Who Betrayed Anne Frank

[Music] on August the 4th 1944 the Gestapo arrested an Frank her family and the four friends with whom they were in hiding the group had lived for two years for weeks in one day in a secret location in Amsterdam right under the noses of the Nazi occupiers and the Dutch Jew hunters in their employ someone disclosed the families hiding place to the Gestapo but that person's identity has never been known in 1999 a British author set out to expose the Franks betrayal she focused in on three suspects one of these she believes sealed the families horrible fate and she thinks she knows which one [Music] 107,000 Jews were deported from the Netherlands to Nazi concentration and extermination camps during World War two Holland's Jews had by far the worst survival rate in all of Western Europe after being betrayed and arrested the Frank family was shipped to Auschwitz Edith Frank died there Anne and her sister Margot were transported on to Bergen Belsen where they two died only Otto Frank survived in 1947 he arranged for the publication of the wartime Journal his youngest daughter had left behind the Diary of Anne Frank personalizes the horrors of the Holocaust in a way that is uniquely poignant it is one of the most widely published books in history Anne was 15 years old when she made the last entry I have Alice Anna's voice in my ears it it went all the time she talks so much she was interested in everything and very lively and very wild and very kind very lovely lovely girl I was born in Frankfurt like Anna Frank - and our family gathering we're very close we had a wonderful family always together with her Frank's until they went into hiding of course then all contact broke carol-anne Lee wrote a biography of Otto Frank which was published in 2002 in the course of her research Lee became deeply interested in who might have betrayed the family to the Nazis we have an element of mystery to the story that brings people back time and time again [Music] Lee thinks she has identified the betrayal but her conclusion is disputed by the Dutch office of war documentation Lee's research started with the Franks arrival in the Netherlands in 1933 otto frank moved his wife and two daughters from frankfurt to amsterdam that year the Year Hitler came to power and started down the road of institutionalized anti-semitism otto opened a small company of patka had sold pectin to make jam in 1937 it expanded to include a herb business the family made a life in the vibrant Dutch city as conditions for Jews in Germany and Eastern Europe grew ever more dial over a ten-month period from March of 1939 Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia Poland Denmark and Norway Germany attacked the Netherlands on May the 10th 1940 the same day that Winston Churchill became prime minister of Britain Otto Frank along with 140,000 other Jews living in Holland hoped that the country could remain neutral as it had in World War one but four days later after suffering heavy civilian casualties in the bombing of Rotterdam the Dutch army surrendered to Nazi Germany the borders were sealed [Music] at first life continued as before Auto even moved his company into a larger building to house both warehouse and offices the address was 263 Prinsengracht because there was no immediate action against them pollens Jews began to hope that the German occupiers might leave them alone but by the end of the year those hopes were obliterated they had to register all their belongings in yeah to begin with everything was registered so that the Nazis knew everything about everyone's property and then they had to deliver all their belongings of the gold older silver all the carpets all older the paintings everything Jews were barred from trams forbidden to ride bicycles they were banished from theaters and cinemas they couldn't buy fresh fruit from May of 1942 all Jews over the age of six were required to wear a yellow star of david' one by one the Nazi laws isolated and humiliated the Jewish population and Frank recorded the experience June the 24th 1942 it's sweltering everyone is huffing and puffing and then this heat I had to walk everywhere only now do I realize how pleasant the streetcar is but we Jews and no longer allowed to make use of this luxury our own two feet a good enough for us Otto sister and family including Hans cousin buddy was safe in Switzerland but news still filtered through from Amsterdam everything worsened from day to day of course it became horrible for them they couldn't do anything anymore no skating no only shopping at certain hours they had to go to separate schools the children and and and and and they were afraid they were worried but they couldn't believe that it would be to begin beginning of the end nobody could believe that day would be exterminated all of them Otto and his wife Edith tried to shield Anne and Margot up to a point it worked Anne wrote in her diary about everyday events like boys treating her to ice cream and teachers telling