Dutch historians re-open Anne Frank case

Dutch government historians are reopening the case file on Anne Frank to determine who betrayed her hiding place to the Nazis.

It follows new theories raised by two biographers of the Jewish teenager.

One alleges the betrayer was Anton Ahlers, a business associate of Anne's father Otto Frank.

The second possibility points to Lena Hartog, who cleaned the canal-side warehouse below the annex where the Frank family was concealed.

The Netherlands Institute for War Documentation, publishers of the authoritative text of Anne's diary, said it will conduct an inquiry, re-examining police files and the national archives.

For years after the war, Dutch police suspected the man who notified the Nazi's of the Frank's hiding place was Willem Van Maaren, who worked at the warehouse where they were hiding. He was investigated twice, but the evidence against him was inconclusive, and he died in 1971 professing his innocence.

Various others came under suspicion, including the cleaning woman Ms Hartog who was married to Mr van Maaren's assistant. But no evidence against her was uncovered.

A 1998 biography by Melissa Mueller revised the charges, largely based on contradictions she found in Ms Hartog's statements to the police.

A book by British author Carol Ann Lee, raised the name of Anton Ahlers. Mr Ahlers had never seriously been investigated until she looked into his involvement in Otto Frank's business.

Ms Lee claims Mr Ahlers not only turned in his associated, but may have blackmailed him for years after the war, receiving payment for his silence about Mr Frank's business with Nazi Germany at the beginning of the Second World War.