Anne Frank (June 12, 1929 – March 9, 1945), author of The Diary of Anne Frank, was one of the most famous victims of the Holocaust in World War II. In 1999, he was named to Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People in the World in the 20th Century." (Source: Anne Frank Museum)
The Diary of Anne Frank, one of the most widely circulated books on the Holocaust, used a diary by 13-year-old Anne Frank to record her life in the Vault from June 12, 1942 to August 1, 1944, becoming a famous witness to the Nazi massacre of Jews during World War II. After the end of World War II, "Anne Frank's Diary" was distributed more than 30 million copies worldwide, and not only published in many editions in China, but also selected excerpts from the book's content entered the middle school Chinese textbook.
Partial translations of Anne Frank's Diary in recent years, from left: Beijing United Publishing Company (2014), Central Compilation Publishing House (2015), Jiangxi People's Publishing House (2018).
Anne Frank was arrested and killed after writing her diary, who exactly "betrayed" Anne Frank during World War II? In January, a team of unsolved investigations involving former members of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation claimed that after six years of careful research, they had come to a completely new conclusion: The betrayal of Anne Frank was a Jew, and the famous Amsterdam notary Arnold van den Bergh had told the Nazis Anne Frank's secret address to keep himself and her family safe. Meanwhile, Canadian scholar and author Rosemary Sullivan published Betrayal of Anne Frank: An Unsolved Investigation based on the results of the study.
Immediately after the book was published, it attracted widespread criticism in the Netherlands. Six Dutch historians dismissed the allegations of the unsolved investigation team as "completely untenable" in a 69-page written document. These Dutch historians argue that the book was written in a unique way, with assumptions made by the unsolved investigation team being considered correct before scrutiny and then used as a cornerstone for deducing the next logical sequence. "This turns the whole book into a crumbling house of cards, because if any step goes wrong, the cards on it will collapse." The book's Dutch publisher, Ambo Anthos, also issued an apology earlier and withdrew the Dutch version of Betrayal of Anne Frank: An Unsolved Investigation.
The Betrayal of Anne Frank: An Investigation into the Unsolved Cases, covered in English.
In response, Pieter van Twisk, head of the unsolved investigation team, told KLM that the historian's work was "very detailed and solid" and said "it allows us to think about a lot of things," but so far I don't see a reason to explicitly exclude Van den Berg from the main suspect. ”
According to previous reports, the unsolved investigation team used a large number of modern technical means in the process of investigation, including spending thousands of hours using computer algorithms to search for connections between different people. The suspect, Van den Berg, was a member of the Amsterdam Jewish Council, which was forced to implement Nazi policies in Jewish areas. After its dissolution in 1943, its members were sent to concentration camps. The investigation team found that Van den Berg was not sent to the concentration camp at the time, but lived in Amsterdam as usual. They began to suspect that members of the Jewish Council had provided intelligence to the Nazis. In one file, they found a copy of an anonymous letter sent to Anne Frank's father, stating that Van den Berg was a traitor who had harmed their family.
Not all publishers have removed new books that have been questioned. HarperCollins Publishers, the U.S. publisher of Betrayal of Anne Frank: An Unsolved Investigation, issued a statement expressing support for the new book's continued release, adding: "While we acknowledge that there are some doubts about the findings, this investigation was done with respect for the facts and extreme caution." ”
Resources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/23/world/europe/anne-frank-informant-ambo-anthos.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60204868
https://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment/dutch-publisher-pulls-anne-frank-betrayal-book-amid-critique-1.5830922
https://www.npr.org/2022/03/23/1088177734/a-dutch-publisher-is-pulling-an-investigative-book-on-who-betrayed-anne-frank
The author | Li Yongbo
Edited | Rodong
Proofreader | Li Ming