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THE LAST SECRET OF THE SECRET ANNEX
THE UNTOLD STORY OF ANNE FRANK, HER SILENT PROTECTOR, AND A FAMILY BETRAYAL
An important contribution to the literature on Anne Frank.
Another fresh story about one of the 20th century’s most recognizable historical figures.
Anne Frank (1929-1945) remains perhaps the most moving figure to come out of the Holocaust, and publishers continue to turn out her famous diary and books describing her tragic life. In 1933, her German family fled to Holland after Hitler came to power. Her father, Otto Frank, ran a food product business that prospered even after the Nazi invasion in May 1940. When Jews were forbidden to own businesses, he transferred ownership to a non-Jewish executive. After the Nazis began deporting Jews, he converted part of his warehouse into a disguised annex and went into hiding in July 1942 with his family and another one. There they remained for more than two years while the business continued, fed and supported by loyal non-Jewish employees. In August 1944, not long before the liberation, they were betrayed, arrested, and sent to extermination camps. Only Otto survived. In this revealing addition to the history, Dutch writers van Wijk-Voskuijl and De Bruyn focus on the employees who knew of the secret annex. Once Anne’s diary became widely known, journalists, scholars, and tourists called regularly. Three enjoyed the attention, but one—van Wijk-Voskuijl’s mother, Bep Voskuijl—rarely gave interviews or discussed the war years at home. She died in 1983, long before her son began researching this book. Nonetheless, the authors use surviving sources to deliver a moving account of a well-known story and make a convincing case that Bep was Anne’s closest friend and never recovered from the trauma of her arrest and death. The authors devote over half the book to events following the arrest to the present day, and some readers may consider details of van Wijk-Voskuijl’s unhappy marriage an unnecessary detour. Regardless, they will welcome new evidence—if not proof—that it was a close member of Bep’s family who betrayed the Franks.
An important contribution to the literature on Anne Frank.Pub Date: May 16, 2023
ISBN: 9781982198213
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 20, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
THE OSAGE MURDERS AND THE BIRTH OF THE FBI
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
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TANQUERAY
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
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