Friday, August 1, 2014, marked the 70th anniversary of Anne Frank's final diary entry. Three days later, she was arrested with her family in the "secret annex" of a house in Amsterdam, Netherlands, where they had hidden for two years. She later died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp when she was 15. In her diary, Anne describes a<strong> </strong>1942 picture of herself: "This is a photo as I would wish myself to look all the time. Then I would maybe have a chance to come to Hollywood." Click through the gallery to see other pages from her diary:
Friday, August 1, 2014, marked the 70th anniversary of Anne Frank's final diary entry. Three days later, she was arrested with her family in the "secret annex" of a house in Amsterdam, Netherlands, where they had hidden for two years. She later died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp when she was 15. In her diary, Anne describes a 1942 picture of herself: "This is a photo as I would wish myself to look all the time. Then I would maybe have a chance to come to Hollywood." Click through the gallery to see other pages from her diary:
Anne Frank Fonds Basel/Getty Images
For her 13th birthday, Anne Frank received a red plaid diary, her first journal. She brought it with her into hiding and began writing in it in 1942. After her death, her father, Otto Frank, edited and compiled the diary. It was published in the Netherlands in 1947 as "The Secret Annex. Diary Letters From June 14, 1942, to August 1, 1944."
For her 13th birthday, Anne Frank received a red plaid diary, her first journal. She brought it with her into hiding and began writing in it in 1942. After her death, her father, Otto Frank, edited and compiled the diary. It was published in the Netherlands in 1947 as "The Secret Annex. Diary Letters From June 14, 1942, to August 1, 1944."
Anne Frank Fonds Basel/Getty Images
Pages with text and photos from Anne Frank's diary, written in October 1942.
Pages with text and photos from Anne Frank's diary, written in October 1942.
Anne Frank Fonds Basel/Getty Images
A handwritten page of Anne Frank's diary includes photos of herself on the beach during a holiday with her sister, Margot. The two sisters would live hidden in the annex with their mother, Edith; father, Otto; and another family.
A handwritten page of Anne Frank's diary includes photos of herself on the beach during a holiday with her sister, Margot. The two sisters would live hidden in the annex with their mother, Edith; father, Otto; and another family.
Anne Frank Fonds Basel/Getty Images
Two pages, written in 1942, from the diary. "Her inner life and her voice seem almost shockingly contemporary, astonishingly similar to the voices of the teenagers we know," says Francine Prose, author of "Anne Frank: The Book, the Life, the Afterlife."
Two pages, written in 1942, from the diary. "Her inner life and her voice seem almost shockingly contemporary, astonishingly similar to the voices of the teenagers we know," says Francine Prose, author of "Anne Frank: The Book, the Life, the Afterlife."
Anne Frank Fonds Basel/Getty Images
When her diary was almost full, Anne continued writing, using several notebooks. In 1944, she decided to rewrite her diary entries in the form of a novel, intending to publish it after the war, according to curators at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. Shown here are the different versions of her diary, known now as versions A, B and C.
When her diary was almost full, Anne continued writing, using several notebooks. In 1944, she decided to rewrite her diary entries in the form of a novel, intending to publish it after the war, according to curators at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. Shown here are the different versions of her diary, known now as versions A, B and C.
Anne Frank House
"The Diary of Anne Frank" has been translated into more than 70 languages in more than 60 nations.
"The Diary of Anne Frank" has been translated into more than 70 languages in more than 60 nations.
Anne Frank Fonds Basel/Getty Images
Anne Frank in 1941. Her diary is often many young people's introduction to the horrors of the Holocaust.
Anne Frank in 1941. Her diary is often many young people's introduction to the horrors of the Holocaust.
Frans Dupont/Anne Frank House/AP
Anne Frank: The girl who wanted to write

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Mystery has persisted for 70 years over who betrayed Anne Frank

Police could have come to building to investigate another matter and found the Jewish families by chance

CNN  — 

Who betrayed Anne Frank?

It’s a mystery that persists more than 70 years after police came to the Amsterdam building where Anne Frank and seven other inhabitants of the secret annex had been hiding.

The familiar story is that the police had been tipped off by an anonymous caller in a clear case of betrayal leading to the arrests on August 4, 1944.

But new research at the Anne Frank House re-evaluates that assumption.

Perhaps the Sicherheitsdienst or SD (German Security Service) didn’t come to hunt for Jews that day, but inadvertently found the two families in hiding while investigating another matter.

The researcher wrote: “In this new study, the Anne Frank House has not focused on the betrayal but on the raid itself: why did this raid take place, based on what information, and from where did this information originate?”

There had been illegal work and fraud with ration coupons taking place in the building, the study found. Two salesmen who worked in the building had been arrested for dealing in ration coupons. They worked for a company that dealt with raw materials for the food industry.

In April 1944, Frank referred to the pair’s arrest in her diary, writing that they had “been caught, so we have no coupons.” This suggested that the inhabitants of the annex had gotten at least some of their rations from those two salesmen.

Buddy and Gerti Elias are touring the United States reading from the book "Anne Frank's Family."
Buddy and Gerti Elias are touring the United States reading from the book "Anne Frank's Family."
moni basu/cnn
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“A company where people were working illegally and two sales representatives were arrested for dealing in ration coupons obviously ran the risk of attracting the attention of the authorities,” wrote Gertjan Broek, researcher at the Anne Frank House.

The study suggests that this illegal work may have brought police over and that they discovered the annex and the people inside by chance. While it doesn’t refute the possibility of betrayal, the study suggests a new theory.

Other questions about the raid

The study also raises the following points:

  • The primary roles of least two of the three policemen known to have been involved in the arrests were not to search for and arrest Jews. One worked on cash and jewelry thefts. Another worked in a division tasked to crack down on economic crimes and the illegal distribution of ration coupons and meat.
  • The phone number used to call the Sicherheitsdienst was not listed. Most private use of telephone lines had been cut off during wartime. “This creates a real possibility that the call, if it actually took place, came from another government agency,” the study says.
  • It took more than two hours when the police arrived and departed, which is “longer than necessary for rounding up betrayed Jews in hiding,” according to the research. During that raid, two other people came and left the building without any trouble while the authorities were there. “If the authorities came specifically to arrest the people in hiding it seems unlikely they would have let anyone get away.”
  • None of the people suspected of betraying the people in the annex have ever been charged as there has never been enough evidence.

Finding clues and new leads

After their arrest, the eight were sent Camp Westerbork, then to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Anne and her older sister Margot were then sent away to work as slave labor at the Bergen-Belsen camp in Germany. The sisters died there in 1945 of typhus.

Anne Frank’s final entry

Of the eight people in the annex, only her father, Otto Frank survived.

He was convinced, as seen through letters written in 1945, that they had been betrayed.

The Anne Frank House said it had looked into this matter because of its interest in “telling Anne Frank’s story as completely as possible.”

“Despite decades of research, betrayal as a point of departure has delivered nothing conclusive,” said Ronald Leopold, executive director of the Anne Frank House in a statement.

“The Anne Frank House’s new investigation does not refute the possibility that the people in hiding were betrayed, but illustrates that other scenarios should also be considered. Hopefully more researchers will see reason to follow up new leads.”