her she talked too much meanwhile otto was making secret plans otto frank decided to prepare a hiding place in the spring of 1941 which is very unusual because most people weren't thinking in terms of going into hiding at that point of course the deportations of Jewish people hadn't begun I mean they didn't begin until the following summer so something happened clearly to spark that decision on April the 18th 1941 Otto had a chilling encounter a man from the Dutch Nazi Party the NSD paid him a visit [Music] in April of 1941 otto was working in his office when a man walked in unannounced the man was a courier for the NSD the Dutch national socialist party who showed Otto a letter written by the husband of a former employee it denounced Otto for questioning whether the Germans would win the war otto feared he was about to be arrested but to his great surprise the man handed otto the letter and left [Music] Otto Frank realized that one day they have to disappear one day they have to hide he had tried to to get to England when the German army invaded Holland it wasn't possible anymore so he decided he has to prepare a hideout for many months Otto had been readying the hiding place he moved furniture and food into a small house attached to the back of the building that housed his company Anne's diary July the 5th 1942 a few days ago as we're taking a stroll around our neighborhood square father began to talk about going into hiding he said it would be very hard for us to live cut off from the rest of the world I asked him why he is bringing this up now that same afternoon and sister Margot was among the first 1,000 Jews ordered to report to a German work camp she was 16 at the time and she's received a summons for work in what they said was a German labor camp they'd already been rumors about you know something was going on obviously that was not right in these camps they were not what they pretended to be and once that came the families hiding-place was already ready and so they moved in they decided not to take any chances with Margot suitcases were out of the question so early the next morning they dawned as many layers of clothes as they could and fled their home it's estimated that 25 thousand Jews went into hiding in the Netherlands during the Nazi occupation it was the best strategy by far 64 percent escape detection and survived the war the survival rate for Jews who obeyed the Nazi deportation orders was grim between July of 1942 in September of 1943 virtually every Dutch Jew not in hiding was deported fewer than 5% of this group were alive when the camps were liberated [Music] the German Jewish refugees knowing from experience that the Nazis could not be trusted were the first to hide Otto left behind him a false trail of clues to make people think the Franks had escaped his Switzerland [Music] the family was joined by Otto's partner Hammond Van Pelt's his wife and their 16 year-old son Peter four months later they took in an eighth person for its Pfeffer Anne's diary entry for July the 8th 1942 so much has happened it's as if the whole world has suddenly turned upside down but as you can see Kitty I'm still alive and that's the main thing father says I'm alive alright but don't ask where or how they lived in a prison with locks on the inside they had to be as careful as they possibly could that nobody would discover them living behind curtain doffed windows all the time not being able to put your nose out of doors living in a kind of semi darkness and Frank called the hiding place the secret annex the cramped quarters measured only 50 square meters the entrance from one of the upstairs offices of Otto's company of patka was disguised as a bookcase Otto Edith and Margo shared one room Anne and Fritz Pfeffer slept and studied in the other upstairs mr. and mrs. Van Pelt's lept in the dining room the son Peter had a bed next to the stairs to the Attic the warehouse was to the front and below but sound traveled easily in the old wooden buildings [Music] every single thing that you do in normal life virtually could not be done in hiding even something as basic as going to the toilet for instance they had to be careful the times they used the toilet when they flushed it really things that basic Amsterdam was a dangerous place and growing more so in the summer of 1942 Nazi authorities were aggressively searching for Jews who had failed to show up for deportation the German installation of a civilian leader in Holland gave much greater power to the SS and the Nazi Party than they had in occupied France or Belgium in those countries the leaders were German military for whom rounding up Jews was not always the highest priority otto frank enlisted four trusted employees to look after the group and referred to them in her diary as the helpers Bette Voss Cowell and me police searched for food Johannes Klieman and Victor Kubler guarded the annex from intruders the helpers also continued to run the company consulting auto in hiding they were the sole lifeline