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The Last Secret of the Secret Annex: The Untold Story of Anne Frank, Her Silent Protector, and a Family Betrayal
A riveting historical investigation and family memoir that intertwines the iconic narrative of Anne Frank with the untold story of Bep Voskuijl, her protector and closest confidante in the Annex, bringing us closer to understanding one of the great secrets of World War II.
Anne Frank’s life has been studied by many scholars, but the story of Bep Voskuijl has remained untold, until now. As the youngest of the five Dutch people who hid the Frank family, Bep was Anne’s closest confidante during the 761 excruciating days she spent hidden in the Secret Annex. Bep, who was just twenty-three when the Franks went into hiding, risked her life to protect them, plunging into Amsterdam’s black market to source food and medicine for people who officially didn’t exist under the noses of German soldiers and Dutch spies. In those cramped quarters, Bep and Anne’s friendship bloomed through deep conversations, shared meals, and a youthful understanding.
Told by her own son, The Last Secret of the Secret Annex intertwines the story of Bep and her sister Nelly with Anne’s iconic narrative. Nelly’s name may have been scrubbed from Anne’s published diary, but Joop van Wijk-Voskuijl and Jeroen De Bruyn expose details about her collaboration with the Nazis, a deeply held family secret. After the war, Bep tried to bury her memories just as the Secret Annex was becoming world famous as a symbol of resistance to the Nazi horrors. She never got over losing Anne nor could Bep put to rest the horrifying suspicion that those in the Annex had been betrayed by her own flesh and blood.
This is a story about those caught in between the Jewish victims and Nazi persecutors, and the moral ambiguities and hard choices faced by ordinary families like the Voskuijls, in which collaborators and resisters often lived under the same roof.
Beautifully written and unsettlingly suspenseful, The Last Secret of the Secret Annex will show us the Secret Annex as we’ve never seen it before. And it provides a powerful understanding of how historical trauma is inherited from one generation to the next and how sometimes keeping a secret hurts far more than revealing a shameful truth.
Anne Frank’s life has been studied by many scholars, but the story of Bep Voskuijl has remained untold, until now. As the youngest of the five Dutch people who hid the Frank family, Bep was Anne’s closest confidante during the 761 excruciating days she spent hidden in the Secret Annex. Bep, who was just twenty-three when the Franks went into hiding, risked her life to protect them, plunging into Amsterdam’s black market to source food and medicine for people who officially didn’t exist under the noses of German soldiers and Dutch spies. In those cramped quarters, Bep and Anne’s friendship bloomed through deep conversations, shared meals, and a youthful understanding.
Told by her own son, The Last Secret of the Secret Annex intertwines the story of Bep and her sister Nelly with Anne’s iconic narrative. Nelly’s name may have been scrubbed from Anne’s published diary, but Joop van Wijk-Voskuijl and Jeroen De Bruyn expose details about her collaboration with the Nazis, a deeply held family secret. After the war, Bep tried to bury her memories just as the Secret Annex was becoming world famous as a symbol of resistance to the Nazi horrors. She never got over losing Anne nor could Bep put to rest the horrifying suspicion that those in the Annex had been betrayed by her own flesh and blood.
This is a story about those caught in between the Jewish victims and Nazi persecutors, and the moral ambiguities and hard choices faced by ordinary families like the Voskuijls, in which collaborators and resisters often lived under the same roof.
Beautifully written and unsettlingly suspenseful, The Last Secret of the Secret Annex will show us the Secret Annex as we’ve never seen it before. And it provides a powerful understanding of how historical trauma is inherited from one generation to the next and how sometimes keeping a secret hurts far more than revealing a shameful truth.
288 pages, ebook
Published May 16, 2023
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February 21, 2023
I received an ARC from NetGalley and Simon & Schuster of “The Last Secret of the Secret Annex: The Untold Story of Anne Frank, Her Silent Protector, and a Family Betrayal,” in exchange for an honest review.
Written by Joop van Wijk-Voskuijl and Jeroen De Bruyn, this book focuses primarily on Bep Voskuijl—Joop’s mother—and her family both during and after World War II. The authors never come right out and say, “Bep’s sister Nelly did it! She’s the one that betrayed the Secret Annex!” And I understand why. There’s no “real” evidence that can be found, just bits and pieces. But when those bits and pieces are sewn together, it’s easy to see a pattern. The authors provided enough information “writing between the lines” to ensure that readers understood, without a doubt, that Nelly was guilty of the betrayal.
I’m familiar with “family secrets.” This a symptom of dysfunctional families. I’m not slinging mud here because my father’s own family is just as dysfunctional. For example, my father told me his “great grandfather was an Hungarian Jewish doctor”—but conveniently left out the fact that he was himself halachically Jewish. Certainly one could argue that he simply didn’t know as he wasn’t raised religious and was actually raised as a Protestant; that his own mother was raised as a Catholic. The point that I’m making is that in families like mine and Joop’s that were already dysfunctional to begin with, fascism fostered **even more** dysfunction. People just quit talking. They close ranks. And anyone that rocks the boat (like me and Joop) and doesn’t toe the line becomes an outcast.
Joop’s family hid Jews during World War II. My family was a mixture of non-religious Halachic Jews and Mischlinge who hid their ancestry during (and after) the war. As a result, I understand the high level of secrecy in the Voskuijl family and, in a way, feel a certain kinship to them. However, this is where the feelings of solidarity END. Why? Because the minute that the Voskuijl family learned that Nelly betrayed the Secret Annex, the entire Voskuijl family banded together and made their ‘family honor’ the priority at the expense of the **real victims**.
The authors try to make it appear as if Bep began to suspect her sister during the 1960s. If this is so, then why did her father viciously beat Nelly ***the day after the Annex was raided***? Why did Otto Frank just mysteriously write out the Voskuijl family out of the the first edition of Anne’s published diary?
I can forgive some family dysfunction. But what I can’t forgive is the fact that the authors are public apologists for Nelly. Throughout the book, the authors describe how Bep could never forget the people who ‘corrupted’ her sister (essentially placing the blame for Nelly’s behavior onto others); that when Nelly fell down a flight of stairs as an old woman, the author cried that he wouldn’t wish that kind of death on anyone (never mind that she was responsible for the horrifying deaths of 7 innocent people); on another occasion, the authors bemoaned how it was actually difficult not to “…feel a measure of pity…” for Nelly (after she spent all the money she got from Nazi’s for turning in Jews).
It’s a fact that 99.9% of the Holocaust’s perpetrators never paid for their crimes. I’m not just talking about major figures, but the everyday Joe’s and Jane’s who ransacked Jewish homes, the guards, the onlookers who laughed as Jews were being marched to their deaths, and etc. They were never punished. They got away with it. Plain and simple. Most of those people, like the Voskuijl’s, never talked about it. The act of not talking about something is bad enough. But actually going through the motions and physically covering up a crime is even worse.
