A 6-year investigation into Anne Frank's betrayal has identified a prime suspect in the mystery of how in 1944 the Nazis found the secret place where she was staying.
Ana and seven other Jews were discovered by the Nazis on August 4, 1944, after hiding for nearly two years in a secret annex above a warehouse in Amsterdam. They were all deported and Ana died in the Bergen Belsen camp at the age of 15.
A team consisting of retired FBI agent Vincent Pankoke and about 20 historians, criminologists and data specialists identified through computer methods a relatively unknown figure, the Jewish notary Arnold van den Bergh, as the main suspects.
Investigative team member Pieter van Twisk said an important part of the new evidence was an unsigned note about Anne Frank's father, Otto, found in an old investigation file, which specifically mentions the name Van den Bergh and allegedly he transmitted the information to the Nazis.
The note said Van den Bergh had knowledge of the addresses where Jews hid as a member of the Amsterdam Jewish Council and passed these lists on to the Nazis to save his family. Investigators confirmed that Otto, the only family member who survived the war, was aware of the note but chose never to speak about it publicly.
Van Twisk speculated that Otto Frank's reasons for remaining silent were likely to be a lack of facts; he did not want the information to be made public because it could further fuel anti-Semitism (hostility, prejudice or discrimination against Jews); would not want Van den Bergh's daughters to be blamed for their father's actions.
Otto "had been to Auschwitz," Van Twisk said. "He knew that people in difficult situations sometimes do things that cannot be morally justified."
The other members of the Jewish Council were expelled in 1943, while Van den Bergh was able to stay in the Netherlands. He died in 1950.
Miep Gies, one of the family's helpers, kept Anna's diary safe until Otto returned and published it for the first time in 1947. It has since been translated into 60 languages ??worldwide.
The details of the new research will be published in a book by Canadian author Rosemary Sullivan, "The Betrayal of Anne Frank", which will be published on Tuesday.
The director of the anti-Semitic Jewish organization CIDI in the Netherlands told Reuters he hoped the book would provide an overview of wartime circumstances of Amsterdam's Jewish population. "If this turns into 'the Jews were to blame' it would be unfortunate. The Nazis were responsible, "said Hanna Luden.
Sources: CNN, BBC
