Arnold van den Bergh

The Second World War - Criminals

During the Second World War, at the age of 13, a Jewish girl Anne Frank began to write a diary describing - through the eyes of a child - the events of the time. The hiding place, located above a warehouse, where Anne hid with her family for almost 2 years, was discovered by the Germans. They were all sent to a concentration camp. Anne died in 1945 in Bergen-Belsen. She was 15 years old at the time.

Anne Frank - picture taken in 1942

For six years, a group of about 20 historians, criminologists and analysts, together with retired FBI agent Vincent Pankok, conducted a meticulous investigation. They concluded that the influential Jewish notary Arnold van den Bergh was responsible for the denunciation of Anne Frank and seven other Jews, including members of her family.

For the research, the team used a database from a list of Nazi collaborators, informants, historical documents, police data and previous research. In order to identify a suspect, they 'mapped' dozens of scenarios and locations of potential suspects, taking into account knowledge of Jews in hiding, assumed motives and opportunities in both gaining knowledge of Jews in hiding and collaborating with the Germans.

Among other things, historians have discovered that van de Bergh, who died in 1950, had access to information about the hiding place because he was a member of the Jewish Council in Amsterdam during the war and was not deported like many other Jews. It was assumed that he may have committed treason to save his own family.

Historian Erik Somers of the Netherlands Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Research (NIOD) was sceptical of the study. He praised the meticulousness and reliability of the researchers' work, but remained sceptical about the results. Somers pointed out that van den Bergh's identity as a suspect was based on an anonymous record containing his name and on assumptions related to the methods of the Judenrats operating in Amsterdam. Professor Johannes Houwink ten Cate, on the other hand, pointed out that van den Bergh himself was in hiding on 4 June 1944 during the raid on Anne Frank's hideout.

Ronald Leopold, director of the Anne Frank House, said the study presented important new information and "a fascinating hypothesis that deserves further research".

SOURCES
https://newsfounded.com/poland/holandia-zydowski-notariusz-arnold-van-den-bergh-jest-podejrzany-o-zdradzenie-kryjowki-dziennikarki-anne-frank-w-amsterdamie/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_van_den_Bergh

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