The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation



1Miep Gies with Alison Leslie Gold, Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009), 198.

2Ernst Schnabel, The Footsteps of Anne Frank, translated by Richard and Clara Winston (Harpenden, UK: Southbank Publishing, 2014), 187.

3Jeroen de Bruyn, telephone interview with Diny Voskuijl, September 2, 2012.

4Jeroen de Bruyn and Joop van Wijk, Anne Frank: The Untold Story: The Hidden Truth About Eli Vossen, the Youngest Helper of the Secret Annex (Laag-Soeren, Netherlands: Bep Voskuijl Productions, 2018), 113.

5Ibid., 115–16.

6Janny Brandes-Brilleslijper, cited in Willy Lindwer, The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank: The Stories of Six Women Who Knew Anne Frank, translated by Alison Meersschaert (New York: Pan Macmillan, 2004), 52.

7Schnabel, The Footsteps of Anne Frank, 145.

8Ibid., 151.

9Ibid., 163.

10Ad van Liempt, “Van Riet schetst genuanceerd beeld van Joodse Ordedienst,” Volkskrant, November 19, 2016, https://www.volkskrant.nl/cultuur-media/van-riet-schetst-genuanceerd-beeld-van-joodse-ordedienst~b382e88b/.

11Schnabel, The Footsteps of Anne Frank, 155–56.

12Carol Ann Lee, The Hidden Life of Otto Frank (New York: Harper Perennial, 2003), 138.





Chapter 14: The Return


1Carol Ann Lee, The Hidden Life of Otto Frank (New York: Harper Perennial, 2003), 157.

2Ibid., 164.

3Ernst Schnabel, The Footsteps of Anne Frank, translated by Richard and Clara Winston (Harpenden, UK: Southbank Publishing, 2014), 163–64.

4Ibid., 161.

5Miep Gies with Alison Leslie Gold, Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009), 231.

6Eda Shapiro and Rick Kardonne, Victor Kugler: The Man Who Hid Anne Frank (Jerusalem: Gefen Publishing House, 2008), 77.

7Lee, The Hidden Life of Otto Frank, 177, 179.

8Willy Lindwer, The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank: The Stories of Six Women Who Knew Anne Frank, translated by Alison Meersschaert (New York: Pan Macmillan, 2004), 83–84.

9Lee, The Hidden Life of Otto Frank, 195.

10Jeroen de Bruyn and Joop van Wijk, Anne Frank: The Untold Story: The Hidden Truth About Eli Vossen, the Youngest Helper of the Secret Annex (Laag-Soeren, Netherlands: Bep Voskuijl Productions, 2018), 130. The eyewitness was Rachel van Amerongen-Frankfoorder. This has not been corroborated by other witnesses.

11Otto Frank, letter to his mother, December 12, 1945, in Melissa Müller, Anne Frank: The Biography, translated by Rita and Robert Kimber (New York: Picador USA, 2013), 354.

12Lindwer, The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank, 33.

13Müller, Anne Frank: The Biography, 299.

14Lindwer, The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank, 32.

15Lee, The Hidden Life of Otto Frank, 196.

16Lindwer, The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank, 27.

17Ibid., 28–29.

18Schnabel, The Footsteps of Anne Frank, 182. She is identified as Renate LA.





Chapter 15: The Collaborators


1Bob Moore, Victims and Survivors: The Nazi Persecution of the Jews in the Netherlands 1940–1945 (London: Arnold, 1997), 230.

2Ibid., 229.

3Carol Ann Lee, The Hidden Life of Otto Frank (New York: Harper Perennial, 2003), 173, 212.

4Bart van Es, Cut Out Girl: A Story of War and Family, Lost and Found (London: Fig Tree, 2019), 190.

5Miep Gies with Alison Leslie Gold, Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009), 228.

6Ad van Liempt, Hitler’s Bounty Hunters: The Betrayal of the Jews, translated by S. J. Leinbach (New York: Berg, 2005), 30.

7Ibid., 78.

8Ibid., 33.

9Ibid., 63.





Chapter 16: They Aren’t Coming Back


1Miep Gies with Alison Leslie Gold, Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009), 234.

2Ibid., 242.

3Ibid., 240.

4Carol Ann Lee, The Hidden Life of Otto Frank (New York: Harper Perennial, 2003), 86.

5Otto Frank, “Anne Frank Would Have Been Fifty This Year,” Life, March 1979.