The authors disclose how Bep and her father were never honored the way that Miep and Victor were, but at the end of the book, Bep made sure that her ‘secret letters’—probably to Otto rather than to a supposed lover—were burned prior to her death. The authors also recall how Bep tried to commit suicide, but never mention that this might be due to the fact that she was engaged in a criminal cover up and by this time, her conscience was eating at her. Bep, rightfully, wanted to avoid the spotlight. Of course, this never stopped her from accepting money from Otto Frank. The Voskuijl family wanted more recognition and more money than they got, but it’s a little hard to be a ‘savior’ when you’re covering up a war crime.
The whole family criminally collaborated to hide Nelly’s secret, becoming their own little private ODESSA. The family treated Nelly like a pariah, and rightfully so, but they were more interested in preserving the reputation of their family name. In doing so, they subverted justice.
The authors nearly weep over Nelly, but who weeps for the Franks, the van Pelses, and Fritz Pfeffer? The Voskuijl family was, and is apparently still, not interested in the real victims. They’re still too busy protecting poor old Nelly and the Voskuijl ‘family honor’. Even though the authors have laid everything out, they STILL want readers to feel sorry for that woman. Without an ounce of shame, they even used Anne Frank’s own words about Nelly to try to justify why people should feel pity for her. In doing so, the authors are, albeit unwittingly, still playing by the family’s so-called unwritten rules.
Should people read this book? Absolutely. It’s been nearly 80 years since the war ended, and fascism and nationalism are rearing their ugly heads again. Even after all of these years, people are STILL denying justice to victims of the Holocaust. I commend the authors for at least trying to tell the public about what happened. But they tempered this noble cause with the tendency to brush away responsibility from the person that was responsible for the crime of denouncement and from the people who knowingly covered it all up.
Written by Joop van Wijk-Voskuijl and Jeroen De Bruyn, this book focuses primarily on Bep Voskuijl—Joop’s mother—and her family both during and after World War II. The authors never come right out and say, “Bep’s sister Nelly did it! She’s the one that betrayed the Secret Annex!” And I understand why. There’s no “real” evidence that can be found, just bits and pieces. But when those bits and pieces are sewn together, it’s easy to see a pattern. The authors provided enough information “writing between the lines” to ensure that readers understood, without a doubt, that Nelly was guilty of the betrayal.
I’m familiar with “family secrets.” This a symptom of dysfunctional families. I’m not slinging mud here because my father’s own family is just as dysfunctional. For example, my father told me his “great grandfather was an Hungarian Jewish doctor”—but conveniently left out the fact that he was himself halachically Jewish. Certainly one could argue that he simply didn’t know as he wasn’t raised religious and was actually raised as a Protestant; that his own mother was raised as a Catholic. The point that I’m making is that in families like mine and Joop’s that were already dysfunctional to begin with, fascism fostered **even more** dysfunction. People just quit talking. They close ranks. And anyone that rocks the boat (like me and Joop) and doesn’t toe the line becomes an outcast.
Joop’s family hid Jews during World War II. My family was a mixture of non-religious Halachic Jews and Mischlinge who hid their ancestry during (and after) the war. As a result, I understand the high level of secrecy in the Voskuijl family and, in a way, feel a certain kinship to them. However, this is where the feelings of solidarity END. Why? Because the minute that the Voskuijl family learned that Nelly betrayed the Secret Annex, the entire Voskuijl family banded together and made their ‘family honor’ the priority at the expense of the **real victims**.
The authors try to make it appear as if Bep began to suspect her sister during the 1960s. If this is so, then why did her father viciously beat Nelly ***the day after the Annex was raided***? Why did Otto Frank just mysteriously write out the Voskuijl family out of the the first edition of Anne’s published diary?
I can forgive some family dysfunction. But what I can’t forgive is the fact that the authors are public apologists for Nelly. Throughout the book, the authors describe how Bep could never forget the people who ‘corrupted’ her sister (essentially placing the blame for Nelly’s behavior onto others); that when Nelly fell down a flight of stairs as an old woman, the author cried that he wouldn’t wish that kind of death on anyone (never mind that she was responsible for the horrifying deaths of 7 innocent people); on another occasion, the authors bemoaned how it was actually difficult not to “…feel a measure of pity…” for Nelly (after she spent all the money she got from Nazi’s for turning in Jews).
It’s a fact that 99.9% of the Holocaust’s perpetrators never paid for their crimes. I’m not just talking about major figures, but the everyday Joe’s and Jane’s who ransacked Jewish homes, the guards, the onlookers who laughed as Jews were being marched to their deaths, and etc. They were never punished. They got away with it. Plain and simple. Most of those people, like the Voskuijl’s, never talked about it. The act of not talking about something is bad enough. But actually going through the motions and physically covering up a crime is even worse.
The authors disclose how Bep and her father were never honored the way that Miep and Victor were, but at the end of the book, Bep made sure that her ‘secret letters’—probably to Otto rather than to a supposed lover—were burned prior to her death. The authors also recall how Bep tried to commit suicide, but never mention that this might be due to the fact that she was engaged in a criminal cover up and by this time, her conscience was eating at her. Bep, rightfully, wanted to avoid the spotlight. Of course, this never stopped her from accepting money from Otto Frank. The Voskuijl family wanted more recognition and more money than they got, but it’s a little hard to be a ‘savior’ when you’re covering up a war crime.
The whole family criminally collaborated to hide Nelly’s secret, becoming their own little private ODESSA. The family treated Nelly like a pariah, and rightfully so, but they were more interested in preserving the reputation of their family name. In doing so, they subverted justice.
The authors nearly weep over Nelly, but who weeps for the Franks, the van Pelses, and Fritz Pfeffer? The Voskuijl family was, and is apparently still, not interested in the real victims. They’re still too busy protecting poor old Nelly and the Voskuijl ‘family honor’. Even though the authors have laid everything out, they STILL want readers to feel sorry for that woman. Without an ounce of shame, they even used Anne Frank’s own words about Nelly to try to justify why people should feel pity for her. In doing so, the authors are, albeit unwittingly, still playing by the family’s so-called unwritten rules.
Should people read this book? Absolutely. It’s been nearly 80 years since the war ended, and fascism and nationalism are rearing their ugly heads again. Even after all of these years, people are STILL denying justice to victims of the Holocaust. I commend the authors for at least trying to tell the public about what happened. But they tempered this noble cause with the tendency to brush away responsibility from the person that was responsible for the crime of denouncement and from the people who knowingly covered it all up.
June 10, 2023
I agree with another reviewer that my feelings on this title are complicated. I went into this book very excited. I have had an interest in Anne Frank since I was in elementary school. My sister and mother were given the opportunity to visit the Anne Frank house, and did so... WITHOUT ME. I still may not be over that... but I digress.
I found this book to be very family dysfunctional.