for the concealed group visiting the secret annex almost every day to deliver sustenance and news is it possible that this burden grew too heavy their stories about families who were hiding people got tired of it and found to the SD and said I've got some juice here in house you can go and get him and sometimes take out money for it did one of the helpers betray the Franks all available evidence shows that the four were loyal that they protected those in hiding at the expense of their own well-being and safety [Music] carol-anne Lee believes that the identity of the betrayal lies elsewhere outside the inner circle villain van Marin was hired as the foreman of the warehouse in the spring of 1943 he worked just two floors below the secret annex suspect number one villain van Marin there's no doubt that the warehouse when the head warehouseman villain bin Laden did make everyone feel uncomfortable because he was obviously trying to find out what was going on in that building and he did make a nuisance of himself he was a nosy man he did want to know what was going on there there were a number of small things that he did that made the helpers especially feel very uncomfortable about his presence van Morin set up little traps in the warehouse at night potato flour sprinkled on the floor to detect footprints pencils balanced on the edge of a desk so they would fall down if somebody walked by when questioned the manager claimed he was trying to discover who was stealing from the warehouse van meirin's behavior frightened those in hiding among other increased precautions they decided on new restrictions about flushing the toilet but he was certainly very very suspicious he was he was dangerous for them anyone who knew about them who shouldn't have known of course was a danger another entry from Anne's diary about the warehouse manager April the 25th 1944 van Moran probably has the suspicions about us as well koogler and the two men have been looking into the question of how to get this fellow out of the place from every possible angle downstairs they think it's too risky but isn't it even riskier to leave things as they are did villain van Morin betray the Frank family after the war Dutch authorities investigating war crimes targeted van Marin as the prime suspect helper Johannes Klieman led the way accusing van Marne of betraying the Franks la Motte Hartog van Moran's assistant said that his boss told him there were Jews hiding in the building [Music] but the investigations were inconclusive in the annex the day's crept by living silently indoors with no privacy took its toll as did the constant fear there's the ever-present fear of being discovered and it's impossible to try and imagine what that fear must have been like because it really was there all the time they were constantly listening listening to the sounds of of night the cars going past they thought it might be a Gestapo truck is that have they come for us you know footsteps outside with a Gestapo boots on ice and bears I see myself alone in a dungeon without father and mother or I'm roaming the streets or the annex is on fire they come in the middle of the night take us away and I cool onto my bed and desperation I see everything as if it were actually taking place and to think it might all happen soon edith frank Anne's mother seemed to be I don't want to say she was losing her mind but she was certainly becoming more and more depressed and she was also convinced that they would not get out of there for the liberation which Otto kept trying to tell everyone it's gonna be okay when the liberation comes we'll be here we'll come out but she never believed that although Edith Frank couldn't have known it Lea suspects that the person who would ultimately betray the Franks watched them for some time on February the 12th 1944 the same day Churchill and Roosevelt ordered preparations to begin for an Allied invasion of France and wrote in her diary the sun is shining the sky is deep blue there's a magnificent breeze and I'm longing really longing for everything conversation freedom friends being alone I longed to cry I feel as if our about to explode I know crying would help but I can't cry if the betrayer was already watching the family who might it've be the windows of the secret annex faced a courtyard surrounded by twenty to thirty houses there was a young boy who was in the courtyard and he says he saw this young girl at the window upstairs and she looked at him and then disappeared he said afterwards when the book was published and her photo was published he said I knew that was her I knew I'd seen Anne Frank a lot of people could have seen them and if you start to talk about it when when one person talks about and nothing happens with if more people started to talk do you know maybe there are Jews living there then the possibility that those talks come into the wrong hands is bigger although many Dutch work to save Jews many others worked with the Germans to catch them the equivalent of a