The Dutch government refused to give special preference to returning Jews. The logic was that “the Nazis had treated the Jews differently from the rest of the population and treating the Jews differently now again would no doubt remind everyone of Nazi ideology.”14 The Dutch were simply following the policy set by the Allied authorities, who claimed that to differentiate Jews from other displaced persons would be unfair to non-Jews and would “constitute religious discrimination.”15 In September 2017, Lotty, age ninety-six, was finally recognized for the horrors she had endured and honored with her own bench.
The bronze bust of Geertruida “Truus” Wijsmuller-Meijer, inaugurated in 1965, is now on the Bachplein in south Amsterdam. Truus was a Dutch resistance fighter. In 1938, the British government agreed to let Jewish children under the age of seventeen enter the United Kingdom for a temporary stay. The Dutch Children’s Committee in Amsterdam asked Wijsmuller-Meijer, who was known to be imperturbable and fearless, to go to Vienna to meet Adolf Eichmann, the one in charge of the forced “emigration” of Jews. Apparently, Eichmann found her unbelievable: “so rein-arisch und dann so verrückt!” (so purely Aryan and then so crazy!).16 He promised that he would give her ten thousand Jewish children if she could collect six hundred children in six days after their meeting and get them onto a ship to England. She succeeded. On December 10, six hundred Jewish children left Vienna by train. Until the outbreak of war, she organized Kindertransporten (children’s transports). Several times a week, she traveled to Germany and Nazi-occupied territories to pick up children. By the time war was declared on September 1, 1939, her organization had saved ten thousand Jewish children. The Germans called her die verrückte Frau Wijsmuller (that crazy woman Wijsmuller) because she had helped Jews for free.
Since 1995, the German artist Gunter Demnig has been creating commemorative “stumbling stones.” In Amsterdam there are several hundred stones placed in front of the last known formal home addresses of Jews, Roma, Sinti, and others murdered by the Nazis. The stones are inlaid with bronze plaques. As you stumble over them, you stumble over the past; it is part of the fabric of the present. You remember.
Afterword
In the course of this investigation, I was asked many times if I thought we would be able to answer its central question definitively. I couldn’t promise, of course, but I did say that we would make a real attempt to discover the most likely cause of the raid on the secret Annex. The process took us nearly five years of scouring the globe, looking for reports that had been lost or misfiled and witnesses who had never been consulted. In the end, our talented, dedicated team of investigators, researchers, and volunteers met our goal: to figure out what happened at Prinsengracht 263. As is common in many cold case investigations, it turned out that a dismissed piece of evidence ended up being the key to solving the nearly eighty-year-old mystery.
As powerful as that discovery is, it is not the only accomplishment of our investigation. Through the years, we came upon a great deal of information that adds to the understanding of the time period as well as insights into the SD, the V-persons, and the collaborators. We also located and analyzed nearly one thousand Kopgeld receipts that shed new light on the SD’s payment incentive program to hunt Jews and other Nazi nondesirables. And we cast such a large net with our investigative research that we determined, or at least clarified, what happened in a number of other betrayal cases. I hope that our results might provide some closure to the descendants of those who were captured.
My generation, the so-called baby boomers, are the sons and daughters of the servicemen and -women who fought in World War II. We are the last generation with a true connection to that time. I remember many of the war stories my father and uncles used to tell me—not stories read in books but true first-person accounts. Most baby boomers in law enforcement have already retired or are reaching retirement age. While someone with first-person knowledge is still alive, while records are still available, while relatives of witnesses can come forward, the stories must be told.
I believe that once this book is published and people become familiar with our discoveries, anyone possessing relevant information will contact us and fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle of what happened on August 4, 1944. I truly believe that investigating the past and our interpretation of it is not a finite exercise. For that reason, we have donated our research database to the Dutch state so that others can gain insight into this important period in history.
For me, it has been an honor and a privilege to play some small part in reminding the world that the victims of the Annex and other Jews who were betrayed have not been forgotten.
—Vince Pankoke
THE COLD CASE TEAM
Thijs Bayens
Project director
(company CEO)
Luc Gerrits
Project finances
(company CFO)
Pieter van Twisk
Head of research
(company COO)
Vince Pankoke
Lead case agent
(retired special agent of the FBI)
Monique Koemans
Criminologist, historian, and author
Brendan Rook
War crimes investigator
Joachim Bayens
Translator
Veerle de Boer
Researcher
Circe de Bruin
Public historian
Amber Dekker
Military historian
Rory Dekker
Translator
Matthijs de Die le Clercq
Researcher
Nienke Filius
Forensic scientist
Anna Foulidis
Public historian
Marius Helf
Data scientist
Anna Helfrich
Historian
Jean Hellwig
Project manager
Soeliah Hellwig
Gender researcher
Robbert van Hintum
Data scientist
Christine Hoste
Public historian
Nina Kaiser
Documentalist
Linda Leestemaker
Archaeologist, journalist
Bram van der Meer
Investigative psychologist
Lilian Oskam
Criminologist
Welmoed Pluim
Criminologist
Marin Rappard
Heritage researcher
Isis de Ruiter
Documentalist
Cerianne Slagmolen
Historian
Patricia Spronk
Gender researcher
Rinsophie Vellinga
External researcher
Machteld van Voskuilen
Social historian
CONSULTANTS TO THE TEAM
Gerard Aalders
Historian and author
Frans Alkemade
Expert in Bayesian analysis at Alkemade Forensic Reasoning (AFR)
Hubert Berkhout
Archivist
Gertjan Broek
Historian at the Anne Frank House
Roger Depue
Behavioral scientist/profiler (retired from the FBI Behavioral Science Unit)
Wil Fagel
Forensic handwriting examiner
Corien Glaudemans
Historian and researcher at the Haags Gemeentearchief
Bernhard Haas
Forensic document examiner
Eric Heijselaar
Archivist at Stadsarchief Amsterdam
Peter Kroesen
Archivist at Stadsarchief Amsterdam
Carina van Leeuwen
Forensic cold case detective
Guus Meershoek
Historian
Quentin Plant
Data scientist
Sierk Plantinga
Archivist
Leo Simais
Police adviser
Eric Slot
Historian, author, and journalist
Hans Smit
Police adviser
Erik Somers
Historian at NIOD
Gerrold van der Stroom
Historian
Sytze van der Zee
Journalist and author
Acknowledgments