vossen in The Diary of Anne Frank risked her life to hide eight Jews, his aunt had behaved shamefully during the occupation of the Netherlands, it was whispered. For decades, historians have debated who betrayed Anne Frank and her family. "There's no smoking gun but we are going to make a comparison of the two theories and see what we can rule out and in. Specifically, Anne referred to the troubles brought upon the Voskuijl family by Nelly, and that the young woman was often away from home.. In 1947, Otto Frank and the helpers filed a complaint against him with the political police on suspicion of betrayal. But two police investigations - one immediately after the. Van Maaren pointed up the stairs, but the police already seemed to know exactly where to go. A long-held theory proposed that a new employee at her father's business, Willem van Maaren, tipped off the Nazis. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our, Digital / CBS News. In 1963, the SS officer. In the years since Anne Franks diary was published, investigators and historians have proposed several other potential informants. For example, it is certain that two representatives from whom the helpers bought illegal coupons were arrested for black marketeering. It claims that Ahlers - then a 26-year- old petty thief - had fallen on hard times by 1944 and desperately needed the bounty paid to Dutch civilians who exposed Jews in their midst. But soon, it proved she was unable to resolve things that way.. Van Maaren was suspicious and would set "traps" to . Summer of 1933. . We have investigated over 30 suspects in 20 different scenarios, leaving one scenario we like to refer to as the most likely scenario, filmmaker and team member Thijs Bayens tells Mike Corder of the Associated Press (AP). Two Dutch investigations, in 1947-48 and 1963-64, targeted the warehouse manager, Willem van Maaren, but were inconclusive. For more than 20 years, employee Van Maaren was the main suspect. Left unsigned, the message named van den Bergh as the person who'd reported the Franks' hiding place to the Nazis. A detailed picture of the interior of the warehouse, reconstruction (1999). Both theories are being given equal weight by David Barnouw, the historian charged with establishing the truth. In addition to Johan Voskuijls involvement, another of the Voskuijl sisters sewed clothes for the Jews in hiding, making the effort a family affair. They had to act as if everything was normal. Please try again or choose an option below. The Amsterdam home where she and her family hid is today a museum known as the Anne Frank House. Only when he began research for the book in 2010 was the long-time marketing professional able to locate documents that contradict the family backstory on Nelly. Unlike other news outlets, we havent put up a paywall. 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Who betrayed the Franks and why? 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. 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. In her diary, Anne Frank wrote about Nelly on several occasions. Even during the early days of the war, the Voskuijl family faced trouble with Nelly. Though the Nazis dissolved the council in September 1943, sending most of its members to concentration and death camps, van den Bergh and his family managed to escape deportationan exemption indicating that the notary had some kind of leverage, according to Pankoke. Hours earlier, Karl Josef Silberbauer, the Austrian commander of the squad, received a phone call from the head of the Amsterdam security police who said eight Jews were hiding in the warehouse. As fast as they could, they all fled back to the hiding place. [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. Historians have proposed competing hypotheses without definitive proof . 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. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. 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. However, the investigation did not prove his guilt. "However, after Otto Frank went into hiding, Tonny Ahlers was out doing other things in different parts of the city. Sign me up , CNMN Collection 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. Clearly, the museums report concludes, the last word about that fateful summer day in 1944 has not yet been said.. As the scarcity increased during the war, so did the number of burglaries. My aunt Willy [Nellys sister] was furious until she died in 2015, just before the publication, he said. Two other plausible suspects emerged over the years: Lena van Bladeren-Hartog (died 1963) and Tonny Ahlers (1917 - 2000). Her work has appeared in a number of publications, including NYmag.com, Flavorwire and Tina Brown Media's Women in the World. If so, please join The Times of Israel Community. In her diary, Anne reported various attempted burglaries and actual burglaries. The team looked at dozens of potential suspects before arriving at the person they believe likely gave up the Franks' location: Arnold van den Bergh. He found Voskuijl in a desperate state with a mouthful of sleeping pills. She made him keep the episode their secret, he wrote. Nelly did it with krauts, the authors father slipped at the table from time to time. In that statement we indicated the need for further research. A family's darkest secret sheds light on an enduring mystery, Were really pleased that youve read, Please use the following structure: [email protected], Send me The Times of Israel Daily Edition. 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. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. 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. Netherlands State Institute for War Documentation, The Diary of Anne Frank: the critical edition (New York, NY: Doubleday, 1989)., A-version 21 April 1944; B-version, 5 August 1943. 