Betrayal Of Anne Frank: New Suspect Identified After More Than 75 Years

The betrayal of Anne Frank case was being investigated for years, in the past six years, no new lead was found. Recently a team with US FBI agent Vincent Pankoke and over 20 historians, data specialists and criminologists found a surprising suspect in the case.

He is a Jewish notary Arnold van den Bergh who is a relatively unknown figure.

About more than 75 years ago, the Nazis entered the annexe in Amsterdam. The researchers have stated that it is "very likely" that Van den Bergh gave up Anne Frank's family in order to save his own family, according to the NRC newspaper.

Frank family was discovered on August 4, 1944 after living in hiding for two years. The helper of the family, Miep Gies discovered the diary written by Anne Frank and kept it safe until it was published in 1947 by Frank's father Otto. She had been dead for two years when the diary got published. Frank was killed in the Bergen Belsen Camp at the age of 15. Her diary has narrated the story of the teenage Jewish girl who grew up in hiding. Many people have felt inspired by the book and it has been translated to 60 languages for readers of the world.

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The identification of the suspect in her Frank's betrayal has not been about prosecution but about solving one of the biggest unsolved mysteries in the Netherlands of World War II. The data scientists in the investigation team compiled a master database with lists of Nazi collaborators, informants, important historic documents and police records before the research started to find new leads.

Scenarios and locations of suspects were visualised on a map to identify the person who betrayed the Frank family based on the knowledge of the hiding place, opportunity and motive. The research finding will be reportedly published in a book written by Canadian author Rosemary Sullivan. The book will be named The Betrayal of Anne Frank. It will be released on Tuesday. In the past, dozens of suspects were named but it is the first time that such advanced investigative techniques were used to identify a suspect.