The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation – The New York Times Bestselling Work of Investigative Journalism into the World War II Holocaust Mystery

The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation is the riveting story of their mission, to find the betrayer. 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. Starting with a group of suspects the list keeps getting shorter as evidence is uncovered. 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. It is not just a story of Anne Frank and the annex but also of the events that led to the rise of the Third Reich and the atmosphere in Holland (the Dutch government, the newly formed anti Jewish laws, the Dutch people and the Dutch social structure) that fostered anti Jewish prejudice and made the Nazi's extermination plan so much easier to execute. The novel is well written but inundated with necessary details which make it hard to follow at times. The details have to be there as they make up the chain of evidence and thus tell the story. It is interesting to note that Otto Frank and his close friend Miep Gies knew who the betrayer was but refused to disclose it. I liked the book, however after the years of investigative work it is inconclusive (not surprising). While it is not possible to know definitively that Arnold van den Bergh betrayed the Frank family (many of the witnesses are dead or refuse to talk), the evidence is most convincing. An end of book summary with the original list of suspects and why they were eliminated may have been helpful to the reader.

A very informative, and educational book. It shed light on aspects of the war that I wasn't taught in history, however I found the book very dry and difficult to read because of the names. It made it difficult to keep up with the many changing aspects of the book.

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