Who Revealed The Hiding Place Of Anne Frank's Family?

The hiding place behind the bookcase. It's a story that has lasted 100 years. Nazi Germany had invaded countries to get rid of the Jewish World. When the Nazis invaded the Netherlands, Jews hid for their lives. The Frank family were among them.

Adolf Hitler was the leader of Nazi Germany. He would stand in front of the country and the country's armies and blame the Jewish people for all the problems of Germany. He believe if he annihilated them, Germany would be a better place.

Due to economic downfall, the family had to move. Before long, the family moved to the Netherlands where Otto Frank worked his hardest to get his spice and jam business off the ground.

Anne Frank took to the Netherlands very well. She made friends, enjoyed school, and learned their language. But it wouldn't last long.

Nazi Germany invaded the dutch land a couple of years later. The Dutch army surrendered and rules started taking place. The Jews could not visit public parks, cinemas, or non-jewish parks, according to AnneFrank.Org.

Times started to get worse when all Jews must start to wear a yellow star of David on their clothing. The Franks received an order to show up for a "Work Camp" in Nazi Germany. At this time, the parents decided to act.

In a warehouse, there was a staircase behind a corner bookcase. The stairs led to the home the Franks would reside in for 2 years during the siege. It's been said that behind the warehouse, there is an open courtyard where passing pedestrians could hear even the smallest cough. So the windows had to be closed.

During the 2 years, Anne kept a diary which went on to be one of the most read books in all of history. The secret annex the family lived in was small and cramped. They had to be very quiet to keep their anonymity.

Her diary kept record of what life was like in this cramped annex, but also her thoughts and feelings. She would write beautiful stories and copied passages from books that she read.

To quote from AnneFrank.org, "When the Minister of Education of the Dutch government in England made an appeal on Radio Orange to hold on to war diaries and documents, Anne was inspired to rewrite her individual diaries into one running story, titled Het Achterhuis (The Secret Annex)."

Two years went by and in 1945, Nazi's raided the secret home and took all the Franks prisoner. They were taken to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, in Germany. This is where Anne Frank and her family would come to an end. The only one to survive was Otto Frank.

Who gave up the whereabouts of the family? Many investigations have happened since the death of the family. Many investigators believe a manager of the warehouse, Wilhelm Van Maaren, gave away their position. But until his death, he denied any involvement.

A recent investigation stated that they don't believe Maaren did it. They stated that with the Economic Crisis if he gave up the family, he would have been fired. He couldn't chance that.

The most recent investigator was an FBI Retiree. After investigating many documents, he believes a founder in the Jewish Council in 1943 named Arnold Van Den Bergh is guilty without reasonable doubt.

To quote People.com, Pankoke said the son of a detective on the Dutch police's 1963 probe gave him a copy of an anonymous note once sent to Anne's dad, Otto Frank — the only family member in the annex to survive the Holocaust.

In the letter, van den Bergh was identified as the person who betrayed the family, Pankoke said.

"In his role as being a founding member of the Jewish Council, [van den Bergh] would have had privy to addresses where Jews were hiding," Pankoke explained on 60 Minutes. "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."

So in the end, the Frank family was betrayed by the ones who they thought would protect them. But they live on in the words of the young Anne Frank.

Respect to all the families.

Credit:

https://www.annefrank.org/en/anne-frank/who-was-anne-frank/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_van_Maaren#:~:text=Willem%20Gerardus%20van%20Maaren%20(August,the%20betrayer%20of%20Anne%20Frank.

https://people.com/human-interest/who-betrayed-anne-frank-investigation/