New study says Anne Frank may not have been betrayed
December 17, 2016
Fresh research by the Anne Frank House suggests that the famous diarist may have been found "by chance." There is evidence the building where she was hiding was also part of a probe into illegal labor and forgery.
Image: Cinema Publishers Collection/IMAGO
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A new study published on Friday has challenged the long-held theory that Anne Frank was betrayed to the Nazis.
The Anne Frank House museum in Amsterdam has released new data suggesting that German soldiers may have raided the secret annex where the diarist, her family, and four other Jews were hiding as part of a larger investigation into the forging of ration coupons.
"During their day-to-day activities," men working for the German Security Service (SD) "often came across Jews in hiding by chance," according to the report. Indeed, two men who worked in the building where Anne was hiding were arrested for falsifying ration cards. There is mention of the arrests in her diary.
The canal-side house where Frank hidImage: Getty Images
Researchers have discovered proof that a call was put into the authorities about suspicious activity at the Prinsengracht 263 address prior to the discovery of the secret annex, but there is no conclusive evidence that the call was to betray Anne and her companions.
The study also points out that by the time they were found and arrested in August 1944, most civilian telephone lines had been cut, lending credence to the theory that the call to the SD came from another government agency.
"A company where people were working illegally and two sales representatives were arrested for dealing in ration coupons obviously ran the risk of attracting the attention of the authorities," the report said.
The voice of the Holocaust
Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1929. After the Nazis came to power, her father Otto relocated the family to Amsterdam.
Frank was given the booklet in which she wrote her famous diary for her 13th birthday in 1942, and Otto Frank had it published posthumously after World War II.
Anne's account of the Netherlands under German occupation and her two years in hiding have made her the most famous voice of the 6 million Jews who were killed by the Nazis. She died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in early 1945. Her father was the only resident of the secret annex to survive the war.
The report from the Anne Frank House said, however, that the researchers had not ruled out the possibility that the Franks and their fellows were betrayed, and that further investigation was necessary.
"Clearly, the last word about that fateful summer day in 1944 has not yet been said," the museum concluded.
Anne Frank: Betrayed, deported, world-famous
Anne Frank hid in the Netherlands for years, before on August 4, 1944, her family was found and deported to Auschwitz. The diary she wrote while in hiding has made her famous throughout the world.
Image: World History Archive/picture alliance
Fleeing from the Nazis
In 1933, Anne Frank and her family fled from Germany to the Netherlands to escape the Nazis. In the Second World War, she had to go into hiding under the German occupation. For two years, she lived concealed in the secret annex of a house in Amsterdam. But someone betrayed her: On August 4, 1944, her family was found, arrested and deported to Auschwitz.
Image: World History Archive/picture alliance
Family ties
Anne Frank (front left) had a sister Margot (back right) who was three-and-a-half years older than she was. Her father, Otto Frank, took this photo on Margot's eighth birthday in February 1934, when the family was already in exile in the Netherlands.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo
The hiding place in Amsterdam
Anne's father was able to found a company in Amsterdam. It had its headquarters in this building (c.). Otto organized the "secret annex" above and behind the premises. The family of four lived there from 1942 to 1944, together with four other people on the run from the Nazis. It was here that Anne Frank wrote her world-famous diary. The Anne Frank House has been a museum since 1960.
Image: Getty Images
A diary as best friend
From the start, Anne wrote in her diary almost every day. It became a kind of friend to her, and she called it Kitty. The life she led was completely different from her previous, carefree existence. "What I like the most is that I can at least write down what I think and feel, otherwise I would completely suffocate," she penned.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Death in Bergen-Belsen
Anne Frank and her sister were taken from Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen on October 30, 1944. More than 70,000 people died in this concentration camp. After the liberation of the camp, the victims were transported to mass graves under the supervision of British soldiers. Anne and Margot Frank were among those who died there from typhus, at an unknown date in March 1945. Anne was just 15 years old.
Image: picture alliance/dpa
Anne's tombstone
Anne's tombstone also stands in Bergen-Belsen. This Jewish girl from Frankfurt had imagined her life differently. "I don't want to have lived in vain like most people. I want to bring joy and aid to the people who live around me, but who don't know me all the same. I want to live on, even after my death," she wrote in her diary on April 5, 1944.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Made famous by a diary
Her great dream was to become a journalist or author. Thanks to her father, her diary was published on July 25, 1947. An English version was brought out in 1952. Anne Frank became a symbol for the victims of the Nazi dictatorship. "We all live with the aim of attaining happiness; we all live differently, but the same." — Anne Frank, July 6, 1944.