I feel that it potentially would have gone better had it been written by a third party. In that, it seemed to give Nelly way too many cop outs. It did seem that she is the likely candidate for being the betrayer. But it leans toward a major error on the side of the family in that they were not only trying to save face for her, but for themselves. Bep definitely had life long struggles related to this decision, in my opinion.
The attempted suicide and the obvious omissions by Otto of Nelly...things you can learn about by reading the book.
Am I glad I read this book? Yes. Would I recommend this book to others who are Anne enthusiasts? Yes. However, be prepared to not necessarily agree with the way the narrative is executed.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon&Schuster for the chance to read this book!
I found this book to be very family dysfunctional.
I feel that it potentially would have gone better had it been written by a third party. In that, it seemed to give Nelly way too many cop outs. It did seem that she is the likely candidate for being the betrayer. But it leans toward a major error on the side of the family in that they were not only trying to save face for her, but for themselves. Bep definitely had life long struggles related to this decision, in my opinion.
The attempted suicide and the obvious omissions by Otto of Nelly...things you can learn about by reading the book.
Am I glad I read this book? Yes. Would I recommend this book to others who are Anne enthusiasts? Yes. However, be prepared to not necessarily agree with the way the narrative is executed.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon&Schuster for the chance to read this book!
February 11, 2023
A look into the life of one of the protectors of the secret annex that hid Anne Frank and her family during the holocaust.
There is a lot of insight in this book about bep who little has been known about previously. One of the authors is her son, who helped provide much of her backstory as well as information about her life and the life of her fellow protectors after the war.
I recommend this book to readers of ww2 and specifically the Holocaust or the Anne Frank case.
There is a lot of insight in this book about bep who little has been known about previously. One of the authors is her son, who helped provide much of her backstory as well as information about her life and the life of her fellow protectors after the war.
I recommend this book to readers of ww2 and specifically the Holocaust or the Anne Frank case.
August 24, 2023
“The Last Secret of the Secret Annex” (Simon and Schuster 2023) is an extraordinary account of the creation of the secret annex in what we now know as the Anne Frank House and the Nazis’ subsequent discovery of the 8 people who hid there for over two years— Anne, her parents, her sister, three members of the Pels family, and a dentist named Fritz Pfeffer. The book is both a detective saga and a depressing family memoir. If you are looking for a “feel good” story, this is NOT the book for you. But if you are looking for insight into a mystery that has eluded investigators for nearly 80 years — Who betrayed Anne Frank? — read on.
The book is extraordinary in part because of its authors. One of them is Joop Van-Wijk Voskuijl. His mother, Bep (a nickname) Voskuijl, and grandfather, Johann Voskuijl, were two of the five people responsible for maintaining the annex. Bep and Johann worked for Otto Frank (Anne’s father) in his Amsterdam spice manufacturing plant before the war. Johann constructed the famous swiveling bookcase that shielded the entrance to the annex from view. Bep — who was in her early 20s when the War began and was about a decade older than Anne — befriended the Frank family and became Anne’s principal confidante during the seclusion; she is mentioned frequently in Anne’s diary (under the name Elli).
Readers who have visited the annex know that it is located in the upper rear portion of the house — where it is not visible from the street. Otto transferred ownership of the factory to his inner circle of employees before going into seclusion to prevent the Nazis from confiscating the business. He created a false record of moving out of the Netherlands to cover his tracks.
The other author is Jeroen De Bruyn, who was 15 years old when he and Joop began writing the book. Jeroen became obsessed with Anne Frank while growing up in nearby Brussels and extensively researched her story. In the course of that research, Jeroen realized that, while much had been written about the other four “hiders,” there was little published information about Bep. Unlike the others, for example, she had not been extensively interviewed by the media after the war. Jeroen contacted members of the Voskuijl family to determine if they had correspondence and/or other information that would fill in the gaps. Not surprisingly, the family was not initially receptive to requests from a nosy teenage. Eventually, however, Joon — who was estranged from the rest of the family — agreed to work with Jeroen.
The book which Joon and Jeroen undertook to write was originally conceived as Bep’s biography. Its objective was to bring Bep the recognition she deserved for her role in protecting the Franks — the kind of praise that had been heaped on the other hiders. Such credit was long overdue. At great personal risk, Bep plunged into Amsterdam’s black market under the noses of German soldiers and Dutch spies to secure food and medicine for people who officially did not exist. In the cramped quarters of the Annex, Bep and Anne’s friendship blossomed through deep conversations and shared meals.
But as they wrote, the authors became increasingly curious about the reasons underlying Bep’s unwillingness to speak of the secret annex. Why, they wondered, did Bep maintain such a low profile when the Secret Annex had become world famous as a symbol of resistance to Nazi atrocities? Otto Frank — the only annex resident to survive — maintained contact with Bep until his death, and Bep was reduced to tears whenever he visited. (Otto regularly made cash gifts to Bep, which she reluctantly accepted — conflicted by the thought that she was profiting from Anne’s death.) Bep was chronically depressed after the war, at one point attempting suicide. When Joon announced that he was engaged to a girl whose mother was thought to be a Nazi collaborator, the Voskuijl family’s opposition was shockingly vehement. All of these developments led the authors to wonder if Bep was harboring some deep inner secret. More specifically, they came to wonder if Bep was tormented by knowing who the betrayer was. At that point, the book morphed from biography into historical investigation. The authors’ objective became identifying the betrayer — an issue that long has been subject to speculation and that never has been definitely resolved.
It was not long before the authors focused their suspicion on Joon’s Aunt Nelly — Bep’s sister and Johann’s daughter. (Since the book’s subtitle is “The Untold Story of Anne Frank, Her Silent Protector, and a Family Betrayal,” I don’t believe that I needed to insert a “spoiler alert” before making that disclosure.) Nelly was a rebellious teenager and the black sheep of the family. During the war, she reportedly slept with a host of Nazi soldiers and officials. Indeed, she became engaged to a soldier and moved with him to Germany. But while this background suggests that Nelly was an obvious target for investigations about the betrayer, she was never heretofore included in lists of suspects. Perhaps that was because, in the post-war years, the family downplayed the extent of her Nazi collaboration. While Nelly’s engagement was public knowledge, her other dalliances were not so well known. Nor was it widely known that, while in Germany, Nelly worked for the Luftwaffe.
The authors began to focus on Nelly when they uncovered transcripts of the post-war interview of the Nazi official who led the raid on the secret annex. (Incredibly, he was never punished for his war crimes.) When asked how he knew that there were Jews in hiding in the secret annex, the official said that the local Gestapo had received a phone tip from an anonymous young woman. Joon’s family maintained over the years that Nelly could not have been the tipster because she was in Germany with her fiancé at the time of the raid. But Joon’s research revealed that Nelly’s fiancé had broken the engagement months before then and Nelly was, in fact, in Amsterdam on the day of the raid.
