Rosemary Sullivan

Despite the many works devoted to Anne Frank's story, none has conclusively explained how the Franks and four other people managed to hide undetected for over two years, and who or what finally brought the Nazis to their door. Former FBI agent Vincent Pankoke and a team of indefatigable investigators pored over tens of thousands of pages of documents - some never before seen - and interviewed scores of descendants of the people involved, both Nazi sympathizers and resisters. The cold case team painstakingly pieced together the months leading up to the Franks' arrest - and came to a shocking conclusion. Residence: Toronto, ON. Print run 20,000.

A Cold Case Investigation

The Betrayal of Anne Frank

Lacy W

Title: The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation
Author: Rosemary Sullivan
Genre: Nonfiction
Format: my own hardback book
Star Rating: 3.5 stars

tw: antisemitism, starvation, war, Holocaust horrors, attempted suicide, blackmail, child abuse

This was such an interesting book. I had seen it while I was working and after much deliberation, I decided to buy this book as a birthday present to myself. I’m so glad I did. I’ve been fascinated with who could have possibly betrayed the Frank family. 

While you don’t get a definitive answer to who did it, the author presents several suspects with good arguments as to why they could have been the betrayer. The amount of work involved in trying to solve this mystery was amazing. I didn’t realize so many people cared about the betrayal. 

This book doesn’t just focus on the suspects. It talks about the events after the Frank family was betrayed. It talked about Otto and what he did as the only surviving member of the family. I felt just absolutely so awful for him. He just wanted to make sure his family wasn’t forgotten. He didn’t want any more hate in this world but people were still incredibly hateful towards Jews after the war and even after they found out about the concentration camps. 

Overall, this was a great book. It was a little dry at times but that usually happens with nonfiction books. It’s hard to make them interesting for the entire duration of the book. But I thought this book did an excellent job of keeping my interest. I heard, while reading this book, that someone or a group of people may have found out who betrayed the Frank family but I am uncertain if that is true or not. Regardless, this is still an excellent insightful read.

Using new technology, recently discovered documents and sophisticated investigative techniques, an international team-led by an obsessed retired FBI agent-has finally solved the mystery that has haunted generations since World War II: Who betrayed Anne Frank and her family? And why? Over thirty million people have read The Diary of a Young Girl, the journal teen-aged Anne Frank kept while living in an attic with her family and four other people in Amsterdam during World War II, until the Nazis arrested them and sent them to a concentration camp. But despite the many works-journalism, books, plays and novels-devoted to Anne's story, none has ever conclusively explained how these eight people managed to live in hiding undetected for over two years-and who or what finally brought the Nazis to their door. With painstaking care, retired FBI agent Vincent Pankoke and a team of indefatigable investigators pored over tens of thousands of pages of documents-some never before seen-and interviewed scores of descendants of people familiar with the Franks. Utilizing methods developed by the FBI, the Cold Case Team painstakingly pieced together the months leading to the infamous arrest-and came to a shocking conclusion. The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation is the riveting story of their mission. Rosemary Sullivan introduces us to the investigators, explains the behavior of both the captives and their captors and profiles a group of suspects. All the while, she vividly brings to life wartime Amsterdam: a place where no matter how wealthy, educated, or careful you were, you never knew whom you could trust.

The Betrayal of Anne Frank A Cold Case Investigation

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