week's salary was offered to anyone who would reveal the location of hidden Jews the middle of 44 the worth between 20 and 25,000 people into hiding in in the countryside in in small villages in cities like Amsterdam and what the Germans were doing they were trying to track down those last surviving Jews the Nazis began offering rewards to people who would say oh I know whether a Jews hiding there were certain people who were more than willing to take advantage of that the non-professional was the person he would just keep their eyes and ears open who just wanted to make a bit of money on the side all those who had a personal grudge against the people who gone into hiding he wanted to settle scores or something like that sometimes betrayers were just afraid of trouble this was the case with suspect number two whilst researching a biography of Otto Frank British author Caroline Lee found herself drawn into a mystery more than half a century old who gave up and Frank and her family to the Nazis the first suspect Lee identified was villain van Meryn Otto's warehouse manager suspect number two was Lena Hogg married to van Moran's assistant part oak was the office cleaner lena Hartog was said to have heard from her husband the Jews were hiding in the building she revealed her suspicions to a woman whose house she cleaned and apparently Lena also told Beth he was one of the helpers that she knew they were Jews hiding there and she couldn't just sit by and let it happen could Lena have taken matters into her own hands Otto Frank later said that a woman had made the fatal call to the Gestapo but his source remains unknown part of might have feared that her husband was in danger because of the Jews in hiding like van Merrin Lena Hartog was investigated after the war but once again no conclusion was reached about her complicity [Music] wave upon wave of Jews were uncovered and fed into the Nazi murder machine they were shipped to Westerbork the transition camp in holland [Music] from there they were sent on to extermination camps where two-thirds were gassed at once those who survived the first night that an average of only six weeks although she didn't know their ultimate fate and Frank knew that Jews were being rested from their homes October the 9th 1942 today I have nothing but dismal and depressing news to report are many Jewish friends and acquaintances being taken away in droves the Gestapo is to some very roughly attacked sporting them in cattle cars to Westar book the big camp endurance to which the sending all the Jews more terrifying than the casual betrayers to the Franks and their friends with a professional Jew hunters they stalk their prey on the streets of Amsterdam earning a bonus for every Jew captured and these predators were not Germans I overthought heard their prosecution of juice and the extermination of Jews in Holland was a German job but in my study there's almost no German at all they're all Dutchman there did the Dutch people did the hunting and did the dirty work themselves and I never realized this before that is my fellow Dutchman who this is Jew hunting and who earned the money for it and it were the Germans that organized it but the Dutchman were the perpetrators the Dutch economy had been bled dry by the German war machine many people were jobless for them the Gestapo offered unique opportunities unemployed people and people who just didn't really have a place in the society and the Nazis are very good at taking advantage of them and saying well you know we give you a nice uniform kind of thing and good wage and commission so on and unfortunately there were quite a few people willing to do that the Dutch Jew hunters anti-semitic Nazi leaning and greedy held a privileged position in Amsterdam at bars and cafes all over the city they drank smoked and flaunted their new power the worst among them was Martin Cowper a former dutch policeman have joined the gestapo in 1942 pow-pow is said to have murdered and tortured like a medieval executioner [Music] he was one of the most successful betrayers of Jews in hiding I'd like to tending their arrests this was his main job his main job was to hunt down Jews and he enjoyed it he hated Jews and he took great pleasure in tracking them down she was a very sadistic man I mean there's no doubt about it he was that kind of a person when he was picked up after the war during his search aisle he said well I can't tell you how many people I've betrayed because I stopped counting when it got to about 250 Martin kaupo was present at the Frank family's arrest the reward for Jews by the summer of 1944 was 40 guilders per head but the question remains who gave calper the information during her research Carolyn Lee uncovered a letter never before seen in it otto frank wrote of a man who had saved his life Anton Alice also known as Tony Alice Lee investigated allas and found that he worked for the Dutch Nazi Party the NSB he had a hand in dozens of betrayals and extortions in post-war testimonials