The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation

21Inventory 13, 15, 17, 22, Interneringsarchieven (Internment Archives), 1945–50, Groningen Archives.

22Nelly Voskuijl, AC card, Groningen Archives. Unpublished research by Ben Wegman shows that Nelly lived not only at Grote Rozenstraat 14, Steentilstraat 47, and Gedempte Zuiderdiep 25a but also at Noorderstationsstraat 20 for two months. Wegman’s research and a Delpher search show that Diny’s memories about Nelly’s work and the Voet family are correct: she is registered as an in-house clerk for widow A. Hendriks at Grote Rozengracht 14 from October 26, 1945, until May 23, 1947, when she moved to Noorderstationsstraat 20a. At number 20 Noorderstationsstraat the son of the Voet family lived with his wife and young baby. After two months, on July 28, 1947, Nelly moved to Gedempte Zuiderdiep 25a, the house with the café of the head of the Voet family, Gozen Theo Voet. Nelly was registered as an in-house maid. This information, together with the vague remarks of Joop van Wijk that the “family Voet” was friends with Nelly, confirms that Nelly Voskuijl was not in prison between October 26, 1945, and April 8, 1953, when she moved back to Amsterdam.

23Bruyn and Wijk, Anne Frank: The Untold Story, 233.

24CCT, interview with Joop van Wijk, December 7, 2018.

25To answer this question, CCT conducted extensive interviews, as well as document searches. They spoke with Melissa Müller and conducted two interviews with Joop van Wijk and one with Jeroen de Bruyn; Bertus Hulsman was interviewed by a researcher at AFS, Dineke Stam. Diny Voskuijl could not be interviewed because of poor health, but they closely reviewed the interview she had given to the Volkskrant newspaper in 2018. They also interviewed Hugo Voskuijl, an amateur genealogist who had done extensive research into his family.





Chapter 29: Probing Memory


1Evelyn Wolf, audio interview with Victor Kugler, 1972, AFS.

2Ernst Schnabel, original notes for The Footsteps of Anne Frank, 1957, German Literature Archive Marbach.

3“A Tragedy Revealed,” Life, August 18, 1958, 78–90.

4Ernst Schnabel, The Footsteps of Anne Frank, translated by Richard and Clara Winston (Harpenden, UK: Southbank Publishing, 2014), 129.

5Ibid.

6Arend J. van Helden, State Department of Criminal Investigation, Amsterdam, interview with Otto Frank, December 2–3, 1963, NIOD, Doc. 1 Van Maaren.

7Jan Rijnders, Report: Telefoonnet Amsterdam 1940–1945, March 25, 2019. Report for Cold Case Team, not publicly available.

8Gertjan Broek, “An Investigative Report on the Betrayal and Arrest of the Inhabitants of the Secret Annex,” Anne Frank House, December 2016, https://www.annefrank.org/en/downloads/filer_public/4a/c6/4ac6677d-f8ae-4c79-b024-91ffe694e216/an_investigative_report_on_the_betrayal_and_arrest.pdf, 8. Broek concluded that this remark has been misread because it depends on Silberbauer’s statement being correct.





Chapter 30: “The Man Who Arrested Frank Family Discovered in Vienna”


1Simon Wiesenthal, The Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Memoirs, edited by Joseph Wechsberg (New York: Bantam Books, 1968), 171–72.

2Ibid., 174.

3Ibid., 177.

4Harry Paape (then director of NIOD), interview with Miep Gies, February 18 and 27, 1985, NIOD.

5Wiesenthal, The Murderers Among Us, 175. Assuming that Kugler had misspelled it, Wiesenthal changed Silvernagl to Silbernagel, which was a common name in Austria.

6Ibid., 178. In a CBS documentary, Who Killed Anne Frank?, the director of RIOD (now NIOD), Loe de Long, claimed it was he who had given the phone directory with Silberbauer’s name to Wiesenthal.

7Tony Paterson, “Nazi Who Arrested Anne Frank Became a Spy for West Germany,” Independent, April 11, 2011.

8“Der Mann, der Anne Frank verhaftete” [The Man Who Betrayed Anne Frank], Volksstimme, November 11, 1963.

