The Last Secrets Of Anne Frank

A “gripping” (Kati Marton, author of The Chancellor) historical investigation and family memoir that intertwines the iconic narrative of Anne Frank with the untold story of Bep Voskuijl, her protector and closest confidante in the Annex, bringing us closer to understanding one of the great secrets of World War II. Anne Frank’s life has been studied by many scholars, but the story of Bep Voskuijl has remained untold, until now. As the youngest of the five Dutch people who hid the Frank family, Bep was Anne’s closest confidante during the 761 excruciating days she spent hidden in the Secret Annex. Bep, who was just twenty-three when the Franks went into hiding, risking her life to protect them, plunging into Amsterdam’s black market to source food and medicine for people who officially didn’t exist under the noses of German soldiers and Dutch spies. In those cramped quarters, Bep and Anne’s friendship bloomed through deep conversations, shared meals, and a youthful understanding. Told by her own son, The Last Secrets of Anne Frank intertwines the story of Bep and her sister Nelly with Anne’s iconic narrative. Nelly’s name may have been scrubbed from Anne’s published diary, but Joop van Wijk-Voskuijl and Jeroen De Bruyn expose details about her collaboration with the Nazis, a deeply held family secret. After the war, Bep tried to bury her memories just as the Secret Annex was becoming world famous as a symbol of resistance to the Nazi horrors. She never got over losing Anne nor could Bep put to rest the horrifying suspicion that those in the Annex had been betrayed by her own flesh and blood. “Part biography, part whodunit” (The Wall Street Journal), this is a story about those caught in between the Jewish victims and Nazi persecutors, and the moral ambiguities and hard choices faced by ordinary families like the Voskuijls, in which collaborators and resistors often lived under the same roof. Beautifully written and unsettlingly suspenseful, The Last Secrets of Anne Frank will show the Secret Annex as we’ve never seen it before. And it provides a powerful understanding of how historical trauma is inherited from one generation to the next and how sometimes keeping a secret hurts far more than revealing a shameful truth.

"In these tales the reader can observe Anne's writing prowess grow from that of a young girl's into the observations of a perceptive, edgy, witty and compassionate woman"--Jacket flaps.

"Anne Frank's life has been studied by many scholars, but the story of Bep Voskuijl has remained untold--until now. As the youngest of the five Dutch people who hid the Frank family, Bep was Anne's closest confidante during the 761 excruciating days she spent hidden in the Secret Annex. Bep, who was just twenty-three when the Franks went into hiding, risked her life to protect them, plunging into Amsterdam's black market to source food and medicine for people who officially didn't exist under the noses of German soldiers and Dutch spies. ... Told by her own son, [this book] intertwines the story of Bep and her sister Nelly with Anne's iconic narrative. Nelly's name may have been scrubbed from Anne's published diary, but Joop van Wijk-Voskuijl and Jeroen De Bruyn expose details about her collaboration with the Nazis, a deeply held family secret"--Dust jacket flap.

Hiding from the Nazis in the "Secret Annexe" of an old office building in Amsterdam, a thirteen-year-old girl named Anne Frank became a writer. The now famous diary of her private life and thoughts reveals only part of Anne's story, however. This book completes the portrait of this remarkable and talented young author. Tales from the Secret Annex is a complete collection of Anne Frank's lesser-known writings: short stories, fables, personal reminiscences, and an unfinished novel. Here, too, are portions of the diary originally withheld from publication by her father. By turns fantastical, rebellious, touching, funny, and heartbreaking, these writings reveal the astonishing range of Anne Frank's wisdom and imagination--as well as her indomitable love of life. Anne Frank's Tales from the Secret Annex is a testaments to this determined young woman's extraordinary genius and to the persistent strength of the creative spirit.

A thirteen-year-old Dutch-Jewish girl records her impressions of the two years (1942-1944) she and seven others spent hiding from the Nazis before they were discovered and taken to concentration camps.

This detailed account of the Amsterdam annex where Anne Frank wrote her diary includes the stories of those who helped her and those who hid with her. For two years during the Second World War, young, Jewish Anne Frank lived in hiding from the Nazis. Everything she experienced, thought, and felt, she confided in her diary. She was just as frank in her descriptions of the seven other people in the Annex and of the five helpers who endangered their own lives to look after them. Years later, Anne Frank’s diary became world famous. The Secret Annex was so well set up that the hiders survived there for over two years. Who were these people, how did they meet, and what happened to them? This book shows the background and organization of the Annex and the personal stories of all involved, as well as their relationships and their fates. It also offers many never-before-published photographs. The result is an extraordinary group portrait that stays with the reader long after the last page is turned.

A “never-before-told true story about Anne Frank” and a “carefully hidden truth” as well as Bep and her fathers “boundless loyalty in life” are important issues. Beautifully written with simplicity. Many facets about the hiders in the Secret Annex in Amsterdam have been highlighted throughout the years, but, remarkably enough, the role of Otto Frank's young secretary Bep Voskuijl, Elli Vossen in Anne Frank's Diary, has received very little attention. Belgian journalist Jeroen De Bruyn and Bep's son Joop van Wijk dove into her past and reconstructed her tragic, but fascinating life. Bep is 23 years old when, in 1942, she is let in on the secret of the eight hiders on Prinsengracht. During the next 25 months, she becomes a pillar of support for Anne Frank, with whom she builds an intense friendship. Bep buys clothes and food for the hiders and supplies Anne with paper to write her diary. Things aren't easy for Bep: her father, the maker of the famous revolving bookcase, becomes gravely ill in 1943, and her sister collaborates with the Germans. Bep leads a double life, keeping this secret from her boyfriend and family. When the Germans raid the hiding place on August 4, 1944, and arrest the hiders, Bep escapes in horror. Later, she rescues a large part of Anne's writings. The news of the deaths of seven out of the eight hiders - only Otto Frank returns from the concentration camps - leaves deep scars. ANNE FRANK, THE UNTOLD STORY casts a new light on Anne Frank's short life, by means of previously unknown witnesses and documents. That makes this book a valuable addition to her world-famous Diary. Moreover, it's a tribute to those brave Dutch people who risked their lives to save Jews. Finally, the book adds a remarkable name to the list of people who could have betrayed the hiders of the Secret Annex. Jeroen De Bruyn (1993) wrote for various Belgian magazines and for the Gazet van Antwerpen, the newspaper for which he is currently editor. Joop van Wijk (1949) is Bep Voskuijl's youngest son. As a marketing manager, he was connected to Dutch newspapers NRC Handelsblad and Algemeen Dagblad for years.