The man who betrayed Anne Frank and her family to the Nazis appears to have finally been outed, 77 years after the diarist’s death.
A painstaking probe has led to Jewish lawyer Arnold van den Bergh being named as the one who exposed the Franks’ secret hideaway in Amsterdam.
Former FBI agent Vincent Pankoke was part of the 24-strong team of investigators who revealed the “well-known notary” as the guilty party.
Their detective work has been chronicled by author Rosemary Sullivan in her book The Betrayal of Anne Frank.
The investigation into van den Bergh began in 2016 when a filmmaker and Dutch journalist began trying to find the betrayer and they brought Mr Pankoke on board.
He worked closely with Ms Sullivan and Monique Koemans, a senior advisor to the Dutch government.
A list of suspects was narrowed down to 12 and eventually one.
Ms Sullivan said: “We looked at each person and it was in terms of opportunity, motive and knowledge.”
They also examined the findings of two previous investigations. Among the documents was a letter sent anonymously to Otto, who died in 1980 aged 91, which said van den Bergh had revealed his hiding place.
When the investigators found the note van den Bergh is alleged to have handed to the Nazis there were no names on it so it could be argued he did not know the identity of those in hiding.
Despite the Frank family’s tragic end, Ms Sullivan urges readers not to view van den Bergh, who died in 1950, too harshly.
She said: “I don’t think anybody can judge van den Bergh unless they were in his situation… if you knew your children were going to be exterminated, to give away an address with no name – it mitigates.
“He did not turn over information out of wickedness or for self-enrichment as so many others had. Like Otto Frank’s, his goal was... to save his family.”
And Mr Pankoke believes van den Bergh’s identity had remained secret for so long because of fears it would incite anti-Semitism.
“Perhaps it was just felt it’ll only stoke the fires further,” he told CBS 60 Minutes.