9Simon Wiesenthal, letter to Dr. Wiesinger, Austrian Ministry of the Interior, November 15, 1963, AFS.

10“Nieuw onderzoek naar het verraad van familie Frank” [New Investigation into the Betrayal of the Frank Family], Het Vrije Volk, November 27, 1962. See also “Frank wist wie hem weghaald” [Frank Knew Who Took Him Away], translated by the Cold Case Team, De Telegraaf, November 22, 1963.

11“SS’er die gezin Frank arresteerde, gevonden” [SS’er Who Arrested Frank Family Found], Volkskrant, November 21, 1963.

12Carol Ann Lee, The Hidden Life of Otto Frank (New York: Harper Perennial, 2003), 278.

13Miep 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), 196.

14Eda Shapiro and Rick Kardonne, Victor Kugler: The Man Who Hid Anne Frank (Jerusalem: Gefen Publishing House, 2008), 54.

15Detective Scherer, State Department of Criminal Investigation, Amsterdam, interview with Miep Gies, May 3, 1963, NIOD, Doc. 1 Van Maaren.

16De Groene Amsterdammer republished the full article in 1986. See Jules Huf, “Listen, We Are Not Interested in Politics,” De Groene Amsterdammer, May 14, 1986.

17Wiesenthal, The Murderers Among Us, 180.

18Karl Josef Silberbauer, signed statement, November 25, 1963, translated by Joachim Bayens, Austrian Department of the Interior, Austrian State Archives, VieNI-HaNa.

19Jeroen 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), 191.

20Huf, “Listen, We Are Not Interested in Politics.”





Chapter 31: What Miep Knew


1Miep Gies, Wallenberg Lecture, University of Michigan, October 11, 1994.

2Drake Baer, “The Real Reason Keeping Secrets Is So Hard, According to a Psychologist,” The Cut, June 1, 2016, https://www.thecut.com/2016/06/real-reason-keeping-secrets-is-hard.html.

3Quoted in Carol Ann Lee, The Hidden Life of Otto Frank (New York: Harper Perennial, 2003), 322–23.

4Vince Pankoke, interview with Father John Neiman, February 19, 2019.

5Jeroen 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), 169.

6Miep and Jan Gies, cited in Hieke Jippes, “Voices from the Front House,” NRC Handelsblad, March 14, 1981. See also De Bruyn and Van Wijk, Anne Frank: The Untold Story, 169.





Chapter 32: No Substantial Proof, Part II


1Arend J. van Helden, State Department of Criminal Investigation, Amsterdam, interview with Willem Grootendorst, January 7, 1964; Arend J. van Helden, interview with Gezinus Gringhuis, December 23, 1963, NIOD, Doc. 1 Van Maaren.

2Arend J. van Helden, State Department of Criminal Investigation, Amsterdam, summary report, December 3, 1964, NIOD, Doc. 1 Van Maaren.

3Arend J. van Helden, State Department of Criminal Investigation, Amsterdam, interview with Willem van Maaren, October 6, 1964, NIOD, Doc. 1 Van Maaren.

4Arend J. van Helden, State Department of Criminal Investigation, final report to prosecutor, November 6, 1964.

5Carol Ann Lee, The Hidden Life of Otto Frank (New York: Harper Perennial, 2003), 123.

6Umberto Bacchi perpetuated the rumor of the female caller in “Anne Frank: Book Identifies Betrayer as Helper’s Sister and Gestapo Informer Nelly Voskuijl,” International Business Times, April 9, 2015, but did not substantiate it. See also: Interview with Jan Erik Dubbelman, head of educational projects, Anne Frank House (AFH), Amsterdam, July 8, 2019.

7Simon Wiesenthal, The Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Memoirs, edited by Joseph Wechsberg (New York: Bantam Books, 1968), 182.

8Detective Meeboer, interview with Lammert Hartog, March 20, 1948, PRA.

9Detective Meeboer, interview with J. Kleiman, January 12, 1948, PRA.

10Vince Pankoke, interview with Melissa Müller, Munich, February 14, 2019.





Chapter 33: The Greengrocer


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