Suspect revealed in Anne Frank’s betrayal
For many years, historians have been looking into the prime suspect for the betrayal of Anne Frank and her family. More than 75 years later, a possible suspect has been uncovered.
After working for 27 years, retired FBI agent Vince Pankoke has finally discovered a likely culprit: Arnold van den Bergh, a father, Jewish businessman and former member of the Holland Jewish Council. According to investigators, van den Bergh was in the council to avoid being sent to a concentration camp.
Even though van den Bergh managed to leverage his position on the council, Anne and her family were still hiding for their lives in a small annex in the back of her father’s Amsterdam factory. With the help of employees who brought necessities, the Franks lived in secret for 761 days, from 1942 to 1944 and stayed as silent as possible to avoid being caught.
While on “60 Minutes,” Pankoke revealed an important letter. Pankoke said the son of a detective on the Dutch police’s 1963 probe gave him a copy of an anonymous note once sent to Anne’s father, Otto Frank. The note stated that van den Bergh had given away addresses to the Nazis including that in which Anne and her family were hiding in to avoid being arrested. According to Pankoke, van den Bergh was identified as the family betrayer in the letter, although its existence was not widely known.
“Your hiding place in Amsterdam was in that time partly shared with the Central Agency for Jewish Emigration in Amsterdam by A. van den Bergh, who had lived near the Vondel Park,” the letter said.
Even though van den Bergh died in 1950, Pankoke described him as a “chess player.” “He thought in terms of layers of protection, by obtaining different exemptions from being placed into the camps,” Pankoke said.
