Searching for Anne Frank’s betrayer, 80 years on

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When my Auntie Ruth turned up for school on Monday July 3, 1942, one of her school mates was missing. It wasn’t an unusual event. At her school, children disappeared all the time and no one was ever quite sure what had happened to them.

Ruth, my mother’s oldest sister, was attending the Amsterdam Jewish High School and the Nazis had begun calling up people for “work in Germany”. As this was an invitation to a concentration camp and death, many didn’t go. Instead they tried their best to hide or abscond. So when a child didn’t show up for school, they might have been arrested, they might be hiding, they might have found some unlikely route to freedom. Who knew?

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The missing pupil that

The Anne Frank ‘Single Candle’ Quote Is Fake

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Anne Frank said: “Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.”

For years, internet users have shared a fake quote that was attributed to Anne Frank that said, “Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.”

Frank became a famous and important historical figure after her death in early 1945 for writing a series of works, most famously her diary, while she hid from Nazis during World War II.

Websites, Books, and Social Media

A Google search showed results for the fake candle quote with Frank’s name on various websites, including AZQuotes, Goodreads, QuoteFancy, and QuotePark.

We also found a seemingly endless wall of quote memes on Google Images:

According to Google Books, the quote has been printed and attributed to Frank in numerous works, the first of which appeared to be published no earlier than 2013. This would be a red flag in the case of any purported decades-old quote.

Facebook was littered with the fake quote, including several posts made in early January 2022, the same time when this fact check was first published.

High-Profile Mentions

In 2018, “Harry Potter” author J. K. Rowling tweeted the fake Frank candle quote:

The official Twitter account for the country of Israel once tweeted it:

In fact, the fake candle quote spread so much across the internet that even the U.S.-based Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect once accidentally shared it by mistake:

This fact check does not serve to fault any of the institutions that are dedicated to educating the world about Frank’s life and the history of the Holocaust. Rather, perhaps the debunking of fake quotes such as this one could potentially inspire readers to share more of the genuine passages from her writing.

How We Confirmed It’s Fake

Anne Frank Fonds is a foundation that was started by Anne’s father, Otto Frank. Before his death in 1980, he designated it as his “universal heir and legal successor.”

A spokesperson for the foundation confirmed to us that the candle quote was fake and that there was no record of Frank ever having said the words, “Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.” We also did not find any trace of the quote in Frank’s works, nor did we find if it had been misattributed from a different author.

The spokesperson said that fake quotes are “an ongoing battle” and that “new false quotes tend to pop up every so often.”

We previously debunked another fake Frank quote that read, “Dead people receive more flowers than the living ones because regret is stronger than gratitude.” There’s no evidence that she ever said these words.

Cold-case investigation leads to surprise suspect in Anne Frank’s betrayal

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AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -A six-year cold case investigation into the betrayal of Anne Frank has identified a surprising suspect in the death of the famous diarist, who was discovered in her canal side hideout and died in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945.

FILE PHOTO: A wax figure of Anne Frank is presented to the public at Madame Tussaud’s museum in Berlin, December 19, 2008. REUTERS/Tobias Schwarz

A relatively unknown figure, Jewish notary Arnold van den Bergh, has been named as a suspect by a team that included retired U.S. FBI agent Vincent Pankoke and around 20 historians, criminologists and data specialists. Some other experts emphasised that the evidence was not conclusive.

The Nazis discovered Anne and seven other Jews after they had hid for nearly two years in a secret annex above a canal-side warehouse in Amsterdam on Aug. 4, 1944. All were deported and Anne died in the Bergen Belsen camp at age 15.

The researchers concluded it was “very likely” Van den Bergh betrayed the Franks’ hiding place up in order to save his own family, research team member Pieter van Twisk told the daily NRC newspaper on Monday.

The team concluded that Van den Bergh, who died in 1950, had access to information about the hiding place because he was a member of Amsterdam’s wartime Jewish Council.

While historian Erik Somers of the Dutch NIOD institute for war, holocaust and genocide studies, praised the extensive and multidisciplinary approach of the investigation, he was sceptical of its conclusion.

The research and the eventual pointing to Van den Bergh as a suspect is based on an anonymous note identifying him, and assumptions about wartime Amsterdam Jewish institutions that are not supported by other historical research, he told Reuters.

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“They seem to work from the point of view that he was guilty and found a motive to fit that,” Somers said.

According to Somers there are many other possible reasons Van den Bergh was never deported as “he was a very influential man”.

Miep Gies, one of the family’s helpers, kept Anne’s diary safe until Anne’s father Otto, the only one to survive the war, published it in 1947. It has since been translated into 60 languages and captured the imagination of millions of readers worldwide.

The Anne Frank House, which was not involved in the cold case investigation but shared information from its archives to assist, said it was impressed by the team’s work.

Anne Frank House director Ronald Leopold said the research had “generated important new information and a fascinating hypothesis that merits further research”.

The attempt to identify the betrayer was not intended to lead to any prosecution, but to shed light on one of the biggest unsolved mysteries in the Netherlands of World War Two.

Using modern research techniques, a master database was compiled with lists of Nazi collaborators, informants, historic documents, police records and prior research to uncover new leads.

Dozens of scenarios and locations of suspects were visualised on a map to identify a betrayer, based on knowledge of the hiding place, motive and opportunity.

The findings of the new research will be published in a book by Canadian author Rosemary Sullivan, “The Betrayal of Anne Frank”, which will be released on Tuesday.

Dozens of suspects had been named in past decades. The Anne Frank House itself concluded in its own most recent investigation in 2016 that it is possible the discovery of the Secret Annex was a chance occurrence.

