ANNE FRANK, THE UNTOLD STORY “That serious and shy face: ‘Don’t take notice of me.’ This biography finally lets us look behind those small glasses. Beautifully written with simplicity, as if this was no more than natural. That’s what she was like.”

Bep Voskuijl in 1937 Herman Vuijsje (“Elli Vossen” in Sociologist, author and journalist ’s diary). © van wijk family NRC Handelsblad (dutch national newspaper). Jeroen De Bruyn & Joop van Wijk ANNE FRANK THE UNTOLD STORY

The hidden truth about Elli Vossen, the youngest helper of the Secret Annex

2018 bep voskuijl producties bv, laag-soeren First edition August 2018

© 2018 Jeroen De Bruyn & Joop van Wijk Publisher: Bep Voskuijl Producties bv, Laag-Soeren Translator: Tess Stoop, Multi Chapter/ Cover and book design: Haags Bureau/The Hague Photo cover: Getty Images; Anne Frank and Bep Voskuijl on July 16, 1941, on their way to the wedding of Miep and in Amsterdam Print: Pumbo.nl, Zwaag www.annefranktheuntoldstory.com isbn 978-90-829013-0-6 isbn e-book 978-90-829013-1-3 nur 402 ISBN Dutch edition 9789463452588 ‘Bep Voskuijl, het zwijgen voorbij. Een biografie van de jongste helpster van het Achterhuis’ (website: www.bepvoskuijl.nl) No part of this book may be reproduced in any way whatsoever without the written permission of the publisher. The revolving bookcase made in 1942 by Johan Voskuijl, father of Bep Voskuijl. © maria austria/mai “THAT IS WHAT WE MUST NEVER FORGET, THAT ALTHOUGH OTHERS MAY SHOW COURAGE IN THE WAR OR AGAINST THE GERMANS, OUR HELPERS SHOW THEIR COURAGE IN THEIR OPTIMISM AND LOVE.”

Anne Frank’s diary, January 28, 1944 PUBLISHER’S NOTE

The book Bep Voskuijl, het zwijgen voorbij. Een biografie van de jongste helper van het Achterhuis (Bep Voskuijl, breaking the silence. A biography of the youngest helper of the Secret Annex) was first published in the and Belgium in April 2015. Persistent signals from the American/British market have made us, as a publisher, decide to translate the book. The result with the new title: Anne Frank, the untold story. The hidden truth about Elli Vossen, the youngest helper of the Secret Annex. Jeroen De Bruyn and I, as a publisher, fellow author, and son of the leading lady (who was silent for decades during her life), wrote a book about the life of a young, unknown women as a helper of Jewish people in World War II. Together with her father Johan Voskuijl, the maker of the revolving bookcase, and the other helpers, she worked day in, day out to guarantee the safety of the hiders in the Secret Annex in Amsterdam. A “never-before-told story” and a “carefully hidden truth,” as well as “boundless loyalty in life” are three important issues. These issues and my mother’s underlying motivations form the mission of this book for young and old.

Joop van Wijk Publisher Bep Voskuijl Producties bv, Laag-Soeren

7 PSEUDONYMS

In March 1944, Anne Frank got the idea to publish a book based on her diary after the war. She immediately started the preparations to bring this idea to life. She rewrote her diary on colored sheets of carbon copy paper that Bep Voskuijl brought from the office and gave to Anne. When it concerns the diary quotes from Anne Frank, the text consistently refers to the standard work of the NIOD (Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies), The Diary of Anne Frank: The Revised Critical Edition. The book is an integral version of what Anne wrote in her diaries before and during the period of hiding. The complete information regarding the consulted books can be found in the list of sources at the end of the book, rather than in the footnotes. The book version of Anne’s diary, called Het Achterhuis (The Secret Annex) was first published in 1947. The English translation The Diary of a Young Girl, was first published in 1952. In this book version, a few of the hiders and helpers were referred to by pseudonyms until a few years ago. This was also the case in various articles, publications, and movies. Anne came up with pseudonyms while hiding, which would change in Het Achterhuis. These occasionally appear in the text.

