Anne Frank Essay Example

What’ll happen after your death? A question nobody knows the answer to. For almost everyone, nothing worth mentioning would happen, but after the death of a particular teenager, Anne Frank, everyone questioned the events leading up to her death. Anne Frank was an average teenage Jewish girl who lived from 1929 to 1945. When the Netherlands was invaded by Hitler’s Nazi Germany, Anne, and her family were forced into hiding. In 1944, the Nazis discovered the Secret Annex, where Anne was hiding. Shortly thereafter, 16-year-old Anne suffered an untimely death at Bergen-Belsen, a German concentration camp. The cause of the discovery of the Franks is shrouded in mystery. Was it betrayal or bad luck? Although debated, the cause was simply bad luck.

Foremost, the circumstances leading up to and of the arrest need to be considered. An investigation uncovered that during the search of the warehouse, “Miep Gies' husband Jan arrived as usual around noon and just walked into the office.” (Dr. Gertjan Broek, Anne Frank House). This suggests that nobody was guarding the building during the search, yet during Nazi operations to capture Jews, it was routine to put the search area on lockdown. No one would be allowed entry or exit from the premises. Therefore, the Nazis were at the warehouse for reasons other than to capture Jews. Moreover, the same investigation revealed that none of the officers identified at the scene specialized in hunting Jews, Karl Silberbauer was primarily involved in cases pertaining to cash and jewelry, Willem Grootendorst arrested both Jews and non-Jews for various reasons, and Gezinus Gringhuis’ duties did not involve hunting Jews at the time, either. Not only would sending officers inexperienced in capturing Jews to capture Jews be illogical, but the search they performed was not at all uncalled for if they were looking for cash, jewelry, or other illicit items. 

Furthermore, there was illegal activity at the warehouse, where the Secret Annex was located, giving the officers a reason to search the premises. This illegal activity was revealed to be, “…two men providing the Franks and those in hiding with black-market ration coupons…” (Sydney Combs, National Geographic). The crime of distributing black-market ration coupons was an economic crime, which would make it logical to send officers experienced in dealing with economic crimes. Regardless of how the Nazis came to know about the activity, trying to find black-market ration coupons or any trace of the crime would warrant a search of the warehouse. Considering that the officers sent were quite experienced with economic crimes, it wasn’t extraordinary for them to conduct a thorough search that happened to lead them to the Franks. To the officers there that day, the bookcase that hid the door to the Secret Annex was nothing more than another shelf to be searched. Consequently, the Anne Frank House found a, ”... connection between the seizure of the eight people in hiding in the secret annex and the arrest of two representatives of Otto Frank’s company in March 1944 for clandestine trading in ration coupons...” (“Statement: Anne Frank House and cold case investigation”, Anne Frank House). The Franks were arrested at the same time as the two representatives of Otto Frank’s company that were providing them with black-market ration coupons. This proves that the Nazis had a different motive and weren’t there for the residents of the Secret Annex, but happened to find them.

Those with the opposing view argue that Anne Frank was betrayed. They base this claim on Otto Frank’s statements that he suspects his family was betrayed and the countless number of possible suspects. The issue with this claim is that it is unfounded, as the evidence in support of the claim is incomplete. To begin with, Otto Frank claims to have suspected Van den Bergh and have been in possession of evidence against him, yet, he sought the prosecution of another person (“Statement: Anne Frank House and cold case investigation”, Anne Frank House). Mr. Frank’s actions clearly contradict his statements. In court, if he had evidence against Van den Bergh he was much more likely to have Van den Bergh convicted than who he chose to prosecute. All of this makes Mr. Frank an unreliable source, he may have experienced the situation firsthand, but that doesn’t mean he’d know of the outside interference that caused it. On top of that, nobody knows what Van den Bergh was doing during the time he allegedly betrayed the Frank family, as the last known mention of Van den Bergh dates to February 1944  (“Statement: Anne Frank House and cold case investigation”, Anne Frank House). There is absolutely no evidence that proves Van den Bergh, a supposed prime suspect, was the betrayer. On the other hand, there is evidence that bad luck led to their capture and that there was no specific reason for it.

In light of all the evidence, Anne Frank and the residents of the Secret Annex’s capture was caused by misfortune, nothing else. Despite the countless accused, it's time we accept that the only reasonable cause for Anne Frank’s capture was bad luck. We mustn’t let this case lead us to neglect the other horrible acts committed against Jews in World War II.