Anne Frank may not have been betrayed to Nazi occupiers, but captured by chance.
A new study published on Friday by the Anne Frank House museum in Amsterdam says that despite decades of research there is no conclusive evidence that the Jewish diarist and her family were betrayed to the Netherlands’ German occupiers during the second world war, leading to their arrest and deportation.
The last word about that fateful summer day in 1944 has not yet been said
Ronald Leopold, Executive Director of the Anne Frank House museum, said in a statement on Friday that new research by the museum “illustrates that other scenarios should also be considered”.
One possible theory is that the August 4, 1944, raid that led to Anne’s arrest could have been part of an investigation into illegal labour or falsified ration coupons at the canal-side house where she and other Jews hid for just over two years.
Anne kept a diary during her time in hiding that was published after the war and turned her into a globally recognised symbol of Holocaust victims. She died in the Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentration camp at age 15, shortly before it was liberated by Allied forces.
The new research points to two men who worked in the building on Amsterdam’s Prinsengracht canal and dealt in illegal ration cards. They were arrested earlier in 1944 and subsequently released, Dutch records show. The arrests also are mentioned in Anne’s diary.