The Mystery Of Who Betrayed Anne Frank And Her Family May Have Finally Been Solved
Most of us realized about World War II by means of the pages of Anne Frank’s diary. The 15-year-old German-Dutch woman was of Jewish descent, which signifies that in Forties Europe she and her household have been being persecuted by the Nazis. The household moved to Amsterdam, Netherlands when Adolf Hilter took energy in Germany in 1934. In 1940, the Germans each revoked citizenship of Jewish individuals and occupied the Netherlands, trapping the Frank household in hostile territory. The household tried to flee to the United States, however their paperwork was by no means processed.
On her thirteenth birthday on 12 June, 1942 Anne Frank acquired a diary and began writing in it. In July 1942 the Frank household went into hiding in a secret annex hid behind a bookcase within the constructing the place Anne’s father, Otto Frank, labored. The solely individuals recognized to have recognized concerning the secret annex have been Otto Frank’s coworkers Victor Kugler, Johannes Kleiman, Miep Gies (and her husband Jan Gies), and Bep Voskuijl (and her father, Johannes Hendrik Voskuijl). They introduced meals and information of the struggle to the annex inhabitants and guarded the key annex with their lives. If caught, every of those helpers could possibly be put to demise by the Nazis for serving to the Frank household. Also dwelling within the secret annex have been the Van Pels household: Hermann, Auguste, and 16-year-old Peter in addition to a buddy of the household named Fritz Pfeffer.
A mannequin of the key annex, Wikimedia Commons
In August 1944 the Nazi secret police (the Gestapo) arrived and went straight to the key annex the place they arrested everybody in the home and despatched them to focus camps. Anne and her sister Margot have been despatched to Auschwitz after which to Bergen-Belsen focus camp the place they each died in February or March 1945. Otto Frank was the one member of the Frank household to outlive the holocaust. He fulfilled his daughter’s dream to grow to be a author by publishing her diary. The Diary of Anne Frank has now been translated into 70 languages and is among the most-read books of the twentieth century.
A new investigation led by historians and ex-FBI members has spent six years studying the case and now suppose they’ve recognized the one who betrayed the Frank household to the Gestapo: a Jewish businessman named Arnold van den Bergh. Van den Bergh died in 1950, however throughout the 40s he was a member of Amsterdam’s Jewish Council. The Jewish Councils have been arrange by the Nazis to implement Nazi guidelines as a option to hold non-Jews from listening to concerning the atrocities they have been committing and getting concerned. The investigators consider that van den Bergh gave the Nazis details about the Frank household with a view to save his family. Investigators additionally consider that Otto Frank knew who betrayed him however saved it a secret, as he understood why it occurred and didn’t want to fan flames of anti-semitism.
The investigation was featured on a latest episode of 60 Minutes and would be the foundation of the e-book The Betrayal of Anne Frank: An Investigation.