So, all of what the authors learned — Bep’s reluctance to speak, the tearful reunions with Otto, her depression, the attempted suicide, the family’s deception about the extent of Nelly’s collaboration and her location on the day of the raid, and the identification of the tipster as a young woman — began to coalesce. But what really caused the authors to focus on Nelly was the discovery that, when Nelly returned to the Voskuijl home the day after the raid, she was savagely beaten by Johann — so brutally, in fact, that Nelly never fully recovered from the injuries she sustained that day. Is this conclusive proof of Nelly’s betrayal? Even the authors admit that it is not. But it is compelling evidence — particularly when viewed in light of Otto’s later decision to excise all references to Nelly in his edits of Anne’s diary.
How did Nelly learn of the annex — a secret that Johann and Bep did not openly share with the rest of the family? The most likely explanation is that she read the obvious clues. The Anne Frank House was by no means the only place in war time Holland where Jews were sheltered. The Dutch government estimates that there were as many as 25,000 Jews in hiding, and the Nazis assembled a special unit to track them down. When Nelly observed that Johann and Bep were away from the house far more often than their work duties required and outside normal work hours, she likely just put two and two together.
One of the book’s revelations is that the “secret” annex was not as secret as either the Franks or their guardian angels thought at the time. A post-war survey at the spice factory revealed that, as a result of hearing noises in the area above the production floor during the day, most of the workers suspected that there were Jews in hiding upstairs. That same survey showed that the neighbors harbored the same suspicions after seeing lights in the building’s upper stories at times when the business was closed. While it is unclear whether Bep’s five siblings (excluding Nelly) and their spouses actually knew that Nelly had betrayed the Franks, the authors’ conclusion is that they were at least suspicious.
The more troubling question, though, is WHY Nelly betrayed the Franks. Since the betrayer tipped the authorities anonymously, Nelly probably was not motivated by a hope of being rewarded with better food or other luxuries. It could have been for ideological reasons. Anti-semitism ran strong in the Dutch population, and Nelly’s extensive contacts with the Nazis might suggest that she was a fellow traveler. More likely, it was simply a manifestation of her rebelliousness. Nelly’s hostility toward the family was fueled at this time by the close relationship that developed between Johann and Bep as a result of working together at Otto’s factory and, of course, sheltering the Franks. Thus, Nelly’s motivation could have been nothing more complex than sibling jealousy.
The book is interesting not only because of the core story, but also for its description of life in the occupied territories — more specifically, the Netherlands. The authors claim that 75% of the Jews living in Holland at the outbreak of the war died during the Holocaust — a higher percentage of deaths than in any other occupied country. The authors also observe that, when Jewish survivors returned home after the war, they were not treated as sympathetically as one would have expected. Perhaps this was the result of lingering anti-semitism. More likely, the Dutch citizens who endured years of privation under Nazi rule suffered so much themselves that they became inured to the suffering of others. Finally, there is a detailed discussion of the various versions of Anne Frank’s diary that have been published over the years, how they differ, and why they differ.
“The Last Secret of the Secret Annex” is a mesmerizing account of Anne Frank, the people surrounding her during her last days in Holland, and the circumstances leading to her deportation to Bergen-Belsen — on what turned out to be the last train transporting Dutch Jews to the death camps. In this drama, the Voskuijls emerge as both heroes and villains. Nelly is clearly a villain for ratting out the Franks, while Bep and Johann acted heroically in shielding the Franks from Nazi persecution for over two years — at great personal risk.
But Bep and Johann (who tragically died of cancer a year after the war ended) also shielded Nelly from historical scrutiny, while other members of the extended Voskuijl family kept their suspicions to themselves. The tension generated by Nelly’s suspected betrayal led to her estrangement from the rest of the family. Was that sufficient? Given the lingering historical uncertainty over who betrayed the Franks, did family members have an obligation to voice their suspicions? Why did they not come forward? Was it because they weren’t sure or was it because they did not want to tarnish the family’s reputation?
A related question is whether Bep, Johann, and the rest of the family regret their decision to cover for Nelly. Joon struggles with these issues, ultimately concluding that keeping this secret hurt the family far more than revealing the shameful truth would have done. But that view is not shared by other members of the family. It, thus, appears that the trauma Bep experienced in living with this secret has filtered down to the next generation of the Voskuijl family. As Joon chillingly puts it in the prologue to the book, in the final analysis, “the Voskuijls were not all that different from other families in wartime Amsterdam, in which resisters and collaborators often lived under the same roof.”
Richard G. Stuhan
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 14, 2023
Parts of this were super interesting but at points I felt the author focused too much on himself. I get the impulse to do that, but it felt a little like when your neighbors force you to view hundreds of slides upon returning from vacation.
February 13, 2023
I received a copy of "The Last Secret of the Annex" from Netgalley in exchange for a book review. This book is by Joop Van Wijk-Voskuijl and Jerone DeBruyn. Joop is the son of Bep who was a friend of Anne Frank. She worked at the Warehouse where the Frank family hid in the upper building. Bep used to visit Anne and helped to sneak in food and other supplies. She befriended Anne and brought her notebooks and magazines. When the Frank family was betrayed by someone who tipped off the Nazis of the hiding place, Bep wonders who was the betrayer. She later suspected that her own sister Nellie may be one of the betrayers who tipped off the Frank families location.
It was not proven that The sister of Bep is the betrayer just suspected. As far as I know there is not proof of this just a fear from Bep her own sister could have betrayed the Frank Family. Joop writes of his mother and the years after the Holocaust she married, had children. spent many year in contact with Otto Frank. He even gave the family money over the years to help them during hard times. Joop eventually became estranged from his troubled mother. this is is account of what his mother told him of the Frank family. her friendship with Anne and Otto. A good and interesting book and theories of the betrayers to the Frank family.
It was not proven that The sister of Bep is the betrayer just suspected. As far as I know there is not proof of this just a fear from Bep her own sister could have betrayed the Frank Family. Joop writes of his mother and the years after the Holocaust she married, had children. spent many year in contact with Otto Frank. He even gave the family money over the years to help them during hard times. Joop eventually became estranged from his troubled mother. this is is account of what his mother told him of the Frank family. her friendship with Anne and Otto. A good and interesting book and theories of the betrayers to the Frank family.
June 2, 2023
I will begin with the shameful confession that I have not yet read The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, and my knowledge of the details of Anne’s experiences in the Annex were limited prior to picking up this book.
With that in mind, I found this account fascinating for its weaving of Anne Frank’s story with that of one of her protectors, Bep Voskuijl. I wonder if those more familiar with Anne’s story would feel the same way, or if this book would feel like a rehashing of much of what is already known.
Of course, Bep’s story merits its own telling. But having also just finished the Nat Geo series A Small Light about Miep Gies - another of Anne’s protectors with whom Bep later fell out - I get the sense that the full picture of what happened to the Frank family is even murkier than one might imagine.
My presumption is this has resulted and may continue to result in a collection of similar but marginally distinct accounts, thus perpetually leaving us all craving a definitive record that we will likely never achieve.
