European Jews ask to stop selling book about Anne Frank
Photo Anne Frank Stichting collection at Flickr
Western Europe
The European Jewish Congress (EJC) has sent an urgent request to Harper Collins Publishers in New York to withdraw the book “The betrayal of Anne Frank”. The letter was sent Tuesday evening.
Dr Moshe Kantor, president of the EJC, asks the company to stop the sales and distance itself from the controversial historical claims in the book. “Or at the very least consider suspending further prints of the book until these claims have been substantiated.”
The book “The betrayal of Anne Frank” was published earlier this month. It promised to be ground-breaking research about the discovery of Anne Frank and her hiding place in Amsterdam. Even after more than 75 years, it was never clear what happened. This research points to the Jewish notary Arnold van den Bergh as betraying the Frank family. According to the book, this is 85 per cent sure.
Tunnel vision
The book was presented in several countries and languages at the same time. However, in the Netherlands, almost immediately after the presentation, many experts showed doubt. The historian Prof Bart Wallet, professor in Jewish history, spoke about a “tunnel vision” in the research and called the result “very unsatisfactory”.
On Monday, the Dutch publishing house Ambo Anthos apologised for the stir and promised that it would do no reprint before the researchers had answered questions. But the ‘mother’ publication from Harper Collins is still there. For that reason, the EJC decided to write to New York as well.
According to the Dutch daily Trouw, there is some unclarity about the research team as well. Some team members were mentioned in a request for subsidy without knowing.
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