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. 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. Multiple people have been suspected of informing the Nazis of the Franks' hiding place, while one theory suggests it may have simply been bad luck. 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. For decades suspicion centred on a man called Willem Van Maaren, who worked in the warehouse attached to the Franks' hiding place. 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. He also was distrustful of the Ahlers family, saying they simply may be seeking notoriety. "Number one, that during the time period of the betrayal, she wasn't in town," Pankoke explained. Anne Frank is a symbol of the youth and what the people who were in hiding went through, Pankoke said. Tellingly, the books title in Dutch was, Silent No More., The biography is my mission, said Van Wijk, who dedicated the book to Dutch resisters against Nazism. The case against Ahlers fell apart, Pankoke told Wertheim, when it came to knowledge. Born in 1949, Van Wijk remembers a childhood shrouded in mystery about what Nelly did during the war. Downstairs they think it is too risky. Fox on Parkinson's, and maintaining optimism Investigators began taking a fresh look at the case in 2016, hoping to provide new answers. All Rights Reserved. | READ MORE. When they came to raid the building, they unexpectedly discovered Anne and the others. 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.. 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). Nobody knows for sure who betrayed the Franks, but after doing research, I believe that Tony Ahlers is guilty. Van Maaren fought the accusations and rejected a settlement. A petty thief and unsavory braggart, Van Maaren was investigated shortly after the war, but nothing was proved. Although he heard about Nellys romantic liaisons with Germans while growing up, Van Wijk was never told about his aunts role as a Nazi collaborator. In theory, as Cleve R. Wootson Jr. notes in the Washington Post, the betrayer of the Frank family shouldnt be hard to find; Nazis kept detailed records of all arrests and informants. So now we have a request. 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. In other words: If a call was actually made that morning, and the response was immediate, then one may conclude that the informant was known and reliable, according to Lages. 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. How were the people in hiding discovered? This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. That same week, the Franks were arrestedwhile Van Dijk was away in the Hague. Read our affiliate link policy. 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. Immediately after the war, Willem van Maaren was the only suspect in the investigation into the raid of the Secret Annex by the Sicherheitsdienst. 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. Hermann van Pels hit the ground with an axe, which finally drove them away. 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. "Otto Frank was of no more use to him in that sense, so he betrayed them," Lee said in the television interview. #inline-recirc-item--id-a4ef05fe-8c88-11e2-b06b-024c619f5c3d, #right-rail-recirc-item--id-a4ef05fe-8c88-11e2-b06b-024c619f5c3d { 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. Ms Lee also claims that Ahlers was blackmailing Otto, first in 1941 by threatening to release a letter which would have led to his deportation, and astonishingly after the war too and even as recently as 1980 when Otto died. 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.. But Anne was not yet famous and staff were overworked. His aunts past as a Nazi collaborator, as well as her whereabouts during a key part of the hiding period, had been covered up by the family. These include Lena Hartog, the wife of one of the warehouse employees; and Nelly Voskuijl, the sister of one of the Franks helpers. And, during a 1994 lecture, Secret Annex helper Miep Gies let slip that the informant died prior to 1960. Voskuijls father, Johan, was also in on the secret of the Jews in hiding. #inline-recirc-item--id-a4ef05fe-8c88-11e2-b06b-024c619f5c3d ~ .item:nth-child(5) { Wertheim spoke with Vince Pankoke, a retired FBI agent. Anne was especially sorry about the latter, because it would be difficult to replace that many coupons. 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. The Pankoke team's story was featured in a segment on 60 Minutes earlier this week (see the video at end of this post) and is covered in detail in a new book by Rosemary Sullivan: The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation. The Netherlands Institute for War Documentation, the researchers who published the authoritative version the diary and the caretaker of the Frank papers, said Ahlers had not been a suspect until Lee started probing his background for her book, "The Hidden Life of Otto Frank," published in March. 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. "The NIWD has never tried to find out who betrayed the Franks but they have contacts which I don't have and know how archives in the Netherlands work. "I think that people that are looking at this feel, 'Ah, maybe we can learn something if this case is solved,'" Pankoke said. 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. He worked in the same building where the Franks were hiding.. Ars may earn compensation on sales from links on this site. Registering also lets you comment on articles and helps us improve your experience. - Jan 22, 2022 10:54 pm UTC. Maarten Kuiper was one of the major betrayers of Jews in hiding during that time.". 