With that in mind, I found this account fascinating for its weaving of Anne Frank’s story with that of one of her protectors, Bep Voskuijl. I wonder if those more familiar with Anne’s story would feel the same way, or if this book would feel like a rehashing of much of what is already known.
Of course, Bep’s story merits its own telling. But having also just finished the Nat Geo series A Small Light about Miep Gies - another of Anne’s protectors with whom Bep later fell out - I get the sense that the full picture of what happened to the Frank family is even murkier than one might imagine.
My presumption is this has resulted and may continue to result in a collection of similar but marginally distinct accounts, thus perpetually leaving us all craving a definitive record that we will likely never achieve.
October 12, 2023
This is an absolute powerful book in every way. Written by someone who Family helped hide and Frank, it touches specific details of what it took to protect the little girl in Amsterdam.
The details are precise and spectacular. I highly recommend this book!
The details are precise and spectacular. I highly recommend this book!
October 15, 2023
The book I’m reading today is called “The last secret of the secret annex” written by Joop van Wijk-Voskuijl and Jeroen De Bruyn. This time, a story was told by Joop, Bep’s son. Bep was Anne's closest confidante during the 761 excruciating days she spent hidden in the Secret Annex. Bep was only 23 years old when the Franks went into hiding, risked her life to protect them, plunging into Amsterdam's black market to source food and medicine for people who officially didn't exist under the noses of German soldiers and Dutch spies. It was an incredible read about the untold story of the secret annex. What was more intriguing was 75% Dutch Jews were murdered. Only 5,000 out of 107,000 Dutch Jews sent to camps made it back alive from Auschwitz. Joop also mentioned in the book when Otto told them what really had happened to the remaining people in the hiding, and including a betrayal was involved which was collaborating with the Nazis at the time. In fact, my own thoughts I know who did betray them as a result. You can decide for yourself.
June 26, 2023
After reading The Diary of Anne Frank: The Definitive Edition I watched the National Geographic limited series "A Small Light"(which you have to watch, if Marvel did historical documentaries it would be "A Small Light," on Disney+). In casual life, my one-line review of "The Last Secret..." would be "omg the tea is hot" but I have included a more extended review below for those not yet persuaded.
I decided I want to learn more about what was happening in Amsterdam at that time. Anne told us about the inside but what about what the helpers were facing on the outside?
Reading this investigative account from Bep Voskuijl's own son Joop Wijk-Voskuijl has cleared a lot of things up for me, things not previously addressed either because they have not been published (by Otto Frank's own hand) or because no one dared speak the truth.
Wijk-Voskuijl adds a new dimension to all of the helpers and those being hidden. Given the benefit of separation, Wijk-Voskuijl can look at the series of events without the clouding of the emotions that generally accompany it. For example, how Miep Gies has things attributed to her that were actually attributed to do with Bep but the turmoil in Bep's personal life kept her quiet (for reasons still not totally known). Or perhaps the possible reason why Otto Frank suddenly decided he did not want to know who betrayed them after wanting to know for many years. Wijk-Voskuijl humanizes this cast of characters who were not perfect people or had perfect lives like those we picture of our storybook heroes; people have relationship troubles, family troubles, romantic troubles, and money troubles before, during and after the war and I am glad that this history was recorded.
If you know anything about Anne Frank and have any interest in this historical chapter I would recommend this title to you without hesitation. Bep Voskuijl was a troubled young lady who lived a hard life before Anne and after, and those around her wanted to desperately protect her. However, you can't help those who don't wish to be helped.
I binged the audio book on Libby in a day, loved it.
I decided I want to learn more about what was happening in Amsterdam at that time. Anne told us about the inside but what about what the helpers were facing on the outside?
Reading this investigative account from Bep Voskuijl's own son Joop Wijk-Voskuijl has cleared a lot of things up for me, things not previously addressed either because they have not been published (by Otto Frank's own hand) or because no one dared speak the truth.
Wijk-Voskuijl adds a new dimension to all of the helpers and those being hidden. Given the benefit of separation, Wijk-Voskuijl can look at the series of events without the clouding of the emotions that generally accompany it. For example, how Miep Gies has things attributed to her that were actually attributed to do with Bep but the turmoil in Bep's personal life kept her quiet (for reasons still not totally known). Or perhaps the possible reason why Otto Frank suddenly decided he did not want to know who betrayed them after wanting to know for many years. Wijk-Voskuijl humanizes this cast of characters who were not perfect people or had perfect lives like those we picture of our storybook heroes; people have relationship troubles, family troubles, romantic troubles, and money troubles before, during and after the war and I am glad that this history was recorded.
If you know anything about Anne Frank and have any interest in this historical chapter I would recommend this title to you without hesitation. Bep Voskuijl was a troubled young lady who lived a hard life before Anne and after, and those around her wanted to desperately protect her. However, you can't help those who don't wish to be helped.
I binged the audio book on Libby in a day, loved it.
June 16, 2023
Written with honesty and clarity and a new angle on the possible betrayer of the Frank family.
June 5, 2023
Fascinating look into the lives of the four who hide Otto Frank and his family,as told by the son of Bep, the youngest and most vulnerable of the four protectors. Quite an ending to a sad and heartbreaking event. So many lives ruined. I have to go to the Anne Frank Museum more than ever.
May 12, 2023
I first read Anne Frank’s diary when I was 11. It left a lasting impression and I have read anything and everything associated with her story since then.
I found this book to be very enlightening. The authors explore the story of Bep that has been obscured. They offer interesting material and theories about the real story.
I don’t know if there will ever be an affirmative answer about who was the betrayer for the occupants of the annex. However, this book is an important contribution to the study of Anne Frank’s life.
Thank to Simon Schuster and NetGalley for the early copy.
I found this book to be very enlightening. The authors explore the story of Bep that has been obscured. They offer interesting material and theories about the real story.
I don’t know if there will ever be an affirmative answer about who was the betrayer for the occupants of the annex. However, this book is an important contribution to the study of Anne Frank’s life.
Thank to Simon Schuster and NetGalley for the early copy.
January 28, 2024
Slightly hard to follow and not overly gripping
April 21, 2023
What a unique and interesting look into more of the secrets of Anne Frank's annex, but given new life by the impact of that annex of its helper Bep Voskuijl. The story cannot have been easy to write;Bep shouldered weights far beyond what shoulders her age should've carried, and her family added even more secrets of their own to her frame.
This story is a must-read companion text for anyone who knows/is interested in Anne Frank, the Holocaust, or "helpers" during times of duress.
Overall: 4.5 stars
I'll tell my students about: sensitive subject matter
**Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the free ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.**
This story is a must-read companion text for anyone who knows/is interested in Anne Frank, the Holocaust, or "helpers" during times of duress.