all's was described in one document after another as a dangerous person why would aught of written so positively about a man with such an appalling reputation [Music] the kind of work Alice did for the NSP was really he was a snitch a snoop Allah's role model was Martin culpa Martin capper was someone who Tony allas looked up to he looked up to him so much that he actually told people that Martin careful was his father-in-law when he clearly was Copa and our laws could cause trouble for anyone whether Jewish or not kaupo was a well-established member of the SD the Dutch Gestapo Arlis was more on the fringes betraying and informing on a freelance basis then I remember too that the person who betrayed the Franks according to the Nazi officials who were questioned after the war they felt it had to be a known betrayer and then I kind of like clicked on in my head and I thought I well whether he is the betray or not I certainly have to follow this up and so then I really set out on the trail suspect number three and tone olives the next intriguing clue that Carol uncovered was a letter allah's' wrote in 1966 in that letter he did say I knew that the Frank Cameron hiding he says he allowed them to go into hiding and I thought this is such a strange story how did he know why did he know [Music] honors knew a lot of secrets about the Franks [Music] he wrote that Otto's company made regular deliveries to the German army he called Auto the June Frank it's clear he was no friend nor was all's relationship with otto Frank as convivial as Otto described Lee suspects that the trouble began back in April 1941 before the Franks went into hiding when Otto received a surprise visit from the Dutch Nazi Korea bearing a letter he believes that visitor was Anton Ali's [Music] and that the intercepted letter was used by others to blackmail Otto Frank she also thinks allas was after more than a single payoff that he had figured out another way in which Otto's vulnerability might be exploited [Music] according to his wife all has worked as a middleman between Otto Frank's company and the German army even after Otto went into hiding in fact more than 80% of Dutch companies did business with the German occupiers although most Dutch were ashamed of these dealings after the war Otto claimed that he never saw Alice again after the secret meeting in 1941 but Carol discovered another clue that everyone else had overlooked the name Alice appears at least four times in Otto Frank's post-war agenda book why would aught of Frank lie about his relationship with Arlen's of course we don't really know what that means whether he had an appointment with our was read he get an appointment to his missus Alice or just a reminder of taking some actions for instance writing a letter to the Dutch authorities after Holland's liberation in early May of 1945 tony allas was jailed for war crimes Otto wrote several letters on Allah's behalf saying this young man saved my life was autosimply trying to help Lisa Spanx allas was once again blackmailing Auto perhaps threatening to reveal his dealings with the German occupiers I saw Al's criminal files later on and also Frank was the only person to defend him and I think also did that because all this said to him look I want you to defend me if you do this I won't mention the fact that you did business with the German Vemma Alice was blackmailing Auto again in that [Music] but the timing of Lee's discovery about Allah's was unfortunate he died in August 2000 just weeks before Caroline Lee learnt that he might have been the Frank family's betrayer [Music] then out of the blue she received a phone call it was Tony allas some also named Anton first thing he said was that I have to tell you that your theory about my father probably betraying the Franks is not quite right he did betray them Lee also spoke with Alice half sister Margaret block she confirmed that all's bragged about being the person who had betrayed Anne Frank I know Tommy told me that he did it everybody in the whole family was worse care of him and nobody had contact with him because everybody always know he was dangerous of the moment that he told me that how he betrayed on the Frank I believe him because I know how he live how we work Lee's discoveries stirred up a controversy the Netherlands Institute for war documentation investigated her contention that Alice was the betrayer they don't think there is sufficient evidence to substantiate the claim well as a matter of fact I don't think we really don't believe two family members it's more that what they know they know from the words spoken by a Tony Alice the family member we spoke to his son was born in 1945 so he couldn't have gotten any information whatsoever from our firsthand so when you try to put together what you know about Tony ours the sources you find are almost always the same name Lee told Tony hours himself Tony Alice son can't benefit from saying his father was the betrayer at all I mean he would be able to benefit far more