First published in 1947 and since translated into 70 languages, The Diary of Anne Frank remains one of the most widely-read books in the world. For many readers, the diary serves as their introduction to the Holocaust, particularly events in the Netherlands. This interest shows no sign of slowing. In 2023, the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam welcomed over a million visitors who were eager to see the space in which the eight Jewish residents of the “Secret Annex” spent two years hiding from the Nazis under the threat of deportation to concentration camps.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]After over two years of writing, editing, and revising the diaries that relayed her wartime experiences, Anne Frank’s work came to an end on Aug. 4, 1944, when German police raided the Annex and arrested, detained, and sent its Jewish residents to Auschwitz. Only Otto Frank, Anne’s father, survived and returned to the Netherlands. Miep Gies, one of the Annex’s trusted helpers, soon presented Otto with his daughter’s writings. She had collected and stored them since the Aug. 4 arrest, hoping to deliver them to Anne upon her return. With official confirmation that neither his wife nor his daughters had survived, Otto began to assemble and edit Anne’s body of writing for potential publication. In June 1947, her work debuted, in Dutch, as Het Achterhuis.
Since then, historians, journalists, biographers, and even criminal investigators have put forth any number of “suspects” alleged to have tipped off the German occupiers to the presence of Jews in hiding at the Annex located above Otto Frank’s business. Experts continue to investigate and frequently debunk the various theories as they arise, including the long-standing assumption that a phone call must have sealed the fate of Anne Frank and her family.
But does this even matter? Yes and no. A definitive answer might satisfy those who view history as a mystery to be unraveled and solved, but it does not reflect actual conditions or lived realities at the time. Nor does it change the final outcome, or the fact that, as in other German-occupied countries, Jews in the Netherlands remained subjected to forces well beyond their control. Going into hiding increased the odds of survival, but it hardly guaranteed it.
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All told, the Holocaust resulted in the deaths of approximately 73% of the Netherlands’ pre-war Jewish population, the highest death rate in Nazi-occupied Western Europe. During the course of the war, approximately 107,000 Jewish men, women, and children were deported from the Netherlands; Otto Frank was one of only 5,000 who would return. By some estimates, as many as 25,000 Jewish citizens had gone into hiding to evade arrest and deportation, much like the Frank family had done. Many of them would survive in this manner, but a third of those in hiding would share the Frank family’s fate.
Going into hiding posed numerous logistical obstacles: ration cards and coupons would need to be procured or forged, foodstuffs and vital supplies obtained. The risk of betrayal remained significant and ever-present. Beginning in 1943, groups of Dutch “bounty hunters” made it their mission to locate and apprehend Jewish citizens who had gone into hiding. For each person they delivered to the German authorities, these bounty hunters received a small sum. This “head price” significantly increased in the final year of the war. Historical records reveal that one particularly notorious group of approximately 50 bounty hunters were responsible for the deportation of 8,000-9,000 individuals, ranging from newborn infants to the elderly and disabled. The vast majority of those they delivered to the authorities were killed in camps such as Auschwitz and Sobibor.
Although only a small handful of these wartime bounty hunters were prosecuted and punished after the war, they constituted an integral part of the occupiers’ attempts to make the Netherlands “free of all Jews.” They were hardly the only willing collaborators in this occupied country. Dutch men volunteered to serve with the German army and police forces, for instance, while members of the Dutch Nazi Party assumed new administrative positions under German occupation. Some served as “executors” for properties and businesses confiscated from their Jewish owners, thereby directly profiting from the persecution of their fellow citizens.
Immediately following the publication of Anne Frank’s diary, suspicions emerged about who alerted the German police that Jews might be hiding in the Secret Annex. Numerous government and private investigations, theories, and personal hunches have focused upon individuals connected to Otto Frank’s company, such as the head warehouse worker, the cleaning lady, and the sister of one of the Annex resident’s loyal “helpers,” all of whom had access to the building space located beneath the Secret Annex. Other recently offered theories point to Dutch Nazis and members of the local Jewish Council.
Yet, surviving documentation does not indicate who, if anyone, offered such information in the summer of 1944. And we may never know what events led to the arrest and subsequent deportation of the eight residents of the Secret Arrest 80 years ago. But this unknown historical fact reflects the conditions, and perils, of life under German occupation.
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Those arrested while trying to escape deportation did not receive detailed reportage about who, if anyone, had alerted the authorities to their presence. Chance or coincidence could play a key role, as police authorities occasionally apprehended Jews in hiding while searching for other individuals wanted for resistance activities. For the Frank family, as was the case for so many others throughout Europe, going into hiding constituted an all-too-brief reprieve from persecution and, ultimately, death at the hands of a murderous regime and ideology.
Perhaps a Dutch Nazi, acting on ideology or a simple desire for financial profit, relayed critical information to German authorities in Amsterdam; perhaps an anonymous caller phoned the police out of a misguided sense of obligation to obey the law and report wrongdoing. These and countless other possibilities remind us that, all throughout Europe, no shortage of individuals, industries, and institutions supported and indeed profited from the Nazis’ anti-Jewish campaign.
Regardless of the particular chain of events that transpired in August 1944, one thing is certain: in the end, Anne Frank and the other residents of the Secret Annex suffered the same horrors experienced by millions of others during the course of the Holocaust.
Jennifer L. Foray is associate professor of history at Indiana University and author of Visions of Empire in the Nazi Occupied Netherlands.
Made by History takes readers beyond the headlines with articles written and edited by professional historians. Learn more about Made by History at TIME here. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of TIME editors.
