The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Refutation Critical Analysis of the Argumentation and Use of Historical Sources

After a well-orchestrated media campaign subject to strict embargo rules, a controversial book was launched on 17 January 2022: The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation. The Cold Case Team (hereafter: CCT) went public with the news that it could identify - with a very high probability, precisely quantified at 85 to 87% - the traitor responsible for the raid on the Secret Annex: Arnold van den Bergh. This report reconstructs Van den Bergh ‘s life based on the available historical sources and tests the views of the CCT on the basis of this information, whereby we conclude that the accusations levelled against him are unjustified. We demonstrate the problematic nature of the CCT's approach to historical sources, the scanty nature of historical knowledge about the period from 1930 to 1950, and how this leads to a series of unjustified inferences being made in the case of Van den Bergh.