Jewish businessman may have betrayed Anne Frank to Nazis, experts claim - The Jewish Chronicle

A Jewish businessman may have been the informant who revealed the hiding place of Anne Frank to the Nazis, according to experts.

The identity of the traitor whose information led to her capture has long been a mystery.

But now a six-year-long investigation has concluded it may have been Arnold van den Bergh, a Jewish notary.

Previous research conducted by the Anne Frank House museum in 2016 had suggested the family’s hideout could have been discovered by accident during a raid on the address over ration fraud.

But according to one of the investigators, ex-FBI agent Vince Pankoke, Mr van den Bergh (who is believed to have died in 1950) may have handed over a list of addresses to the Nazis in a bid to save his own life and family.

The team of historians, criminologists and other experts used artificial intelligence to sift through records and discovered Nazi party members and known informants in the area.

Their findings are featured in a new book,The Betrayal of Anne Frank by Rosemary Sullivan.

Using forensic techniques, they managed to authenticate an anonymous postwar note sent to Anne’s father Otto which had been found during a 1963 Dutch investigation.

The note accused Mr van den Bergh of handing over addresses to the Nazis and claimed he had access to such information through his role within Amsterdam’s Jewish Council.

Mr Pankoke suggested Otto may have chosen not to speak publicly about the note due to fears over antisemitism.

He told CBS in the US: “He knew that Arnold van den Bergh was Jewish, and in this period after the war, antisemitism was still around.

“So perhaps he just felt that if I bring this up again, with Arnold van den Bergh being Jewish, it'll only stoke the fires further.

“But we have to keep in mind that the fact that he was Jewish just meant the he was placed into a untenable position by the Nazis to do something to save his life,“.

However, Dutch historian Erik Somers cast doubt on the findings, telling Reuters “they seem to work from the point of view that he was guilty and found a motive to fit that.”

Mr Somers also reportedly described Mr van den Bergh as a “very influential man” and suggested he may have been spared deportation for other reasons.

In a statement on Monday, the Anne Frank House museum said it was “impressed” by the findings.

“The background to and events of the arrest of Anne Frank are questions that continue to occupy many people’s minds. The Anne Frank House was not involved in the cold case investigation, but it did share its archives and museum with the team, as well as its own 2016 investigation into the arrest of the people in hiding.

“The Anne Frank House is impressed by the work that the cold case team has carried out. The investigation was carefully set up and performed, and the book The Betrayal of Anne Frank reports on it in an engaging and readable way.”

Anne and her family were discovered by the Nazis in 1944, two years after going into hiding in an annexe concealed by a bookcase above a warehouse in Amsterdam.

The teenager died of typhus in Bergen Belsen in 1945 at the age of 15.

Her powerful diary testimony chronicling life under the Nazis has been translated into dozens of languages since its posthumous publication.