by saying that his father's saved Otto Frank's life in 1941 but the fact is that Tony Alice was the one person who did have motives and the means to betray them very easily none of the other suspects who've been brought forward in the past have had motives postwar testimony revealed that villain van marin the warehouse supervisor was a thief testimony also showed he did not belong to the Dutch Nazi Party van Maanen had nothing to gain by betraying the Franks in fact he himself was harboring a fugitive his son who wanted to avoid work duty in Germany the case against Lena Hartog has similar problems if Hartog motive for betraying the Franks was to protect her husband Lambert why wouldn't she have warned him not to go to work on the day of the arrest and Lama too was wanted by the Germans for work duty I am totally sure that Tony allas was behind the Frank family's betrayal and I don't have any doubts about that he needed money his own business had gone bankrupt so Otto Frank was of no use to him in that sense he couldn't do business with him anymore and of course Otto was Jewish and he'd always hated Jews [Music] British and American forces landed in France the Frank family and their four friends had been in hiding for almost two years they learned of the invasion and prayed that the war would end soon Anne Frank had fallen in love with Peter Van Pelt's the son of the other couple in hiding she had also started to think like a writer and to imagine that one day her diary might be published April the 5th 1944 I want to go on living even after my death and that's why I'm so grateful to God for having given me this gift which I can use to develop myself I should express all that's inside me but the end had come early August the 4th 1944 the Frank family lived with their bags packed but they could never have been ready for that morning and it's too edith frank was the first to know helper Victor koogler climbed up the stairs a gun at his back [Music] [Applause] [Music] the Gestapo herded them into one room [Music] [Music] the arresting officer emptied Otto's briefcase scattering Anne's diary onto the floor later he'll permit keys retrieved it [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Martijn Cowper the sadistic Dutch Jew hunter attended the arrest the Franks and the others spent the night in the basement prison of the infamous Gestapo headquarters in Amsterdam the SD building then they were sent to Westerbork the transition camp [Music] their life in hiding had been so difficult to bear that in a strange way they were relieved otto frank wrote that after the long confinement it was almost like an outing we had food and we were all together after a few days they were taken to Central Station and one of the other people who'd been picked up and was about to be deported remember seeing them there and she said the houses of the city were all bathed in gold it was a very beautiful day but all these people had a kind of silent melancholy about them and it was their last journey [Music] on September the 3rd the francs was shipped to Auschwitz it was the very last deportation to that camp from Holland upon arrival otto frank was separated from iron Margo and Edith Ann and her sister was sent on to bergen-belsen with her daughter's gone Edith fell ill and died starved and frozen and Margo caught typhus I'm nursed Margot until she died [Music] several days later believing her entire family to be dead and two died alone less than a month after her death bergen-belsen was liberated [Laughter] [Music] when I looked outside right into the depth of nature and gods then I was happy really happy Caroline Lee believes she's found the man who betrayed an Frank but the Netherlands Institute for war documentation discounts Anton all's confession as bragging the only evidence that Alice potrait otto frank and learned a lot of people is Tony Alice himself he has told it and he has told his family but that's not evidence enough and that his family now tells it they don't like him that's true but I don't believe a word from it as long as there's no proof it's a theory but to me it's the most likely theory there exists [Music] otto frank was the only one from the secret annex to survive the war after hell permit peace gave him hands diary otto dedicated himself to his daughters legacy he died in 1918 in arms writing the horrors of the holocaust as seen through the eyes of a brave witty tender young girl [Music] the Diary of Anne Frank has sold 31 million copies it is one of the most widely read books ever according to his son Tony allas grew bitter over Otto Frank's Fame nobody can say definitively if Tony allas is guilty too much remains unknown but six decades on Kara lammle believes she's come as close as anyone ever will to knowing who betrayed and Frank [Music]

Channel: Hal Monroe

Views: 809,675

Rating: 4.7597961 out of 5

Keywords: Betrayed, Anne, Frank

Id: -ThE4COEAN0

Length: 43min 21sec (2601 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 12 2017