Cold-case Probe Leads to Surprise Suspect in Anne Frank’s Betrayal

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A six-year cold case investigation into the betrayal of Anne Frank has identified a surprising suspect in the death of the famous diarist, who was discovered in her canal side hideout and died in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945.

A relatively unknown figure, Jewish notary Arnold van den Bergh, has been named by a team that included retired U.S. FBI agent Vincent Pankoke and around 20 historians, criminologists and data specialists.

More than 75 years after Nazis stormed the annex in Amsterdam, researchers concluded it was “very likely” Van den Bergh gave the Frank family up in order to save his own family, research team member Pieter van Twisk told the daily NRC newspaper on Monday.

Anne was discovered on August 4, 1944, after two years in hiding. Miep Gies, one of the family’s helpers, kept Anne’s diary safe until it was published by Anne’s father, Otto, in 1947, two years after Anne died in the Bergen Belsen camp at age 15. Captivating the imagination of millions of readers worldwide, it has been translated into 60 languages.

The attempt to identify the betrayer was not intended to lead to prosecution, but to solve one of the biggest unsolved mysteries in the Netherlands of World War Two.

Using Big Data research techniques, a master database was compiled with lists of Nazi collaborators, informants, historic documents, police records and prior research to uncover new leads.

Dozens of scenarios and locations of suspects were visualized on a map to identify a betrayer, based on knowledge of the hiding place, motive and opportunity.

The findings of the new research will be published in a book by Canadian author Rosemary Sullivan, “The Betrayal of Anne Frank”, which will be released on Tuesday.

Dozens of suspects had been named in past decades, but never before had modern investigative techniques been applied so extensively to identify a suspect.

Magic Theatre Presents World Premiere THE KIND ONES Next Month

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Magic Theatre (Sean San José, Artistic Director and Kevin Nelson, Managing Director) is pleased to announce the cast and creative team for the World Premiere of Miranda Rose Hall’s THE KIND ONES. Directed by Lisa Peterson, THE KIND ONES will perform from February 2 - 20, 2022* at Magic Theatre’s Fort Mason location (Fort Mason, 2 Marina Blvd., Building D, 3rd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94123). The press opening will take place on Saturday, February 5, 2022 at 8:00 p.m. Single tickets range from $20 - $70 and are on sale now at MagicTheatre.org. Tickets are also available as part of a 2022 Season Pass (still available for a limited time).

From Artistic Director Sean San José:

Miranda Rose Hall is a quiet clarion writer, a maverick wrapped in graciousness. Her writing reveals a world, community, and beings seldom seen on our stages, that will penetrate the walls of misunderstanding, unknown, and downright hatred - and will rightfully show life, love, humor, and heart in a way we will see as at the tip of the spear, in knowing the fullness of our world. I know this sounds like a declaration- and it is. Miranda’s writing is just that potent, direct while remaining delicate. She writes of a people that touches on the historical trauma, while revealing folx in the present with a fullness of honesty. It takes sitting with her characters intimately in the same space to allow your sense of understanding to expand- and then to be easily moved. It certainly happened for me when I experienced the recent production of her “Plot Points In Our Sexual Development,” directed by Leigh Rondon Davis at New Conservatory Theatre Center. Now, you need to experience this one.

Developed previously in Magic’s Virgin Play Series through leadership with Loretta Greco and Sonia Fernandez, THE KIND ONES is another in a list of plays to premiere through the development series. Miranda Rose Hall just had a play presented at New Conservatory, so the Bay will be getting more of this special writer. In THE KIND ONES, Nellie Dougherty is tired of this shit. A lone Montana farmer’s hopes for anonymity are thwarted when a stranger with a flier arrives on her doorstep. Miranda Rose Hall’s caustically funny world premiere, THE KIND ONES, contemplates the role of community and the heart of good and evil when systems fail. Send in the pigs!

From playwright Miranda Rose Hall:

The Kind Ones began as a gift play for a woman I met when I was working at a domestic violence shelter in Missoula, Montana. She was an incredible storyteller– brassy, gutsy, and bold. It is such a gift to bring The Kind Ones to life at Magic, where so many generations of artists have been invited to make their brassiest, gutsiest, boldest work. I feel very lucky to return to live theater with the love and support of this visionary community.

The cast of THE KIND ONES features Anne Darragh as “Nellie” and Kian Johnson as “Mac.”

In addition to Miranda Rose Hall and Lisa Peterson, the creative team includes Miranda Erin Campbell (Stage Manager), Tanya Orellana (Scenic Design), Russell Champa (Lighting Design), An-Lin Dauber (Costume Design), Brittany White (Props), Christopher Sauceda (Sound Design), Kate Morgan Leary (Dramaturg) and Nicky Martinez (Creative Consultant).

THE KIND ONES runs approximately 70 minutes with no intermission.

Magic Theatre’s next World Premiere production will be Sam Chanse’s MONUMENT, or FOUR SISTERS (A SLOTH PLAY), directed by Giovanna Sardelli (May 11- June 5, 2022*).

For the first time Magic Theatre created and launched a Season Pass!

As part of opening the space up to more people in more ways- we have gone beyond the Subscription model and are offering a more expansive and exciting Magic Theatre Season Pass 2022. This Season Pass is for the whole of the calendar year 2022. For a limited time these passes can be purchased for only $100! The Season Pass includes the two World Premiere Magic play and your choice of 2 additional performances from an array of more than a dozen offerings- including Roger Guenveur Smith’s new piece Otto Frank, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre’s production of Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel, and many more offerings.

Additional 2022 programming can be found at MagicTheatre.org/season/season-pass.