The Betrayal of Anne Frank: “a shaky house of cards”

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Image Credit: Sem Van Der Wal via The New York Times. The Dutch edition of The Betrayal of Anne Frank.

The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation was removed from shelves on Tuesday after Dutch historians criticised its authenticity.

Six Dutch historians claimed the book to be “a shaky house of cards” in their 69-page “refutation”, after which Dutch publisher Ambo Anthos made a public apology.

Research conducted earlier this year by Canadian academic, Rosemary Sullivan, immediately gained criticism in the Netherlands. It has since been under review by academics and historians.

The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation alleged that prominent Jewish notary, Arnold van den Bergh, told local authorities where the Frank family were hiding.

Dutch historians said the book “displays a distinct pattern in which assumptions are made by the CCT (Cold Case Team), held to be true a moment later, and then used as a building block for the next step in the train of logic.

“This makes the entire book a shaky house of cards, because if any single step turns out to be wrong, the cards above also collapse.”

In response to this, cold case team leader, Pieter van Twisk, said the work was “very detailed and extremely solid [and it] gives us a number of things to think about, but for the time being I do not see that Van den Bergh can be definitely removed as the main suspect.”

“There is no smoking gun because betrayal is circumstantial,” said Mr Bayens.

Not all publishers have dropped the book, however.

In the US, Harper Collins Publishers said: “While we recognise there has been some criticism to the findings, the investigation was done with respect and the utmost care for an extremely sensitive topic.”

The Frank family hid in a secret annex behind a bookcase in Amsterdam from July 1942 until their discovery and deportation in August 1944.

During this time, Anne Frank wrote a diary documenting her time in hiding. Her father, Otto, who was the only surviving member of the family, published the diary in 1947.

Words by Maddy Raine

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