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. Who betrayed Anne Frank? 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. Click the link in that email to complete registration so you can comment. ", Ms Lee is also cautious but believes the secret of who shopped Anne Frank is there to be unearthed. The people in hiding slept through the first one, in July 1943. Were they betrayed? The diary was given to Anne on her 13th birthday, just weeks before she and her family went into hiding in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. The first police investigation: Was WILLEM VAN MAAREN the betrayer? The encounter ended with Nelly shouting, Just go to your Jews!. Wilhelm van Maaren One of the people who has. And probably wasn't capable of betrayal, because had he betrayed the annex, he knew that he would end up losing his job.". 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. Fox on Parkinson's, and maintaining optimism, Bruce Springsteen on "Nebraska," and the emergence of Springsteen the poet, Michael J. Did Willem van Maaren betray Anne Frank? How were the people in hiding discovered? 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. That same week, the Franks were arrestedwhile Van Dijk was away in the Hague. Her political leanings had estranged her so much from her family that she left their house. 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. Instead, the groups arrest could have been a tragic accident. Stockroom manager Willem van Maaren was another suspect, and since several possible culprits knew each other, there is also the possibility that more than one person betrayed the Frank family. Suddenly, a passer-by used a flashlight to take a look inside. 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. He only stuck to the logic of assumptions of which he did not know the validity, nor did he need to know the validity in order to give a reasoned answer. So now we have a request. "He was a Dutch Nazi, a well-known traitor and an anti-semite and was very anti-Jewish. "And maybe to the Holocaust survivors that are still out there, they understand that somebody still cares that these mysteries are solved. Stockroom manager Willem van Maaren was suspected of the betrayal for many years, although he never sided with the Nazis. Nobody knows for sure who betrayed the Franks, but after doing research, I believe that Tony Ahlers is guilty. The involvement of Van Dijk, who was executed in 1948 after admitting to collaborating in the capture of 145 people, had been previously claimed. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our, Digital Summer of 1933. . Who betrayed Anne Frank? Artificial intelligence could finally solve Who betrayed the Frank family and why? Pankoke's team wondered: Did the suspected betrayer know the location of the secret annex? "There's no doubt he did it," Anton Ahlers Jr. told the Volkskrant newspaper. Her writing created a trail to judicial documents from other parts of the Netherlands, resulting in the latest theory. Anne Frank Study Guide: Deaths, Dates, Betrayal, and History - Quizlet 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. Thats obvious, said Bertus Hulsman, who was the wartime boyfriend of Voskuijl and sometimes mentioned in the diary. Read our affiliate link policy. The business continued to operate while the Franks were in hiding, although it apparently was no longer trading with the Germans. Clearly, the museums report concludes, the last word about that fateful summer day in 1944 has not yet been said.. "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. But, the Anne Frank House museum and research center were unable to confirm Van Dijk's involvement after its own investigation. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. But then we'll want to be.
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