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. The people in hiding in the Secret Annex were terrified when someone broke into the business premises. He referred them to the first floor, where the office staff was. Incorrect password. Join the Ars Orbital Transmission mailing list to get weekly updates delivered to your inbox. The diary was given to Anne on her 13th birthday, just weeks before she and her family went into hiding in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. 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. It was only accessible via a door on the landing, kept hidden by a bookcase. And probably wasn't capable of betrayal, because had he betrayed the annex, he knew that he would end up losing his job.". Wilhelm van Maaren One of the people who has. Kugler was a married man, and he never shared the secret of the hidden Jews with his wife, wrote Van Wijk. During the next six months a team of experts from the Netherlands' Institute for War Documentation (NIWD) will pore over government records drawn up at the end of the war which detail the extent of Dutch collaboration with the Nazis. The case. On a warm summer day in 1944, four German and Dutch security police pulled up to the warehouse at 263 Prinsengracht and asked the employee, Willem Van Maaren, where the Jews were hiding. January 16, 2022 / 8:09 PM After the war, Otto Frank, the only member of his family who survived the Holocaust, made statements indicating he knew who his betrayer was. "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. Investigators Are Turning to Big Data to Find Who Betrayed Anne Frank. 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However, the two new theories, painstakingly researched by a British and an Austrian author, and presented in separate books, have raised hopes once again and the NIWD is about to discover whether either of the scenarios stands up to close scrutiny. Her writing created a trail to judicial documents from other parts of the Netherlands, resulting in the latest theory. On this page we distinguish the facts from the unproven theories and the absolute falsehoods. He long suspected his family was turned in by Willem van Maaren, a recently hired employee who was not in on the secret behind the bookcase. 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 first police investigation: Was WILLEM VAN MAAREN the betrayer? 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. Millions of people have read The Diary of Anne Frank since it was first published posthumously in 1947. For a long time, betrayal was considered to be the reason for the arrest of the people in hiding, but the focus is shifting, as there are several other options. 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. Explanations for the discovery are mainly based on testimonies, because no documents about the raid on the Secret Annex have been preserved. However, the investigation did not prove his guilt. On July 6, the Frank family began their lives in the Secret Annex attached to the office building at Prinsengracht263,where Otto Frank had worked. Updated: March 29, 2023 | Original: November 1, 2017. Ahlers had so much information on Otto Frank. | READ MORE. After all, one of her sisters and her father joined the high-risk effort of hiding, feeding, and sustaining eight Jewish fugitives. In 1963, the National Police Internal Investigation Department investigated the raid. See an Original 1941 Transcript of FDR's Pearl Harbor Speech, What America's Richest Ski Town's Handling of COVID-19 Shows. 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. The people in hiding decided not to wait but to take action. It's been such a long time, and most of the people who knew are dead.". Only one of the people in hiding, Franks father, Otto, survived World War II. Anne often wrote about good-natured Bep in her diary, including happenings in the large Voskuijl family of eight siblings. He needed the money and he needed the authorities' protection because his own business had gone bankrupt. It probably never will be. Willem van Maaren began working as the warehouse manager in 1943, one year before the secret annex was raided by police. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday. Michael J. A petty thief and unsavory braggart, Van Maaren was investigated shortly after the war, but nothing was proved. Cookie Policy There was more going on in that building than just the hiding of Jews. There was another important reason Pankoke crossed Van Dijk off the list of suspects. Beginning in 2016, Pankoke led a team of expert investigators equipped with modern crime-solving techniques to try to crack the case. Another book posited that the suspect might be a Jewish woman. Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window), Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window), Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window), Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window), Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window), The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation, https://www.history.com/news/who-betrayed-anne-frank. On a warm August morning in 1944, SS officers stormed into an Amsterdam warehouse and arrested Anne Frank, her parents, her sister and four other Jews who had been hiding in a secret annex at the back of the building. This went well until Johan fell ill in 1943 and was replaced by Willem van Maaren. 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. All Rights Reserved. But isn't it even riskier to leave things as they are?. Although Joop van Wijks book follows the course of his mothers life, the suspense swirls around his late aunt Nelly, Voskuijls sister. For more than 20 years, employee Van Maaren was the main suspect. Ed Sheeran plays guitar in court in bid to show he didn't steal Marvin Gaye song

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