A new possibility has been raised in the decades-old mystery surrounding the identity of person who betrayed Anne Frank and her family, who hid from the Nazis in the attic of an Amsterdam building from 1942 to 1944 and became famous after Anne's diary of her years in hiding was published, The Guardian newspaper reports.
According to a new book by Gerald Kremer, the son of a member of the Dutch resistance, a woman named Ans van Dijk reported the whereabouts of the Frank family to the authorities. After World War II was over, Van Dijk admitted to helping the Nazis capture 145 people, including her own brother. She was executed in 1948.
In his book, Kremer claims that Van Dijk began making regular visits to an office building that had been confiscated for the use of the German forces and where Kremer's father worked as a caretaker.
Kremer writes that his father overheard Van Dijk talking to the Germans about the Franks' hiding place in August 1944, the same month they were arrested and deported. Anne herself died, probably from probably from typhus, in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945.
The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam told the Guardian that it was aware that Van Dijk was a suspect in the betrayal of the Frank family, but considered the book "a tribute" to the author's family rather than proof of his theory.
In related news, an investigative team looking into who betrayed Anne Frank and her family has a book deal.
"Anne Frank: A Cold Case Diary" will be published in the summer of 2020, HarperCollins Publishers announced earlier this month. The book was among the most talked about at April's London Book Fair.
Former FBI agent Vincent Pankoke has been leading an international effort to solve the mystery over how the Frank family's attic hideout was discovered.