8 The following pseudonyms are used: Jan Gies Henk van Santen Miep van Santen Jo Kleiman Mr. Koophuis Mr. Kraler Auguste van Pels Mrs. Van Daan Hermann van Pels Mr. Van Daan Peter van Pels Peter van Daan Albert Dussel Bep Voskuijl Elli Vossen Johan Voskuijl Mr. Vossen

9 GLOSSARY

Arbeitseinsatz: forced labor for the Nazis Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach: German Literature Archives Marbach Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei): secret police of the Nazis Hollandsche Schouwburg, also known as the Joodsche Schouwburg: former theater, used as a collection point for Jews awaiting deportation to Westerbork Landgericht: District Court NIOD (Instituut voor Oorlogs-, Holocaust- en Genocidestudies, formerly RIOD): Dutch Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies NSB (Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging): National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands RIOD (Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie): State Institute for War Documentation SD (Sicherheitsdienst): the intelligence service of the SS SS (Schutzstaffel): paramilitary organization of the Nazis under the command of Heinrich Himmler

10 Westerbork: transit camp for Dutch Jews from which they were deported to the extermination camps Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung: the organization in the Netherlands charged with the deportation of Jews

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction 14 The Circle (1919–1940) 20 Our Duty (1940–1942) 36 Judenbegünstigung (1942–1944) 52 House and Table Companion (1942-1944) 74 A Precarious Situation (1943–1944) 94 The Defeat (1944) 108 Suppressed Emotions (1945–1960) 124 The Diary... Just Like a Dream (1945–1960) 146 Loss for Words? (1957–1960) 162 The Thought of What Has Been (1960–1983) 176 Not That Important (1963–1964) 188 Splitting Hairs (1974-1983) 202 Examine It All and Hold On To What Is Good (1978–1983) 216 The Hidden Truth 230 Justification 244 Appendix: The Missing Diaries 246 Acknowledgements 253 Sources 255

13 INTRODUCTION

Worldwide, I am one of the many who were touched by the tragic story of Anne Frank. The moment I first saw the diary is one of my earliest memories. I remember my mother read- ing the book to me. When I was about 11 and I discovered the scientific NIOD edition of Anne’s diaries, I read a few pages every day. After I’d finished it, I would start over. In elementary school, we learned about World War II and the Holocaust; Anne Frank was a fixed subject in the curriculum. I visited the relatively late, in April 2007, when I was 13. It was impressive, but it wasn’t until weeks later that I could comprehend that I’d actually been in the spot where it had all happened. Suddenly, I understood that it had all truly happened. After this visit to the Annex, the meaning of Anne’s words had become much more concrete. From that moment on, I started to delve into her text more and more. In her diary, Anne frequently talks about her “helpers” or “protectors,” the non-Jews who provided her and the seven other hiders with food and support. Their names were Victor Kugler, Jo Kleiman, Miep and Jan Gies, Bep and Johan Voskuijl. Kugler, Kleiman, Miep, and Bep were active in the compa- nies of Anne Frank’s father, situated on Prinsengracht. When I started to read more and more about the subject, I noticed

14 that Miep Gies was often named, Kugler and Kleiman much less, and Bep Voskuijl, the youngest, was hardly mentioned at all. On July 5, 1942, the day before the start of the hiding, she turned 23. Partly because of her young age, I imagine, she must have experienced everything twice as intensely. But I couldn’t find anything at all about this. In fact, I could hardly find anything about Bep’s role in the hiding. This aroused my interest: why was one helper so well- known while another hardly received any attention? At the end of 2008, I went looking for all bits and pieces of infor- mation I could find about Bep. I became increasingly deter- mined to write a biography about her. But although I hadn’t a single clue as to the work such a project would encompass then, I did realize I needed more materials. I sent an email to the in Amsterdam, asking whether they had any documents on Bep in their collection. They certainly did, but they felt I should first contact Bep’s chil- dren: her sons Ton (1947), Cok (1948), and Joop (1949), and her daughter Anne (1960), named after Anne Frank. Initially, I feared I’d be put off with the message that I was too young, at only 15 years old. But the reaction from Bep’s youngest son Joop was more positive than I could have hoped for. He told me he’d been touched by my long, openhearted letter in which I had detailed my interest in his mother. He thought it was “special, certainly in this day and age, that such a young person has set such an ideological goal in such a documented and motivated manner: to write a book about my mother, the helper of Jewish hiders, to remove the confu- sion surrounding her person.” 1 For Bep’s children, it was an unwritten rule to leave the past alone. But Joop, his brothers, and sister wanted to make an exception for me, on the condition that Joop and I would