6Eva Schloss with Karen Bartlett, After Auschwitz: A Story of Heartbreak and Survival by the Stepsister of Anne Frank (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2013), 173.

7Arthur Unger, interviews with Otto Frank, New York, 1977, AFS.

8Schloss, After Auschwitz, 225.

9Otto Frank, letter to Meyer Levin, July 8, 1952, cited in Lee, The Hidden Life of Otto Frank, 238.

10Lee, The Hidden Life of Otto Frank, 251.

11Lothar Schmidt, letter to Otto Frank, June 1959, quoted in David de Jongh, Otto Frank. Vander van Anne [Otto Frank. Father of Anne], documentary, 2010. Also in Jeroen de Bruyn and Joop van Wijk, Anne Frank: The Untold Story: The Hidden Truth About Eli Vossen, the Youngest Helper of the Secret Annex (Laag-Soeren, Netherlands: Bep Voskuijl Productions, 2018), 205.

12Interview with Father John Neiman, April 2001, quoted in Lee, The Hidden Life of Otto Frank, 272–74.

13Lee, The Hidden Life of Otto Frank, 272.





Chapter 18: The Documents Men


1Jessie Kratz, “The Return of Captured Records from World War II,” Pieces of History, August 24, 2016, US National Archives, https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2016/08/24/the-return-of-captured-records-from-world-war-ii/.





Chapter 20: The First Betrayal


1Gijsbert Willem van Renen, Office of the Amsterdam Police Force, investigation of Josephus Marinus Jansen, June 2, 1948, Netherlands National Archives, The Hague (hereafter NI-HaNa) file no. 8082.

2Otto Frank, letter to the Bureau of National Security (Bureau Nationale Veiligheid; BNV), August 21, 1945, denouncing Job Jansen. Other versions have Ahlers asking for money, but this is Otto’s official declaration to the BNV. Otto claimed that Ahlers had said he was a courier between the NSB and SD and handed him the letter. He had not asked for money. Otto had offered him money, obviously understanding that that was what was required. Otto wrote to the BNV to help a man who he believed had saved his life, and certainly it was easy to slip past the issue of who had asked for and who had offered money.

3Job Jansen, protocol report, June 2, 1948, Centraal Archief van de Bijzondere Rechtspleging (hereafter CABR), NI-HaNa.

4Otto Frank, letter to POD, August 21, 1945, no. 23834, NI-HaNa.

5Vince Pankoke, interview with Eric Bremer, April 23, 2017, Amsterdam.

6Job Jansen, CABR, NI-HaNa, translated by Joachim Bayens and Rory Dekker.

7Van Renen, investigation of Josephus Marinus Jansen, June 2, 1948.

8Job Jansen, CABR, NI-HaNa.

9Canton judge, Amsterdam, Special Court, judgment of Josephus Marinus Jansen, March 21, 1949.





Chapter 21: The Blackmailer


1Ernst Schnabel, The Footsteps of Anne Frank, translated by Richard and Clara Winston (Harpenden, UK: Southbank Publishing, 2014), 77.

2Ibid., 78.

3Amsterdam Stadsarchief, RC (resident card) for Prinsengracht 253, address for mother of A. (Tonny) Ahlers.

4Carol Ann Lee, The Hidden Life of Otto Frank (New York: Harper Perennial, 2003), 125.

5Sytze van der Zee, Vogelvrij: De jacht op de joodse onderduiker (Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij, 2010), 21.

6Otto Frank, letter to BNV, August 21, 1945, Tonny Ahlers, CABR, NI-HaNa.

7Tonny Ahlers, CABR, NI-HaNa.

8Amsterdam Stadsarchief, AC (personal card) for A. (Tonny) Ahlers, registered at Leger Des Heils; – Military status Ahlers_ongeschikt (Not suitable) _ parents divorced; Ad to Vereeniging Nora for neglected children.

9NI-HaNa, CABR, Anton (Tonny) Ahlers; Telegraaf article vandalizing 04-03-1939.

10Joseph van Poppel, CABR, NI-HaNa.

11Copy of De Telegraaf newspaper article with photo of Ahlers, February 18, 1941, Anton (Tonny) Ahlers, CABR, NI-HaNa.

12Tonny Ahlers, CABR, NI-HaNa.

13Tonny Ahlers, social welfare file notes, Stadsarchief Amsterdam.

14De Waarheid (The Truth), December 1945. File 22, NIOD.

15Otto Frank, letter about Tonny Ahlers, no 19450830, July 20, 1945, Tonny Ahlers, CABR, file 18, NIOD.

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