Historians have expressed strong criticism of the investigation into the betrayal of Anne Frank’s hiding place from the Nazis.
The evidence is very thin, Amsterdam Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies Johannes Houwink ten Cate told NRC Handelsblad on Tuesday. “With great accusation comes great evidence. And there isn’t one.”
An international team had been researching archives for five years to find out who had betrayed the hiding place of a total of eight Jewish people in Amsterdam to the German Nazis in 1944. Anne Frank (1929 – 1945) wrote her world-famous diary there.
No evidence for lists of addresses of Jewish hideouts
The team published its results on Monday. After that, a Jewish notary very likely betrayed the hiding place. He wanted to save his family’s life. The team relies primarily on a copy of an anonymous letter that Anne’s father, Otto Frank, received after the war, in which the name of the notary is mentioned.
Several historians have expressed doubts about the conclusions, citing errors and inaccuracies in the investigation. There is no evidence that the Jewish Council had drawn up lists of addresses of hiding places for Jews during World War II.
The historians also see no motive for the notary. He himself went into hiding with his family in the summer of 1944 because of the threat of deportation. According to the historians, the notary would only have drawn attention to himself by reporting to the security service. (SDA)