Overall: 4.5 stars
I'll tell my students about: sensitive subject matter
**Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the free ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.**
January 8, 2024
This book is fantastic. It's also incredibly sad. Written by the son of Bep Voskuijl and a young reporter fascinated with Anne Frank, this is the story of the least forthcoming employee of Otto Frank's pectin firm: her incredible sacrifice for the Frank family and the others in the secret annex, her terrible secret, and her rather sad married life. Bep was the last of Otto Frank's office employees to find out about the hiding plan. She was the youngest and the newest at the firm. She came from a difficult, poor family. Her father had a life of drink, disappointment, and family disagreements. Bep recommended her father to get a job in the Opekta warehouse, which, when the Frank family had to go into hiding, meant that they had a trusted employee in the warehouse along with the five office workers. Bep and her father both helped supply the Frank family, and her father built the bookcase that covered the door to the annex. Bep also had a sister called Nellie. Rebellious, and constantly fighting with their father, she had Nazi boyfriends and, Joop takes all the available evidence but can only make educated guesses, probably turned in the Frank family and the other annex hiders for reasons of ideology or spite. Bep's father beat the daylights out of her the day after the Franks were arrested, and Nellie talked about the beating constantly all the rest of her life but never explained why. Bep was not arrested as an associate of the Frank family, and she continued to work at Opekta. Eventually, she married an alcoholic and had kids, including the author. Unlikely the other Opekta workers, she was barely interviewed and avoided the press as much as possible. Several interviews do survive, including ones that the author never heard until his young co-author brought them to his attention. It's a sad story. Bep lived a long time, and the author was estranged from her for the last decade, after he married a woman his family didn't approve of. He was never entirely clear on why his parents rebuked his new wife but it may have been because her mother was a Nazi collaborator. As he says, during the war, collaborators and resistance lived under the same roof. The Netherlands killed a larger percentage of its Jewish citizens than any other country in Europe. His mother was one of the good ones. A reluctant hero. A pillar of all that is good with humanity. His grandfather too. His aunt, not a good person. He is forgiving of what she did and may have done because she was young and stupid and because she was his aunt. Also, because nobody ever told him why the rest of the family hated her. He is still speculating.
July 6, 2023
For a book that declares "a family betrayal" in its subtitle, the authors sure go out of their way to absolve the betrayer. Yes, the evidence is "circumstantial" (page 112) but it is damning.
The Voskuijl family lied about Nelly's whereabouts during the raid on the Secret Annex (page 119). Why?
The day after the residents of the Secret Annex were arrested, Nelly's father started hitting her and "did not stop," while her mother "just stood back and watched" (page 132). Why?
After speaking with her father on his deathbed, Nelly claimed, "Father forgives me." The author asked, "Forgives her for what?" and was "brushed off" (page 155). Why?
Miep Gies said that the police choosing not to interrogate Bep was "a grave mistake" (page 171). Why?
Bep asked her son to burn thirty or forty letters of her correspondence with "the members of the Opekta Circle" (page 221). Why?
Most incriminating of all, Bep even admitted, "Rumor has it that Nelly is the betrayer. As a matter of fact, we think that's true" (page 198). The authors try to minimize it, stating, "I hardly think that we can come to a conclusion based on a single memory" (page 199). Yet it's not a single memory. Almost 100 pages reveal, in the words of the book's own front flap, "a shameful truth": Nelly Voskuijl betrayed Otto Frank, Edith Frank, Margot Frank, Anne Frank, Hermann van Pels, Auguste van Pels, Peter van Pels, and Fritz Pfeffer, sending all but one of them to their deaths. At least twice, Nelly screamed at Bep, "Go to your Jews!" (pages 131-132). On August 4, 1944, she had the Nazis go to them, instead.
The Voskuijl family lied about Nelly's whereabouts during the raid on the Secret Annex (page 119). Why?
The day after the residents of the Secret Annex were arrested, Nelly's father started hitting her and "did not stop," while her mother "just stood back and watched" (page 132). Why?
After speaking with her father on his deathbed, Nelly claimed, "Father forgives me." The author asked, "Forgives her for what?" and was "brushed off" (page 155). Why?
Miep Gies said that the police choosing not to interrogate Bep was "a grave mistake" (page 171). Why?
Bep asked her son to burn thirty or forty letters of her correspondence with "the members of the Opekta Circle" (page 221). Why?
Most incriminating of all, Bep even admitted, "Rumor has it that Nelly is the betrayer. As a matter of fact, we think that's true" (page 198). The authors try to minimize it, stating, "I hardly think that we can come to a conclusion based on a single memory" (page 199). Yet it's not a single memory. Almost 100 pages reveal, in the words of the book's own front flap, "a shameful truth": Nelly Voskuijl betrayed Otto Frank, Edith Frank, Margot Frank, Anne Frank, Hermann van Pels, Auguste van Pels, Peter van Pels, and Fritz Pfeffer, sending all but one of them to their deaths. At least twice, Nelly screamed at Bep, "Go to your Jews!" (pages 131-132). On August 4, 1944, she had the Nazis go to them, instead.
December 9, 2023
A highly readable and engaging story coauthored by the son of Bep Voskujil, one of the helpers of the Secret Annex and Anne's closest friend during that time. The story traces how the trauma of the war wound its way through the Voskujil family; Bep's younger sister Nelly collaborated with the Dutch and German Nazi parties; Bep and her father Johan helped the Franks, van Pels, and Pfeffer, with Johan even building the bookcase that hid the doorway into the Annex. The trauma continues into Joop's generation, and there are no easy answers or resolutions. The book also provides some further insights into Holland during the war and how the Dutch either resisted or conspired with the Germans.
I particularly appreciate that this book acknowledges the harms done by "The Betrayal of Anne Frank," which warped information provided by the coauthors of this book.
I particularly appreciate that this book acknowledges the harms done by "The Betrayal of Anne Frank," which warped information provided by the coauthors of this book.
March 30, 2024
This book made me soooooooo incredibly uncomfortable!!! How could they allow someone to write such a scathing, SPECUTALIVE theory based solely on gossip and family conflict?! This book sets a dangerous precedent that all of society suffers from. It's the "we NEED a culprit, so we'll create one out of sheer conjecture regardless of the lack of proof" attitude that keeps condemning innocent people with whom we disagree for other reasons. Guilty until proven innocent? Since when??? And the woman can't even defend herself because she's already deceased!!
Shame on the authors for tarnishing a dead woman's reputation without any concrete evidence. As for the rest of the book, it reads like a cheap gossip column. It pains me to see how they managed to cheapen Anne Frank's legacy. This book is garbage.
Shame on the authors for tarnishing a dead woman's reputation without any concrete evidence. As for the rest of the book, it reads like a cheap gossip column. It pains me to see how they managed to cheapen Anne Frank's legacy. This book is garbage.
April 26, 2024
This made me want to reread the diary of Anne Frank, which i read back in my teens.
