Cold case team investigating Anne Frank betrayal continues to accuse Jewish notary

The cold case team that investigated Anne Frank's betrayal is continuing to point the finger at Jewish notary Arnold van den Bergh as the most likely source of information that led to the German occupiers’ invasion of the Secret Annex where Anne Frank, her family and acquaintances were hiding. After a second and additional investigation into what happened leading up to 4 August 1944, the team concludes that "the suspicion does not make the notary a perpetrator, but rather a possible victim of an abject ideology in a totalitarian and repressive society.”

The team has not ruled out the possibility that their conclusion may be undermined by new research in the future.

At the beginning of this year, the book The Betrayal of Anne Frank by Canadian author Rosemary Sullivan caused upheaval and discontent. In that book it was stated that Van den Bergh wanted to protect his own family by sharing lists of addresses with the occupiers that detailed addresses where people were in hiding. The book was based on six years of research by a cold case team led by Pieter van Twisk. After six leading Dutch historians analyzed and rejected the book's conclusions, the Dutch publisher, Ambo Anthos, pulled the work from circulation.

According to the historians, the conclusions were based on "misuse of sources, unproven theories that were assumed to be true and tunnel vision." The Anne Frank House, among others, was relieved that Van den Bergh's name had been cleared.

The cold case team then re-examined its own findings. The team said on Monday that this has even led to new substantiations for their accusation. "The historians' burden of proof is wafer-thin, based on erroneous assumptions or less obvious interpretations of the source material. The historians' research was clearly done with the preconceived goal of exonerating notary Van den Bergh at all costs." says Van Twisk.

The cold case team, he said, was never out to find a perpetrator per se. The team is aware of the sensitivity of the issue, he added.

The researchers referred to "the precarious outcome that the actions of a Jewish notary may have unknowingly and unintentionally led to the arrest of the Frank family.” In a statement, they said, “This conclusion may be experienced as shocking by some, but that does not mean that the project was not carried out in a thorough and honest manner.”