“Based on the conclusions of the report, we have decided that the book is no longer available with immediate effect,” reports the publisher. Ambo Anthos calls on the bookstore to return the books they still have in stock. The publisher again offers “sincere apologies” to those offended by the book’s contents.
Historians contradict theory
In the book, a cold case team investigating that notary Arnold van den Bergh, a member of the Jewish Council, is most likely the one who betrayed the Frank family. There was a lot of fuss about the publication. According to various historians and (Jewish) organizations, the statement is based too much on assumptions. A group of historians conducted an analysis and called the study “amateurish” on Tuesday evening. It would be based on misuse of resources, assumed assumptions and tunnel vision.
Earlier, Ambo Anthos concluded that it had not been critical enough and that the conclusion in the book about the betrayal found insufficient support in the available factual material. Even then, apologies were offered, especially to the relatives and further family of Van den Bergh. Additional printing of the book was already postponed.
The municipality of Amsterdam says it is good that various experts have thoroughly investigated this and will include it in its further investigation. Amsterdam is investigating whether it can reclaim a contribution of 100,000 euros from the cold case team. At the beginning of February, the college said it recognized itself in the image that the investigation and publication were handled carelessly and negligently and that it was shocked by this.
Pieter van Twisk, chief investigator of the cold case team, has not yet responded to the publisher’s action. He called the historians’ analysis a “very fine report” that he will study. “As yet I have not read anything that makes me think: now our theory has been disproved,” he said in first reaction to the historians’ findings.
Granddaughter wants book withdrawn from sale worldwide
The granddaughter of the Jewish notary Arnold van den Bergh, Mirjam de Gorter, makes an urgent appeal for the book about the betrayal of Anne Frank to be withdrawn from the market worldwide. According to De Gorter, there is “false historiography.”
She asked the American publisher HarperCollins Publishers, which owns the world rights, and all other publishers involved to retrieve the book. “With this story you are exploiting the story of Anne Frank, you are falsifying history and you are contributing to great injustice.”
De Gorter is “greatly happy” with the historians’ report, she said on Tuesday evening after a meeting in Amsterdam. “In the end, they did the job I expected from the cold case team.”
According to Van den Bergh’s granddaughter, she was shocked when she heard that her grandfather was designated in the book as a suspected traitor to Anne Frank and her family. Although she had contact with the researchers of the cold case team several times before the publication, she said she had no idea they would come up with this. “I immediately thought: my grandfather is being framed, in that note,” referring to an anonymous note that has been presented as evidence stating that her grandfather had betrayed the Frank family. “If you are going to point out another ‘he knows’, and that you take that as true, you don’t trust that.”
At the same time, she also became very worried. “I thought: they know more than I do. Then you feel pretty powerless. That team that screens with such great scientists, they know that.”
De Gorter is therefore “greatly happy” with the historians’ report, she said on Tuesday evening after a meeting in Amsterdam. “In the end, they did the job I expected from the cold case team.”
She could not say whether she will take further legal action. “We still have to think about that.”