I loved this book, which is both a biography (of Joop's mother and grandfather, who helped the Frank family while they were hiding) and a mystery. The authors spent a great deal of time on research and interviews to try to figure out who betrayed the Franks and others in the secret Annex. It's absolutely fascinating and sad to learn about the years during the war, the betrayal, and afterwards.
I loved this book, which is both a biography (of Joop's mother and grandfather, who helped the Frank family while they were hiding) and a mystery. The authors spent a great deal of time on research and interviews to try to figure out who betrayed the Franks and others in the secret Annex. It's absolutely fascinating and sad to learn about the years during the war, the betrayal, and afterwards.
January 31, 2024
What a book. I have always been fascinated with Anne Frank’s story and have wondered who the vile person that gave them up was. This book has convinced me of who did it. I know there is doubt but everything narrated here just leads to that person. What an incredible story. I cried, gasped, was enraged. All the things. Great great book!
June 23, 2023
Powerful
Read and decide. Think along the way. What a book. Wow the info not previously known. Sometimes even the smallest carry a big surprise in their stature
Read and decide. Think along the way. What a book. Wow the info not previously known. Sometimes even the smallest carry a big surprise in their stature
October 6, 2023
A must-read for anyone interested in the story of Anne Frank and the group who protected those hiding in the annex.
October 17, 2023
An investigation with richly told history, painfully honest family relationships, and a sobering reminder of deep tragedy.
April 23, 2024
Absolutely fascinating! For those who are interested in the history of Anne Frank and the story of the time in the Secret Annex, this is one to not miss!
May 30, 2023
The Diary of Anne Frank is a book I go back to again and again. I'm simultaneously fascinated with her story, through her eyes, and horrified that humans could treat others that way.
This story isn't Anne's. It's the story of Bep, one of her father's employees and Anne's good friend, who helped hide and care for the family when they went into the annex. We learn how it affected her daily life at the time, and after the war. How it ultimately changed the trajectory of her entire family, and even affected her children. For me, it deepened my understanding of the fear and stresses the war and the Holocaust itself took on those who lived under German occupation.
This book would make a good companion read when studying The Diary of Anne Frank. It widens the perspective and brings to light the generational affects of what the helpers survived.
This story isn't Anne's. It's the story of Bep, one of her father's employees and Anne's good friend, who helped hide and care for the family when they went into the annex. We learn how it affected her daily life at the time, and after the war. How it ultimately changed the trajectory of her entire family, and even affected her children. For me, it deepened my understanding of the fear and stresses the war and the Holocaust itself took on those who lived under German occupation.
This book would make a good companion read when studying The Diary of Anne Frank. It widens the perspective and brings to light the generational affects of what the helpers survived.
May 10, 2023
As I have aged, World War II history has fascinated me more and more. Why, I could not begin to tell you. But I see too many similarities in today’s sentiments as what ran rampant during World War II. Even recently, a gunman with neo-Nazi beliefs opened fire at an outlet mall. Anti-Semitism has risen. And with each news story, my heart breaks. I don’t want today’s society to get to the point where people feel they must hide or risk their lives. When I saw The Last Secret of the Secret Annex by Joop van Wijk-Voskuijl and Jeroen De Bruyn, I knew I had to read it. I wanted to learn more about the past…and learn, I definitely did.
I did not want to read The Diary of Anne Frank when I was a child. My father gave me an ultimatum: If you want to read your Star Wars novel, you must read The Diary of Anne Frank first. So, I took it with me on vacation and read it by the light of a lodge fire. I will NEVER forget reading it. Where I was, how old I was, or the impact it had on me. I was younger than Anne. I had to ask my father what things meant. But it’s only been within the last couple years that I have returned to Anne Frank. And let me tell you, The Last Secret of the Secret Annex is stellar. It is not written academically. Instead, I felt I was in a conversation with van Wijk-Voskuijl, hearing him speak of his mother’s experiences and her relationship with the Frank family.
I loved The Last Secret of the Secret Annex. While it was easy to read, it shouldn’t be skimmed. Its stories should be considered, long after reaching the final page. The book kept my attention because it wasn’t written like a “regular” non-fiction book. It’s a memoir, a recollection of difficult decisions and heartbreaking circumstances.
The book’s authors mention a controversial book released in 2022: The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation by Rosemary Sullivan. By pure circumstance, I was listening to the audio version of this book simultaneously with The Last Secret of the Secret Annex by Joop van Wijk-Voskuijl and Jeroen De Bruyn. A Dutch publisher pulled The Betrayal of Anne Frank from stores, and a Dutch team of historian has publicly decried Sullivan’s book as being founded on shaky assumptions from the start, which led to a conclusion circumstantially based with no proof.
At the time of writing this review, I have not finished The Betrayal of Anne Frank. I will, because I finish every book I start, but I’m glad I only checked it out from the library. For me The Betrayal of Anne Frank takes the more personal nature out of the tragedy of Anne Frank. The Last Secret of the Secret Annex makes Anne, her family, and the helpers into more than names written in a non-fiction book. They were real…and their capture had very real and personal consequences.
Note: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher (Thanks Simon & Schuster and NetGalley!) in exchange for my honest review. All views expressed are my own.
I did not want to read The Diary of Anne Frank when I was a child. My father gave me an ultimatum: If you want to read your Star Wars novel, you must read The Diary of Anne Frank first. So, I took it with me on vacation and read it by the light of a lodge fire. I will NEVER forget reading it. Where I was, how old I was, or the impact it had on me. I was younger than Anne. I had to ask my father what things meant. But it’s only been within the last couple years that I have returned to Anne Frank. And let me tell you, The Last Secret of the Secret Annex is stellar. It is not written academically. Instead, I felt I was in a conversation with van Wijk-Voskuijl, hearing him speak of his mother’s experiences and her relationship with the Frank family.
I loved The Last Secret of the Secret Annex. While it was easy to read, it shouldn’t be skimmed. Its stories should be considered, long after reaching the final page. The book kept my attention because it wasn’t written like a “regular” non-fiction book. It’s a memoir, a recollection of difficult decisions and heartbreaking circumstances.
The book’s authors mention a controversial book released in 2022: The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation by Rosemary Sullivan. By pure circumstance, I was listening to the audio version of this book simultaneously with The Last Secret of the Secret Annex by Joop van Wijk-Voskuijl and Jeroen De Bruyn. A Dutch publisher pulled The Betrayal of Anne Frank from stores, and a Dutch team of historian has publicly decried Sullivan’s book as being founded on shaky assumptions from the start, which led to a conclusion circumstantially based with no proof.
At the time of writing this review, I have not finished The Betrayal of Anne Frank. I will, because I finish every book I start, but I’m glad I only checked it out from the library. For me The Betrayal of Anne Frank takes the more personal nature out of the tragedy of Anne Frank. The Last Secret of the Secret Annex makes Anne, her family, and the helpers into more than names written in a non-fiction book. They were real…and their capture had very real and personal consequences.