15 meet first. On July11 , 2009, he and his wife Ingrid traveled to my house in the north of Antwerp. After an intense conver- sation during which we weighed each other’s expectations, Joop would grant his approval for the book not much later. We decided that we would bring this project to a good end together – and so we did. In the years that followed, Bep’s story was the central theme in my life and research, interviews, emails, reading, and writing were the order of the day. In countless sessions, Joop and I brainstormed about the shape, contents, and style of the book. A large part of the text came about in coffee- house ’t Gerucht (the Rumor) in Den Bosch, the Nether- lands, where Belgium and the Netherlands met on a weekly basis. Joop shared with me his memories of his mother, as well as anecdotes about the hiding he’d heard from her. Their bond had strengthened immensely from the time he was 10 years old, because he’d been able to prevent his mother from committing an act of desperation at home – driven, in part, by the traumas from the war. From that day on, he was often her confidant when it concerned her war past, young as he was. Additionally, during the research, Joop and I were also able to speak with two witnesses who shared mostly unknown information until then. These witnesses were Diny Voskuijl, one of Bep’s sisters, and Bertus Hulsman, Bep’s fiancé from the war. In the books, movies, and on the Internet, where Bep received only sparse attention, she was usually portrayed as a nervous young girl. Now that I had the chance to root around in her life in various ways, I concluded that this image was incorrect. Everything showed that Bep went into the war at the age of 20 as a cheerful young woman with a sense of humor, but that her character changed greatly after 1945. This

16 book attempts to clarify the “why” behind this change. The book also tries to put a face to Johan Voskuijl, Bep’s father. Just like Bep, he worked at one of Otto Frank’s compa- nies on Prinsengracht, Pectacon. As the warehouse manager, he kept the staff – who were ignorant of the existence of the hiders – away from the Annex. Moreover, he was the maker of the famous bookcase that masked the entrance to the hiding place. As the manuscript progressed and Joop and I were able to get the collected facts straight, we couldn’t avoid looking at Bep’s sister Nelly, who passed away in 2001. Contrary to her father and Bep, she had a lot of German friends and strong ties with the occupier. These past years, I’ve often wondered what fascinates me – and many other youngsters I know with me – so about World War II. People from my generation have a hard time imagining life in those days. We grew up in a democracy and don’t know any better. We watch the horrific images on television with sorrow, but they have become a daily occurrence. The number of people who experienced the war is dwindling each day. But we are all a product of the past, so in each family there is some link with the events of 70 years ago. Perhaps my interest for the theme is a search, an attempt to comprehend the inconceivable: “It’s incomprehensible that such a thing could take place in the 20th century,” Bep wrote about the Holocaust in 1960. 2 In the same letter, she emphasized how important it is that the youth learn from the events. A burning, current message, because the last witnesses are thinly spread. Moreover, the war certainly never stopped after 1945. The importance of remem- bering is painfully demonstrated by research conducted these past years into the knowledge of young people regarding the war. That, in 2009, British youngsters thought Auschwitz to be a beer brand, a religious festival, or “a country bordering

17 Germany” sounds like a bad joke, but it’s unfortunately all too true. 3 There were many Dutch people who risked their lives to help Jews or who worked in the resistance in some other way. Bep and her father were only two of them. Yet, historically speaking, I believe it’s valuable to write down the stories of Anne Frank’s helpers, because the malpractices from the war reach a wide – and often young – audience via their story. Moreover, Jos van der Lans and Herman Vuijsje write in The Anne Frank House – A Biography, that nowadays it’s much less about the big boys from the armed resistance who used to “show up with their stenguns and helmets during memorial services. The resistance heroes that speak to us now are those who weren’t even called heroes for a long time, because their resistance work took place unobtrusively and silently.” 4 This book is mainly an attempt to provide depth to two of the least known actors, partially based on hitherto unknown facts. To show what an insane war did to a human life, against the backdrop of the most famous hiding in the world.

Jeroen De Bruyn Antwerp, August 2018

18 NOTES 1 Email from Joop van Wijk to Jeroen De Bruyn, June 7, 2009. 2 Letter from Bep Voskuijl to Jaqueline Shachter, March 17, 1965. Collection Anne Frank Foundation. 3 For this study, 1,000 British youngsters between the ages of 11 and 16 were interviewed. It turned out that one quarter of them knew nothing of the 1.3 million people who were murdered in extermination camp Auschwitz. 4 Jos van der Lans and Herman Vuijsje, Het Anne Frank Huis. Een biografie (The Anne Frank House – A Biography), page 292.

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