who told on anne franks family
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Answer:
On a warm summer's day on August 4 1944, four Gestapo policemen raided a canal warehouse at 263 Prinsengracht, Amsterdam. The eight Jewish people hiding in the annex there were arrested: Otto Frank, his wife and two children; the van Pels family of three; and Fritz Pfeffer, a dentist. They were taken to Westerbork Kamp and from there herded into cattle wagons bound for Auschwitz. Of the eight, only Otto returned.
During the raid, a policeman emptied Otto's briefcase to fill it with the fugitives' valuables. In his haste, he dropped a batch of papers and a small diary belonging to Otto's daughter. This diary, the diary of Anne Frank, was to become the most widely read document to emerge from the Holocaust.
In March this year, Carol Ann Lee's biography of Otto Frank was published in the Netherlands, generating renewed interest in the diary and reviving the question of who betrayed the Franks. In a television interview, the day before her book was published, Lee identified Tonny Ahlers as that person.
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Ahlers was a violent anti-semite. By the early 1940s he had a lengthy criminal record and had been involved in numerous brawls in Jewish-owned cafes. During the war he denounced Jews and members of the Dutch underground to the Germans. In 1945, Ahlers was tried for his wartime activities and sent to prison.
Less than 48 hours after the publication of her book, Lee received an astonishing telephone call from her editor. "Someone rang just now," she told Lee. "He has information about the betrayal of the Frank family. He left his number." Lee called. The man who answered introduced himself as Anton, Tonny Ahlers's son.
"I could never have told people voluntarily that my father betrayed Otto Frank, but now that it has been made public, I feel it's my duty to tell what I know and to prevent any lies and half-truths going into the papers," he explained.
Anton is a reserved man in his mid-50s, who weighs his words carefully. He says he seeks neither fame nor revenge. His Dutch wife had five uncles executed by the Nazis for their resistance activities. He has never been to the Anne Frank house. "I feel shame," he says, "I am ashamed that my father created this situation."
He agrees to meet me, accompanied by Lee, in the lobby of a hotel on the outskirts of Amsterdam. This is the first time he has agreed to be interviewed.
Anton does not remember when he became aware of his father's chequered past. "It was a process, not an incident," he says. "One day, one of the kids at school taunted me, calling me a Nazi boy. Then, when I was 16, I had a girlfriend. I was very keen on her, but when her father found out my identity, he said, 'Not with a Nazi' and forbade her to see me again."
Anton's mother lives in Amsterdam. When Lee approached her in connection with her research on Otto Frank, she got a hostile reception. "I asked her about her ex-husband's relationship with Otto. At first she told me that they were friends and had business relations. But when I confronted her with letters that Ahlers had written about Otto Frank, where it was clear that he hated him, she became aggressive and threatened to call the police. She screamed: 'If you come any closer to this door, I will attack you. The war was bad for everyone, not just the Jews. Otto Frank was my best friend. My husband did nothing wrong during the war. You have no idea what it was like for ordinary Dutch people - everyone talks about the Jews, but it was bad for us too. Anyway, I had Jewish girls working for me during the war, all the time. My husband did not betray anyone. Don't you dare write anything bad about him. If you do, I have family who will come and get you.' And she slammed the door."
Anton is unmoved. "My mother lives in lies. She claims she had Jewish maids working for her during the war but I can categorically say that it's untrue. Lies, lies, lies," he sighs. "My father was a violent man. I remember plates smashing against the walls and punches flying into our faces - my mother saw what was going on but never defended us. She never interfered."
Answer:
Anne Frank was born in the German city of Frankfurt am Main in 1929. Anne’s sister Margot was three years her senior. Unemployment was high and poverty was severe in Germany, and it was the period in which Adolf Hitler and his party were gaining more and more supporters. Hitler hated the Jews and blamed them for the problems in the country. He took advantage of the rampant antisemitic sentiments in Germany. The hatred of Jews and the poor economic situation made Anne's parents, Otto and Edith Frank, decide to move to Amsterdam. There, Otto founded a company that traded in pectin, a gelling agent for making jam.
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