Note: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher (Thanks Simon & Schuster and NetGalley!) in exchange for my honest review. All views expressed are my own.
March 10, 2023
Because of the controversy over the book published several years ago, in which the betrayal of the Frank family was supposedly investigated using modern forensic techniques, I wanted to read this book, which is sort of a rebuttal from the inside.
Joop van Wijk set out initially to write the story of his mother, who for the most part kept herself out of the long history of the publication of Anne Frank's writings. However, between the earlier book and the additional things he found out from family members, the effort grew until it became a somewhat larger story. I read the earlier book, but although I know it has been the subject of much criticism from experts in the field of the European Holocaust, I didn't really follow or delve into those disputes. I do remember thinking that they were a little selective as to when something did or did not count as useful evidence.
Given that family memories and stories are notoriously unreliable sources of truth, van Wijk and his co-author did everything they could to compare the things he was told with anything in the historical record that could help corroborate it, and he is clear about how the things he was told do or do not fit together. Because this book was the work of decades, he was able to speak to people who had first hand experience with 1940s Amsterdam who have been deceased now for years.
For the most part the book is gracefully written with a straightforward personal voice. Occasionally he departs from precise chronology and this can be disorienting, especially in the chapter where he discusses meeting his future wife.
The picture he creates is one of Bep Voskuijl's life being permanently damaged by the stress of caring for the secret residents of the Annex, only to see them hauled away and murdered anyway. Although anyone looking at the story from outside would say she is a hero, the crushing sense of failure with which she was left exacerbated the tensions in her marriage. Her husband thought that by telling everyone not to bring up the matter, he was protecting her from feeling her feelings, but we all know how that works.
The ongoing stress of the years from 1942-44 were only exacerbated by the tension in her family caused by her sister Nelly's ongoing collaboration with the Nazis. There seems to be no real reason for Nelly to have done the things she did, other than to rebel against and punish her father and oldest sister for the bond forged between them as helpers of the Franks. What is striking is the suddenness with which, after August 1944, Nelly was more fully cast out of the family. The day after the raid on the Annex, she came home from a few days with one of her German boyfriends, and her usually controlled father beat her up.
The previous book suggested that Otto Frank suddenly ceased pursuing justice for the betrayal of his family because he discovered the betrayer was Jewish. This doesn't really make a lot of sense, when you think about it, because it was hardly unusual or unknown for Jewish people to cooperate with the Nazis out of a misguided belief that it might save their lives and the lives of their families. Van Wijk suggests that he halted his efforts when it became clear that the betrayal might have come from Bep's own family and he did not want to bring opprobrium on those that had done the most for him, and to whom he remained close and supportive for the rest of his life. This actually seems more logical given the context.
Van Wijk's brief overview at the end of the book, of all the times Holocaust deniers tried to assert that Anne's writings were faked, is heartbreaking. For all the people who worked so hard and risked their lives to hide the Franks, to have to constantly respond to these demented accusations, seems like proof that no good deed goes unpunished. The growing tendency for people to not only want to avoid thinking about bad things, but to actively make it illegal for other people to learn about them, is reprehensible, and this book is another good reminder of what happened and how easily it could happen again, the more so if we pretend it didn't happen in the first place.
Thanks to Netgalley for letting me read an advance copy of this important book.
Joop van Wijk set out initially to write the story of his mother, who for the most part kept herself out of the long history of the publication of Anne Frank's writings. However, between the earlier book and the additional things he found out from family members, the effort grew until it became a somewhat larger story. I read the earlier book, but although I know it has been the subject of much criticism from experts in the field of the European Holocaust, I didn't really follow or delve into those disputes. I do remember thinking that they were a little selective as to when something did or did not count as useful evidence.
Given that family memories and stories are notoriously unreliable sources of truth, van Wijk and his co-author did everything they could to compare the things he was told with anything in the historical record that could help corroborate it, and he is clear about how the things he was told do or do not fit together. Because this book was the work of decades, he was able to speak to people who had first hand experience with 1940s Amsterdam who have been deceased now for years.
For the most part the book is gracefully written with a straightforward personal voice. Occasionally he departs from precise chronology and this can be disorienting, especially in the chapter where he discusses meeting his future wife.
The picture he creates is one of Bep Voskuijl's life being permanently damaged by the stress of caring for the secret residents of the Annex, only to see them hauled away and murdered anyway. Although anyone looking at the story from outside would say she is a hero, the crushing sense of failure with which she was left exacerbated the tensions in her marriage. Her husband thought that by telling everyone not to bring up the matter, he was protecting her from feeling her feelings, but we all know how that works.
The ongoing stress of the years from 1942-44 were only exacerbated by the tension in her family caused by her sister Nelly's ongoing collaboration with the Nazis. There seems to be no real reason for Nelly to have done the things she did, other than to rebel against and punish her father and oldest sister for the bond forged between them as helpers of the Franks. What is striking is the suddenness with which, after August 1944, Nelly was more fully cast out of the family. The day after the raid on the Annex, she came home from a few days with one of her German boyfriends, and her usually controlled father beat her up.
The previous book suggested that Otto Frank suddenly ceased pursuing justice for the betrayal of his family because he discovered the betrayer was Jewish. This doesn't really make a lot of sense, when you think about it, because it was hardly unusual or unknown for Jewish people to cooperate with the Nazis out of a misguided belief that it might save their lives and the lives of their families. Van Wijk suggests that he halted his efforts when it became clear that the betrayal might have come from Bep's own family and he did not want to bring opprobrium on those that had done the most for him, and to whom he remained close and supportive for the rest of his life. This actually seems more logical given the context.
Van Wijk's brief overview at the end of the book, of all the times Holocaust deniers tried to assert that Anne's writings were faked, is heartbreaking. For all the people who worked so hard and risked their lives to hide the Franks, to have to constantly respond to these demented accusations, seems like proof that no good deed goes unpunished. The growing tendency for people to not only want to avoid thinking about bad things, but to actively make it illegal for other people to learn about them, is reprehensible, and this book is another good reminder of what happened and how easily it could happen again, the more so if we pretend it didn't happen in the first place.
Thanks to Netgalley for letting me read an advance copy of this important book.
February 11, 2023
A very interesting alternate view into the story of the Secret Annex and the fate of the Frank family. I found the format and storytelling to be very well lined out and well written. The sensitive information was handled very straightforward and I appreciated the tact with which the story was told. There was no blame or hard feelings toward any individual mentioned and it was a great way to read the story, especially since the temptation to highlight and place people into groups of 'bad' or 'good' would have been very easy to do. Overall, I completely enjoyed this novel and admire the authors bravery in bringing forward all the details of his family good or bad to be judged or critiqued by the world. It surely added more questions than complete answers but I think we will never know all the details and maybe that is the point. Those who lived in that time didn't want the details to define their lives, never realizing that those details shaped the very people they became. This was a wonderful attempt at trying to fill in some of the gaps left behind. 5 stars
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